We are a community organized around that conviction.

God wants to be with us.

God wants to be with us. That is where we start. Everything else flows from there.

We have organized our life together around three Pursuits. These are the things we believe we need to chase together if we are going to live Jesus-centered lives here in Hillsborough.

  • Flourishing through Friendship

    God comes to befriend us and to make us into friends with one another. In Jesus, God shows us what friendship looks like, all the way to the cross. Growing in friendship with God and with one another is one of the most sacred things we do. We call this growth new life. We call it salvation.

  • Forming our Imaginations

    Following Jesus takes imagination. It means learning to see the world the way God sees it. So we bury ourselves in Scripture together, learn to listen through prayer, and practice acts of mercy and justice side by side. We form our imaginations so that we can live more faithfully.

  • Fostering Community through the Arts

    At the heart of God is delight in creating and delight in diversity. God does not make just one thing. God makes a whole community, full of difference and beauty. When we engage with the arts, we participate in that creative work. We express our diversities and delight in them together. In a world increasingly shaped by division, we practice becoming a community shaped by beauty.

Our History

Hillsborough UMC has been part of this town for a long time. And we mean a long time.

Around 1780, a circuit-riding preacher named Francis Asbury rode seven miles to Hillsborough and preached to about 200 people in a local home. His text was Hosea 10:12, "It is time to seek the Lord." He noted that the crowd was decent and well-behaved. High praise from a man on horseback.

The church was formally organized in 1807 as part of the Haw River Circuit. In 1823, the congregation purchased its first church building on Tryon Street from a local physician named Dr. James Webb.

We are still on Tryon Street.

In 1859, the congregation purchased new land and commissioned a builder named Captain John Berry to construct a new sanctuary. That building was dedicated in October 1861, right in the middle of the Civil War. When Confederate forces asked the church to donate its bell to be melted down for cannons, the congregation said no.

The decades since have brought new faces, new chapters, and new challenges. But the congregation has remained committed to the same thing it has always been committed to: proclaiming the Gospel and caring for this community.

Our Connection to The United Methodist Church

We are a United Methodist church. That means something to us.

The United Methodist Church traces its roots to the revival movement John Wesley began in 18th century England. Wesley believed that God's grace is not a destination but a journey. We are drawn toward God through the Spirit before we even know it. We say yes to God and are transformed. And then we spend the rest of our lives being made holy.

That Wesleyan conviction shapes everything we do at Hillsborough UMC.

Being United Methodist also means we belong to something bigger than one congregation. We are part of a global connection of churches, millions of Christians across every continent, working together for the kingdom of God. We share resources, support missionaries, and hold one another accountable across the connection.

That connection is not just organizational. It is theological. The church is not a collection of individuals. It is a people. And we want to be faithful members of that people.