Open Hearts, Open Minds, Open Doors
On a leafy campus off Village Center Drive in northwest Austin, Northwest Hills United Methodist Church has built its identity around a simple phrase: Open Hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors. It is a United Methodist congregation in the Rio Texas Conference that is large enough to run a school, a clothes closet, a meal-packaging operation, and two very different Sunday services - and small enough that greeters meet first-time visitors at the door and the pastors still walk alongside families through hospital stays and home repairs. Members and newcomers alike describe a church where children are a welcome sound in the sanctuary, where the same congregation can be drawn to a praise band or a handbell choir, and where mission is taken personally in a city with real needs.
Two Sunday Services, One Sanctuary
Worship on Sunday mornings comes in two flavors that share one room and one Communion table. At 9:00 a.m. the Contemporary service gathers around a band of vocalists, guitar, drums, and keyboard, with fewer formal prayers and an easier, conversational flow. At 11:00 a.m. the Traditional service fills the sanctuary with classic liturgical elements, hymns, and anthems sung by the Sanctuary Choir, accompanied by organ, piano, and the Ring of Faith Handbell Choir. Holy Communion is offered at both services, and everyone - members, visitors, and children - is invited to the table.
Both services are also livestreamed on YouTube and shared on Facebook, so worshipers at home can register their attendance online, download a bulletin, and submit prayer requests through the chat. Senior Pastor Rev. J.J. Wicke, Associate Pastor Rev. Cheryl A. Broome, and Associate Pastor of Community Engagement Rev. Jacob Letterman rotate through the pulpit, along with guest preachers such as Rev. Bill Henderson.
What to Expect When You Visit
Greeters wait at the main entrance to help with directions, name tags, and bulletins. Ushers hand out programs, and visitors may sit anywhere in an open pew. Worshipers are welcome to dress up or come as they are. The church's nursery is open from 8:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Sundays and is located in the Family Life Center adjacent to the sanctuary. Children are also invited to stay in the sanctuary, where a play area stocked with Lego and other toys sits on the right side near the piano and activity binders with coloring pages sit in the rear.
Parking is open across the lot, with reserved guest spaces close to the entrance. After the service, a welcome table on the left of the sanctuary exit is staffed for newcomers who want to ask questions and meet a pastor. Elementary-aged children can also serve as acolytes at both services, an opportunity the Children's Ministry Director, Heather Taylor, helps families sign up for.
Children's Ministry and My Friend's House
Northwest Hills runs an unusually full children's program. During the 9:00 a.m. service, kids begin in the sanctuary for Children's Time with the clergy, then move to the Family Life Center for Children's Church from 9:20 to 10:00 a.m., where volunteers lead them through creative lessons. Children's music runs from 9:55 to 10:15 a.m., with early elementary meeting in the chapel and upper elementary in the choir room, and the children return to worship in time to receive Communion at 9:50 a.m. From 10:15 to 11:00 a.m., the SonShine Hour keeps kids busy with crafts, games, basketball, and dance in the gym.
For the youngest children, the church partners with Sacred Roots: A Family Faith Network, a support community for parents and caregivers of children from birth to age three. Safety is taken seriously: every staff member and volunteer who works with children, youth, or vulnerable adults passes a background check and completes Safe Gatherings training through the Rio Texas Conference, with recertification every two years.
The church also hosts My Friend's House Child Development Center, a preschool that occupies part of the campus. The associate pastors, Heather Taylor, and Assistant Director LaShaundra Campbell work together to provide spiritual and relational support to the school, which has its own dedicated director.
Youth Ministry
Middle and high school students are led by Tyler Steele, the Director of Youth and Digital Ministries. Sunday mornings at 10:00 a.m., youth gather in the Youth Center for Sunday school between the two services. Most Sunday evenings from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., the Sunday Evening Youth Group meets for games, study, fellowship, and service projects.
During the school year, the Youth Center opens its doors for an After School Program on Wednesdays from 3:50 to 5:30 p.m., giving students a place to do homework, hang out, and build relationships. Summers are filled with retreats, mission trips, and outings such as the End of Summer Retreat, which combines a Texas Ramp Project wheelchair-ramp build with a day at Typhoon Texas waterpark.
Small Groups and Sunday School for Adults
Sunday school at 10:00 a.m. is the bridge between the two Sunday services, with a long menu of adult classes meeting in rooms across the campus:
- Living Water - a spirited, multigenerational group that uses video, discussion, and a variety of study styles; currently working through Richard Rohr's Breathing Underwater.
- Discovery Class - a reconciling fellowship that welcomes all people, regardless of race, nationality, gender, sexuality, class, marital status, or ability, and engages in lively, intellectual discussion; now studying Philip Yancey's Prayer.
- Joshua Class - a friendly, scripture-focused community currently working through the latest season of The Chosen.
- Seekers - parents of college-aged children who combine Bible study with conversation, social gatherings, and humor; reading through the Book of Mark and Adam Hamilton.
- Social Justice Book Study - currently reading Alice Wong's Disability Visibility.
On Wednesdays at 8:00 a.m., the United Methodist Men host a Prayer Breakfast open to all men of the church. Thursday mornings bring the Women's Bible Study, which meets in person and on Zoom. A Social Justice Book Study and a biweekly Small Group round out the week.
Stretch and Dance, a movement class for body and soul, meets twice a week: Wednesdays from 6:00 to 7:15 p.m. in the Art Gallery and Fridays from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. in the sanctuary. No experience is necessary, and comfortable clothing is the only requirement.
Music That Moves
Music at Northwest Hills runs in several directions at once. The Joyful Praise Band, anchored by Contemporary Worship Leader Jordan Burchill and a rhythm section that includes bassist Mike St. Clair and drummer Jimmy Milner, leads the 9:00 a.m. service. Burchill, a jazz guitar graduate of the University of North Texas and an award-winning singer-songwriter, also performs with his wife as the duo Beth // James around Austin and on tour.
The 11:00 a.m. service is carried by the Sanctuary Choir, the seasonal Ring of Faith Handbell Choir, and the playing of Donald Brower, the church's pianist and organist. Before coming to Northwest Hills, Brower served First Christian Church in Artesia, New Mexico, First United Methodist Church in Lubbock, and St. Mark United Methodist Church in Austin, with a CV of performances that includes Wesley's Chapel in London, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, and Carnegie Hall.
The Adoration Liturgical Dance Ensemble adds a visual dimension. Founded in 2008 by Heather Taylor, Jenny Roberts, and Beth Judd, Adoration has presented more than 60 original works choreographed by Taylor, a former professional ballet dancer with Ballet Austin, Ballet El Paso, and the Louisville Ballet. Rejoice Dance Ministry opens the floor to kindergarten through third graders, and the dance ministry welcomes all people regardless of age, gender identity, race, nationality, or ability.
Prayer, Healing, and Pastoral Care
Prayer shapes the rhythm of the week. A small Prayer Team prays weekly over the Sunday prayer requests, and the Prayer Shawl Ministry knits and crochets shawls that are prayed over and blessed in worship before being delivered to people who are ill, hospitalized, or celebrating a new birth.
On the third Thursday of each month at 7:00 p.m., the church gathers in the Wesley Chapel inside the Family Life Center for a Prayer, Praise, and Healing Service that includes a testimony, scripture, music, communion, celebrations, and healing prayers. Prayer cards can be submitted in person, by email to the prayer team, or through the online form.
For longer-term care, Northwest Hills trains and deploys Stephen Ministers, lay people who offer confidential one-on-one care to anyone in the community - not just members - who is grieving a loss, facing unemployment, navigating a spiritual crisis, living with a terminal illness, or carrying any other heavy burden. There is no cost, and all communication is confidential. A pastoral emergency line is also available through the church office.
A Methodist Heart, A Methodist Mind
Northwest Hills identifies as United Methodist and is part of the Rio Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. The church's own statement of beliefs centers on a Creator God who hears prayer, on Jesus Christ as God in human form whose death and resurrection open the way to eternal life, on the Holy Spirit who guides and grows faith, and on the promise that those who ask for forgiveness and put their faith in Christ are forgiven. Methodists at Northwest Hills, the church says, view the Bible as authoritative while also valuing intellect and modern science, and they trace that openness back to founder John Wesley's principle to Think and let think.
The church's Discovery Class has published its own reconciling statement, welcoming and including all people regardless of race, nationality, gender, sexuality, class, marital status, or ability, and advocating for the full inclusion of people of all gender identities and sexual orientations in the life of the congregation and the wider denomination. The church also points members toward anti-racism resources and outlines four practices for the work of racial justice: pray, connect, show up, and act.
Serving Austin and Beyond
Mission is woven through the life of the church. A Food Pantry at 601 W. Braker Lane is supported on the first Monday of each month, when volunteers help stock and serve neighbors. Rise Against Hunger, a meal-packaging event held each fall, has raised more than $15,000 in a single year and packaged more than 37,000 meals for distribution in Zambia. The church participates in CROP Walk, partners with the Central Texas Food Bank, and supports a long list of local and global ministries:
- Serving people experiencing homelessness through Open Door and the Clothes Closet for Men at First United Methodist Church
- Providing pot-luck dinners for residents of Community First! Village
- Painting and repairing homes with Interfaith Action Hands on Housing
- Building wheelchair ramps with Texas Ramp Project
- Providing car rides through Drive a Senior
- Donating gift cards and Thanksgiving meals for Florence's Comfort House
- Reading with students through Project Transformation
- Sewing pillowcases for Dell Children's Hospital
- Providing snacks and support for neighboring Murchison Middle School
- Supporting the Holding Institute Community Center in Laredo, Lydia Patterson Institute in El Paso, and Rainbow Network in Nicaragua
- Responding to disaster through the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and United Methodist Global Ministries, including hurricane relief efforts in Victoria, Texas and Arecibo, Puerto Rico
From 2024 through 2026, the congregation has also committed $13,500 over three years to Zoe Empowers, supporting youth-led families in Kenya.
The Campus and How to Use It
The Northwest Hills campus includes the church office (in the first building on the right under the awning when entering from Village Center Drive), a sanctuary, the Family Life Center, the Wesley Chapel, classrooms, meeting rooms, large gathering areas, and a gym that is available for basketball and volleyball rentals. The church makes its spaces available to civic and community organizations, non-profits, businesses, and private individuals, and rental inquiries are handled through the church office.
Giving can be made in person during worship, by mail, by text, online through Church Center, through the Church Center app for iOS and Android, or through PayPal Giving Fund. Tithing is treated as a personal and spiritual decision, and the church is explicit that no one is ever asked how much they give.
The People Who Keep It Running
Pastoral leadership is shared by Rev. J.J. Wicke, a graduate of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary who was ordained an Elder in 2013 and whose previous appointments include churches in Elgin, Falfurrias, Weslaco, and Harlingen, and by Rev. Cheryl A. Broome, who brings four decades of ministry to her focus on prayer and congregational care. Rev. Jacob Letterman, a 2025 graduate of Perkins School of Theology and the North District chaplain, links the congregation to Foundation Communities and the wider network of campus partners, including My Friend's House. Office Manager Sharon Clark and Business Manager Michelle McMinn, a CPA and lifelong Methodist, keep the operation running, while Custodian Ronnie Hawkins keeps the building in shape. Together with the choir, band, dance ministry, small-group facilitators, and lay mission leaders, they form the team that holds the doors wide open each Sunday and throughout the week.