When you drive by Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church on Engler Boulevard, you'll see a large rocking chair.  It invites you to calm it down.  Slow down.  Reflect. Take a deep breath. In a world of increasing religious and political intolerance, Shepherd of the Hill Church in Chaska seeks to move the discussion beyond the choice between tolerance and intolerance.  The Sermon on the Mount and the other teachings of Jesus call us to a courageous love.  When Jesus offered what we now call the Beatitudes - blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the meek, blessed are the merciful - he was turning the world of violence, arrogance, and hard-heartedness upside down. SHPC is big in spirit and action, but small enough (100 members) that you won’t get lost in the crowd. Because of our size we are able to respond quickly with thoughtful compassion to the world around us. We proclaim Jesus as the Christ, the Lord of Love and the Prince of Peace, who calls us to live in the courage of love defined by the Beatitudes.  We don't claim to be better than anyone else or to do it very well. But we do our best to live out our mission statement, "sharing God's unconditional love for everyone."  And we're rather joyful about it. Every Sunday morning in worship we sit, figurately speaking, to rock awhile. (Pastor Gordon Stewart's  MPR commentary following the Pennsylvania Amish school house shooting is posted on our Commentary page.) We come together for worship - to sit and recover our bearings in gratitude.  We gather at the Lord's Table to drink in a slower, richer, humbler, more natural, more peaceful way of being in the world. Shepherd of the Hill Presbyterian Church in Chaska is a place where your questions will be taken seriously.  We're a faith community where the gospel both moves the heart and challenges the way we think and act without telling you what to do.  SHPC is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church (USA) the only Presbyterian Church in Chaska and Carver County. You'll find more information on the Presby 101 page on our site. Or click here to read about our approach to the spiritual growth of children called "Godly Play." We are blessed by the musical talents of Momoh Freeman and Linda Livers and by Pastor Gordon Stewart's sermons. The sermons and music move our hearts and challenge our minds every Sunday. SHPC is "mission-minded" (go to Mission page) but we eschew the paternalism and intolerance often associated with the word. God's love is everywhere in the world.  Our only job is to honor it and show it.

God in Jesus Christ is the transforming center of our life, grounding us, comforting us, challenging us to do the hard work of reconciliation.  People looking for a place rooted in a rich tradition of thoughtful faith where the heart is moved and the mind is challenged have found a home at SHPC after years of giving up on the church. Over the past three years Shepherd of the Hill has become known in the larger community for the Shepherd of the Hill Dialogues (Dialogues page), a community speaker-discussion series "examining critical public issues locally and globally." Shepherd of the Hill Dialogues exemplifes what we mean by a different sense of mission.  It starts with our own personal and societal need for transformation and reconciliation in a large, diverse world where fear too often undermines a way of life anchored in God's unconditional love for everyone. That means tackling the tough public issues and listening to points of view we might not otherwise consider. The Shepherd of the Hill Dialogues program has contributed to the renewal of the old public square or town hall meeting. It has brought to Chaska speakers like Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York Professor Emeritus Kosuke Koyama; MN Supreme Court Associate Justices Paul Anderson and Esther Tomljanovich; Temple Israel Rabbi Marcia Zimmerman; Rabbi Joseph Edelheit; Masjid Al-Nur Imam Makram El-Amin; American Indian activists Clyde Bellecourt and Richard LaFortune; United Theological Seminary Professor of Historical Theology Paul Capetz; Kwanzaa Community Church Pastor Alika Galloway; economist Terry Gips of Sustainability Associates; meteorologist Craig Edwards; Chaska Police Chief Scott Knight, restorative justice advocates Professor Mona Affinito;former Chaska Mayor Bob Roepke; and President of Qwest Minnesota John Stanoch around themes like being a neighbor in a religiously plural world, the spiritual roots of terror and hope, and living sustainably as stewards of the planet. The Shepherd of the Hill Dialogues program brings the larger Chaska and Chaska-area community together to create a world that more clearly reflects God's unconditional love. Minnesota Public Radio's "All things Considered" airs  guest commentaries by Pastor Gordon Stewart.  His unique points of view on the intersection of faith and the news are also published by MinnPost, MPRNewsQ, The Chaska Herald, and The Presbyterian Outlook. Read or hear them on the Commentary page.  We value a free pulpit. Presbyterians expect our pastors to speak their minds whether or not we agree with them. No one person claims to speak for us at Shepherd of the Hill.  Each of us is responsible for  listening for "the still, small voice" that whispers in a shouting world.  We affirm a central tenet of the Presbyterian Church Constitution that "God alone is Lord of the conscience...."