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| Greetings | View From the Hill |Sermons | Books |
View from the Hill
Greetings
Community Christian Church is a church of service and celebration, a church in the heart of the city, which takes the welfare of the city to heart! We are located on the Country Club Plaza, in a Frank Lloyd Wright designed sanctuary building, in the very heart of America’s heartland.[less -]
We honor the gifts our members contribute in abundance to an ever-expanding ministry of joyful worship, loving outreach, welcoming fellowship, affirming prayer, vibrant Bible study, and sensitive caring for one another. And the gifts are wonderful to see and experience: diversity, unity, creativity, hope, encouragement, commitment, innovation, laughter, cooperation, tolerance, and mutual affection!!
Whether you are a seeker, a searcher, a person of mature faith or a person beginning on your spiritual journey, may this website assist and empower you along your way.
May your life be full of adventures which strengthen you and encounters which give you joy each and every day. I urge you to visit and join with us at Community Christian Church, 4601 Main Street, in Kansas City, Missouri.
View from the Hill
"Remembering Denton Roberts – However limited language may be, words are finally what we possess to speak our thanks in honor of those we love. And so I say thanks for Denton Lowell Roberts, Jr., who died on December 12, 2011, in Canon City, Colorado, and whose memorial service was held on February 12, 2012, at All Peoples Christian Church in Los Angeles, California.[less -]
I am a "Timothy" of All Peoples and of Denton Roberts. Which means, in church lingo, I’m a person who resolved a call to ministry under Denton's influence at All Peoples. As Paul was to Timothy in the New Testament, Denton has been to me, beginning in 1972 and continuing to this very day. I met Denton at the front door of the old All Peoples building on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of All People's founding. Thereafter Denton would become a friend, pastor, teacher, confidant, mentor, and a prodding guide and caring gracer along life's path. Denton preached at my ordination, served as best man in Priscilla's and my wedding, and presided at my father's funeral. In turn, I would preside at his mother's funeral, as well as introduce him to Frederick Buechner, Will Campbell, Annie Dillard, Donald Hall, and Johnny Ray Youngblood, along with the wonderments of Kansas City barbecue.
Denton was effective wherever work was set to his hands: in the first church he pastored, Early Chapel in Earlham, Iowa; in a new church start in Livermore, California; praying in jail with William Sloane Coffin and Benjamin Spock; resuscitating a dormant counseling center; steering at the helm of an ITAA committee or special project; offering wisdom before a colloquy of studious Chattauquans in upstate New York; guiding faithful saints at the close of their congregational journey; and proffering his preaching and his pastoral care from the All Peoples pulpit.
Denton was unflagging in his commitments to do what he could in a world racked by pain and rocked by unrest. From the hot days of Selma, to the poverty-scarred streets of South Central Los Angeles, to a nation inebriated on the wine of war, to the hallowed space of Ground Zero, Denton provided leadership and love, presence and prayer, counsel and creativity.
Denton wrote his sermons on Sunday mornings, but he lived with his sermons day by day, week by week, season by season. Denton knew well the Chasidic wisdom: "More important than the sermon the rabbi gives is the sermon the rabbi is."
His devotion to family was surely his greatest gift and his highest accomplishment. As a husband, his vigilant care for Jerry as she dealt with a terminal disease remains an example for all husbands to follow. His loving nurture of his sons Dane and Courtney was simply superb. And his puckish delight in his grandchildren, Wilson, Zoey, Jamie, and Zach, increased with his every breath, as he witnessed the blossoming of his most recent legacy.
While there was part of Denton that clung to Dylan Thomas' charge not to "go gentle into that good night," he became increasingly comfortable with his status as "a lion in winter."
Denton had his lumps and bumps. But he was able and equal. He found purpose and power. He lived as a healer. He empowered congregations and organizations.
Denton was a theoretician, but he did not live theoretically. He met others with clear-minded insights, an unfettered intuition that bordered on genius, and a deeply compassionate heart. He was the least threatened human being I ever met, and I cannot imagine meeting his match in the future.
Not only was Denton all those attributes and qualities, he is those same attributes and qualities, as he lives on in those who wear his genes, Dane and Cort and their loving extended family, and in all of his friends and collaborators. This is what the truth of faith teaches us– not only was but is. And now as a child of God, enjoying eter- nal peace within God’s loving embrace, Denton still is. As it is with Denton Lowell Roberts, Jr., let it be so with all of us, today and forever.
This coming Sunday, Feb. 19
Rev. Michelle Harris-Gloyer will preach "Move It!," as theconcluding sermon in our "Health, Healing,and The Journey to Wholeness" series. This will be a splendid Sunday to encourage friends to join you for worship. Your invitation will certainly be a life-enhancing gift for them.Love – Bob
Sermons
Below you will find the transcripts of a number of sermons that have been delivered at Community Christian Church. May they bless you and help guide you on your spiritual journey.[less -]
Books
Writing is one of my passions. I have had the pleasure of publishing a number of books that discuss spiritual issues. Please contact the church office if you are interested in purchasing one of these titles.[less -]
The Color of Sabbath: Proclamations & Prayers for New Beginnings
By Robert Lee Hill (2007)
A collection of sermons and speeches from 1995 through 2007 that gives an overview of how Rev. Bob Hill sees the principles of Holy Scripture and Christianity challenging church members as they interact with the current culture.
Romans: An Introductory Study Guide
By Robert Lee Hill (2007)
Made Whole...Again...By Broken Bread
By Robert Lee Hill (2004)
Hard To Tell: A Congregation of Poems, 1990-2003
By Robert Lee Hill (2003)
Empowering Congregations: Successful Strategies for 21st Century Leadership
By Robert Lee Hill & Denton Roberts (2003)
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