Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Hilltop Baptist Church: To help people to become followers of Jesus Christ

To love our neighbor, which is sometimes hard to do.

Walt Hatch
Walt Hatch

Hilltop Baptist Church

  • Contact: 740 Hilltop Dr., Chula Vista 619-422-7246 www.hilltopbc.com
  • Weekly Attendance: 50
  • Pastor: Walt Hatch
  • Age: 61
  • Born: El Cajon
  • Formation: Pacific Coast Baptist College, San Dimas (now Heartland Baptist Bible College, Oklahoma City, OK)
  • Years Ordained: 37

San Diego Reader: How long do you spend writing your sermon?

Sponsored
Sponsored

Pastor Walt Hatch: I tend to preach in an expository style, but it is a blend of topical and expository. For example, right now, we’re going through a series on loving your neighbor, studying what Jesus says about interacting with our neighbors. We take particular passages, such as the parable of the Good Samaritan, and look at how they help us relate to our neighbors. I spend about three to four hours a week of actual sit-down work on my sermons, but I’m also brainstorming throughout the week while I’m watching my grandson.

Place

Hilltop Baptist Church

740 Hilltop Drive, Chula Vista

SDR: What is your favorite subject on which to preach?

PH: The gospel of Jesus Christ—it’s the good news of what Jesus did for us, reconciling us to God. This theme runs through all four of the Gospels, and in fact it is also the overall theme of the Bible, looking ahead to when Jesus came to give his life for all. It’s a message that reverberates in modern culture, too: for instance, in such movies as Armageddon, where someone is willing to give up his life for the world. That’s what Jesus did — he was willing to give his life for us and in that way reconcile us to God.

SDR: What is the mission of your church?

PH: To help people to become followers of Jesus Christ. In a nutshell, we would like to see all people become followers of Christ, not only here in the United States but around the world. To accomplish this, we basically talk about the Gospel, but present the Bible in a plain manner that is easy to understand and doesn’t leave people scratching their heads, thinking, “I don’t even see that there! What is he talking about?” Instead, we try to allow the Bible to speak for itself. We’re not just focused in on one narrow passage, either, but preach the entire word of the Bible, even the parts that are painful—like Jesus’s command to love our neighbor, which is sometimes hard to do.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PH: If you believe in Jesus, you go to heaven, and if you don’t believe in Jesus, you go to hell — the place of separation from God. It starts as a head-belief to where it becomes a heart-belief. This means that I am committed to the belief that Jesus died for me and rose again on the third day, and only through him am I saved. It’s a simple act of faith, and it doesn’t have anything to do with my church membership or my good works. My father, who was a preacher too, once said, “Don’t miss heaven by eighteen inches.” That’s the distance between the head and the heart. Once you make that commitment to follow Jesus in your heart, nothing can take away from you the fact that you are a child of God. Sometimes, you’ll hear someone say, “What about so-and-so? He says he believes in Jesus, but he did this and that which seem to contradict what he claims to believe.” But once you become a true believer, in your heart, you never lose that. But that doesn’t mean we don’t face the consequences of our actions, both in this life and the next.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Issa aide collaborates with Ukrainians

Carlsbad's Tracy Slepcevic, Warrior Mom, and her ties to RFK, Jr.
Walt Hatch
Walt Hatch

Hilltop Baptist Church

  • Contact: 740 Hilltop Dr., Chula Vista 619-422-7246 www.hilltopbc.com
  • Weekly Attendance: 50
  • Pastor: Walt Hatch
  • Age: 61
  • Born: El Cajon
  • Formation: Pacific Coast Baptist College, San Dimas (now Heartland Baptist Bible College, Oklahoma City, OK)
  • Years Ordained: 37

San Diego Reader: How long do you spend writing your sermon?

Sponsored
Sponsored

Pastor Walt Hatch: I tend to preach in an expository style, but it is a blend of topical and expository. For example, right now, we’re going through a series on loving your neighbor, studying what Jesus says about interacting with our neighbors. We take particular passages, such as the parable of the Good Samaritan, and look at how they help us relate to our neighbors. I spend about three to four hours a week of actual sit-down work on my sermons, but I’m also brainstorming throughout the week while I’m watching my grandson.

Place

Hilltop Baptist Church

740 Hilltop Drive, Chula Vista

SDR: What is your favorite subject on which to preach?

PH: The gospel of Jesus Christ—it’s the good news of what Jesus did for us, reconciling us to God. This theme runs through all four of the Gospels, and in fact it is also the overall theme of the Bible, looking ahead to when Jesus came to give his life for all. It’s a message that reverberates in modern culture, too: for instance, in such movies as Armageddon, where someone is willing to give up his life for the world. That’s what Jesus did — he was willing to give his life for us and in that way reconcile us to God.

SDR: What is the mission of your church?

PH: To help people to become followers of Jesus Christ. In a nutshell, we would like to see all people become followers of Christ, not only here in the United States but around the world. To accomplish this, we basically talk about the Gospel, but present the Bible in a plain manner that is easy to understand and doesn’t leave people scratching their heads, thinking, “I don’t even see that there! What is he talking about?” Instead, we try to allow the Bible to speak for itself. We’re not just focused in on one narrow passage, either, but preach the entire word of the Bible, even the parts that are painful—like Jesus’s command to love our neighbor, which is sometimes hard to do.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PH: If you believe in Jesus, you go to heaven, and if you don’t believe in Jesus, you go to hell — the place of separation from God. It starts as a head-belief to where it becomes a heart-belief. This means that I am committed to the belief that Jesus died for me and rose again on the third day, and only through him am I saved. It’s a simple act of faith, and it doesn’t have anything to do with my church membership or my good works. My father, who was a preacher too, once said, “Don’t miss heaven by eighteen inches.” That’s the distance between the head and the heart. Once you make that commitment to follow Jesus in your heart, nothing can take away from you the fact that you are a child of God. Sometimes, you’ll hear someone say, “What about so-and-so? He says he believes in Jesus, but he did this and that which seem to contradict what he claims to believe.” But once you become a true believer, in your heart, you never lose that. But that doesn’t mean we don’t face the consequences of our actions, both in this life and the next.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Tuna within 3-day range Back in the Counts

Mind the rockfish regulations
Next Article

San Diego Holiday Experiences

As soon as Halloween is over, it's Christmas time in my mind
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader