Got Empathy?
November 12, 2025
Good morning, Church Family!
I hope you all have been having a good and peaceful week. I enjoyed seeing you on Sunday. If you did not attend, you can watch our service on our website. You can always catch up at our sermon archives.
I promised I would send the questions I asked at the end of Sunday’s message. Here they are:
1. If learning more about others increases empathy, as a church community, name a group of people we could learn more from.
2. How do you choose to demonstrate love to someone in your family who has hurt you?
3. Are you able to find common ground with those in your life with whom you disagree politically?
Empathy and love for others is needed so much at this time, and of course, it always has been. No wonder God designed things so that people would come to know the God who created them through others’ love. That’s a pretty great formula.
We will finish talking about the 4th chapter of 1 John this week, so take a look at Sunday’s message if you missed it.
Thank you to all who have already turned in your pledge cards for the coming year. There is still time to do so, and know your session is already working on the budget for 2026 so your pledge (which can be changed if the need arises) helps them to understand what our income may look like.
Thank you also to those of you who have donated food! We have had a wonderful response, and you are such a giving congregation.
Finally, I have a little surprise on Sunday – there will be some of these scattered on the tables at fellowship time – “got empathy” stickers for your water bottle or wherever you’d like. 
Have a wonderful rest of the week and know God is near and yet far away (Jeremiah 23:23-24), so we experience God’s presence but also know who is in control!
God bless you, Pastor Rachel
Always verify …
September 17, 2025
Isn’t this fun? Yesterday morning I received a call from our office manager, Nancy, who shared my work email had been hacked. I’m sure most of you reading this were the innocent victims of a strange email it looked like I sent you, containing attachments and requiring passwords and looking very official indeed! The week prior similar emails came from another account here at HPC. A colleague tells me it happened at his church as well as to colleagues all across the country. It cost us all a lot of time and energy. Thank you to our tech guru Steve, who has spent countless hours this week trying to get us back into shape.
Please rest assured I will never call you asking for bank account numbers or for your social; I will never ask you to pick up gift cards for me; and if I send you an attachment, please give us a call and ensure it is safe to open. Always verify! Most things can wait, can’t they? Of course they can.
As we struggle with technology and move on to more important things, may the peace of Christ wash over you and fill you with contentment again. 🙂
Pastor Rachel
Keeping Boundaries
August 15, 2025
I received a lot of feedback – and quite a bit of laughter – the week following my August 10, 2025 sermon. As I spoke of the boundary we built at home for our cat – and preached on Adam and Eve and God’s boundary in the garden – I thought you might want to see a follow-up picture. (I never claimed to be skilled in carpentry!)
And here is one more, from our summer vacation.
Paradox of Joy and Grief
June 13, 2025
It has been a very busy time at HPC for the last few months. This week was no exception. We lost one of our beloved long-time members and learned of two others hospitalized. Each continues to be in our prayers, and our prayers are also with those who grieve. In the same week, I have experienced some wonderful fellowship. Our choir had a wonderful time together at our barbecue, and tonight is “HPC at the Hops,” where we’ll enjoy a good game and time together here in Hillsboro.
When I am grieving and experience heaviness on my heart, I take extra care for myself. I move slower, process slower, feel agitated or frustrated, and often am not able to put words to my grief. I do something creative – to give my brain rest – or I take a walk or sit outside. These are good coping skills, and I encourage you to do something similar when that heaviness comes. Be patient with yourself and kind.
The paradox of grief and joy is strange, isn’t it? But these are things we are able to hold and experience simultaneously. And as we do, we remember the Holy Spirit never leaves us.
This paradox makes up so many of our stories. And members from our church will begin sharing their own stories this Sunday morning, as we begin a new series, “Telling My Story.” One of our new members will share this week – I’m grateful to her for going first! – and we have a father-daughter team assisting with worship for Father’s Day.
Lean into a break from the heat – and the rest God provides us – this weekend. And see you on Sunday.
– Pastor Rachel
What are we all doing here?
May 28, 2025
Welcome! It has been a long time since I have had a blog, but because we are moving forward together, communication is so important! Welcome to this new feature on our website as a community, where I’ll post extra interesting things from our worship service together – such as a prayer you may have requested, or a reference. I will also communicate about upcoming events or other important items so that we are all on the same page.
What are we all doing here anyway? I sit in my home office this morning, on the second floor of our house where I’m able to look down upon my beautiful backyard. We have worked so hard on it, and it still has so far to come, but it is beautiful and I am able to watch the birds, an occasional squirrel, and even a duck or two at the right time of year. Woodpeckers are common as I’m at tree height and catch a flicker of those little red feathers as they fly toward a tree in the greenspace behind us.
On Sunday I quoted Jesus when he instructs us not to worry:
Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (Matthew 5:25-26, NRSV)
Sometimes I look outside at all of these beautiful things and wonder why I spend a moment of my life with anxiety or worry.
We were created to have a relationship with our Maker, our Creator. Just as God sustains the tiniest of birds or the peskiest of woodpeckers, God sustains us. In Christ, all things hold together (Colossians 1:17). This encourages me when I’m not feeling well, when I’m anxious, and even when I am filled with fear.
Take time for yourself this week to enjoy this gorgeous weather, breathing in God’s peace and rest and letting any anxieties go. I am praying for you.
– Pastor Rachel
