"When I was visiting a member at a senior living center, the person told me that this congregation was started as a neighborhood church. It was a church plant of people who lived in the neighborhood. She said, 'Now we have all moved away and are a drive-in church. It's just not a neighborhood church anymore.' And I said, 'Well, it could be.' Our focus is to get outside the walls and reach the neighborhood," shares Rev. Rodney Knock, who serves at Hilltop United Methodist Church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Hilltop UMC volunteers at The Banquet. Photos from Facebook.

The congregation is living into that focus through a thriving youth program, engaging in a local youth mission trip, a program for tweens, inviting the neighborhood to a meal, a continuing care ministry, serving for the Nightwatch Canteen and The Banquet, and two styles of worship on Sunday.

Middle and high school youth meet on Wednesday evenings throughout the school year. Typically, middle school youth meet from 6 p.m. to 7:45 p.m., starting with a quick supper. After eating, they head downstairs to the youth room for games, discussion, and prayer. 

High school students meet from 8-9:15 p.m. Snacks and drinks are provided. Youth will come with homework and share stories of their day as they wind down from hectic schedules. They have relevant discussions, games, and prayer time for one another. 

"Kris Rees is our Director of Youth and Family Ministries at Hilltop. She does a phenomenal job," said Pastor Rod.

Every summer, the youth at Hilltop UMC go on a mission trip. Sometimes, the journey is to places like Guatemala. This summer, it was a local mission trip.

"This summer, we had a local mission trip. We stayed at Yogi Bear campground. They get to feel like they're away. We served at the Union Gospel Mission, sorting stuff for their thrift store. We worked at The Banquet. We spent an afternoon with the LSS kids—kind of a big brother, big sister thing. It was to build relationships with the kids attending the LSS program at Hilltop. We are bridging a gap between youth members and the LSS program," said Pastor Rod. "We also packed boxes at Feed South Dakota."

Lutheran Social Services (LSS) has an afterschool program during the school year at Hilltop UMC. During the summer, it is an all-day program.

Youth on the local mission trip had to get up at 5:30 a.m. to serve breakfast at The Banquet. "I set my alarm and thought I'd get up early. I did. I went out of the living room, and one of our young men was sitting on the couch out there, and I said, 'Dude, what are you doing up so early?' And he said, 'I'm just so excited!' I expected we would have to rustle some beds to get kids up. They were all really excited about it. When we got down to The Banquet, five of our Hilltop members were there waiting. They were angels that had signed up specifically for that morning to serve alongside our youth," said Pastor Rod.

Hilltop youth having fun in the fellowship hall.

Tween Tuesdays were brought to fruition when a small group of third through fifth graders began meeting with Hilltop's pastor and youth director every other Tuesday afternoon. 

Pastor Rod said, "Tweens are structured like youth group. They have a snack, do an activity, scripture time with discussion, followed by an activity around the scripture. Kris noticed that the kids didn't know each other in the youth group because they came from different schools. So, she decided that maybe we should get the kids together before middle and high school youth group."

Tweens attend from three to four different schools. By the time they get to middle school, they know each other. "Now, in our high school youth group, we represent every high school. In our middle school group, we have almost every middle school represented," describes Pastor Rod. 

Last year, the congregation started Frankful Fridays. It is a drive-in meal service to serve their neighbors in eastern Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Those who came received a free meal with an all-beef hot dog, fruit, juice, and a side dish. This year, the neighborhood meal has shifted to Wednesday evenings inside. It is called Community Table.

"We were doing this Frankful Friday. We would greet and pray over a carload of people, but the whole thing was a 90-second interaction. Now, at the Community Table, people from within the church and the neighborhood come to have a meal together. Then after the meal, if you want to leave, that's fine. If you stick around, we'll have a little Jesus talk," Pastor Rod said. 

Share and Care is a ministry that continues at Hilltop UMC. It is a group of lay people in the congregation that serve as an outreach care ministry team. They visit people who are shut in or do not leave their houses frequently. The team visits nursing homes or senior living facilities.
They will reach out to those going through a tough time or those who have experienced loss.

"Share and Care is filling in the gaps. I try to visit once a month, and they fill in between. They do things like deliver Easter lilies or visit people on their Birthdays. It is something that existed when I came. It is wonderful," said Pastor Rod.

Hilltop volunteers are all smiles with the Nightwatch Canteen van, a cooperative UMC outreach serving those in need in Sioux Falls.

Members of Hilltop UMC connect to the community, along with other churches, to serve at the Nightwatch Canteen on Sunday evenings and Mondays at Hayward Elementary School. They also serve at The Banquet.

"We take part in Nightwatch Canteen on Sunday night and Monday night. We were one of the churches. Many churches do that. We have a couple of folks that head up the Sunday one and others that head up the Monday," shared Pastor Rod.

On Sunday, worship at 8:30 a.m. is a traditional worship service. At 10:30 a.m., there is a worship service with contemporary music. On the months where there are five Sundays, one worship service is held. It is called the unity service.

"We have one church service, and everybody comes together. The fifth Sunday in July was a unity service, and we decided, you know what, we're going to celebrate Jesus' birthday with cake. We delivered 200 flyers around the neighborhood. We announced that we would have cake and give away school supplies. People in the church were meeting people in the neighborhood. They were all becoming family," said Pastor Rod.

Hilltop UMC has a team attending Imagine Day on September 30. The hope is to build more connections in the neighborhood. The very community that was once a church plant.

"We are trying to envision how we can start things that don't exist just to nourish the members of our church but to help the community. Invite them to Jesus. If something doesn't work, we can learn from that, and then we can try something new. We are trying to figure out something that might create ties between the church family and the neighborhood to create one big family," said Pastor Rod.