Hillside began in 1947 as a church plant from Orakei Baptist and constituted as Glendowie-St Heliers Baptist in 1953, we moved to our three-storey warehouse in 1996, rented out empty areas and renamed ourselves Hillside Community Church. We liked the name because we are on a hillside and want to be a real, loving community rather than a formal weekly gathering of strangers.

We are still Baptists when it comes to accountability (and we love to baptise disciples at Kohi Beach) but are de-emphasising denominational splits in the Body of Christ, relating often to the many other believers in other churches around here.

This means we are still Bible-based, evangelistic (wanting everyone to find Jesus for themselves) and service-oriented with an emphasis on debt-reduction (Christians Against Poverty). We are also charismatic, actively seeking the presence of God in our worship and welcoming all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as prophecy and praying for healing, through whoever has those gifts.