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

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?

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.

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.