• our Thousand Hills Facebook Page (for everybody who wants to stay updated)
• our Thousand Hills The Hague Facebook Group (for you to be able to interact with everyone in Hilversum)
• our Thousand Hills Vimeo account (with some of our seminars and sermons online!)
• our Thousand Hills YouTube account
• Sebastiaan van Wessem’s Twitter and Facebook profile
• Frank Bouwens’ Facebook profile

Sermons (3)

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‘There is one Body and one Spirit…there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of us all…’ Ephesians 4:4-6

In non-essential beliefs — we have liberty

‘Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters… Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls… So then each of us will give an account of himself to God… So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God.’ Romans 14:1,4,12,22.

In all our beliefs — we show charity (love).

‘…If I hold in my mind not only all human knowledge but also the very secrets of God, and if I have the faith that can move mountains — but have no love, I amount to nothing at all.’ 1 Corinthians 13:2

Our essential beliefs

The Bible is God’s word to all mankind. We believe it is inspired by God and that it is fully trustworthy as God’s truth, without error. We accept the scriptures as the revealed will of God and the all-sufficient rule of faith and practice for all who follow Christ.

God is the creator and ruler of the universe and the one who redeems, saves, or rescues mankind from sin and its consequences. He has eternally existed in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He lived a sinless human life and performed many miracles during his ministry. He voluntarily paid for our sin by taking our place on the cross, and dying for us. He rose from the dead after three days to demonstrate his power and victory over sin and death. He ascended to Heaven’s glory and will return again to earth to establish universal peace and reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

The Holy Spirit begins a great work in the lives of those who accept Christ. The Spirit convicts them of sin, confirms their righteousness, and dwells within them. No one becomes a follower of Christ without this gracious work of the Holy Spirit. We also believe in the promise of the Father: the infilling of the Holy Spirit. With this infilling comes the power for life and service, spiritual gifts and their uses in the work of the ministry.

Salvation is God’s free gift of freedom from sin. Man can never make up for his sin by self-improvement or good works. Only by accept God’s free offer of forgiveness in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, can man be saved from sin’s penalty. Salvation is received as a person repents before God and puts their trust in Jesus who has died for their sins. Eternal life begins at the moment one receives Jesus Christ into his life by faith.

We are a diverse group of people from different cultures and backgrounds and together, we explore what it means to be a follower of Christ. Our doors are open to anyone of any background, belief or denomination who is interested in exploring the way of Jesus with us. We’ve tried to answer all the questions that you may have here on the website, but if there’s anything you’d still like to know, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you and get to know you!

Thousand Hills Hilversum started its first public worship service on Sunday, 16 April, 2006. Back then, Thousand Hills was called Hilversum International Christian Center (HICC). On 21 May 2006, Thousand Hills celebrated its Grand Opening in the Zuiderkerk – the building where Thousand Hills Hilversum still meets today. The new name Thousand Hills is inspired by Psalm 50:10.

Although Thousand Hills Hilversum started in 2006, the original vision was born in June 2004, when Sebastiaan van Wessem and Robby Bradford organised a musical tour in the Netherlands.

One day during the tour, they went to Hilversum, Sebastiaan’s hometown, and quickly realised that it was a very cosmopolitan town, home to many different nationalities, international companies and international schools. It was while driving through Hilversum that God opened their eyes to the need for an international church there as well.

In September 2005 the Van Wessems, together with the Bradfords and a church planting team, began to meet at the the Bradfords’ home. The group rapidly started increasing week by week, and there was soon a committed core group of supporters who were willing to help launch Thousand Hills Hilversum. We soon outgrew the Bradfords’ living room and moved to a wooden chapel bordering the woods around Hilversum.

Over time, thanks to various events and publicity, our website and above all, God’s leading, the original core group began to grow, and by the time Thousand Hills Hilversum officially opened its doors in April 2006, it had a regular attendance of 60 people. Just a month later, and we relocated to our current location in the Zuiderkerk, a beautiful church building dating to the early 1920s.

But Sebastiaan’s and Robby’svision was never just to plant one church, but to found a whole church planting movement. That’s why, in September 2007, Thousand Hills embarked on its first church planting project: helping to set up the New Day International Church in Almere. At the same time, Sebastiaan also initiated the start of a Europe-wide church planting network called Europe Advance.

In the past two years a vision has emerged in the hearts of Thousand Hills’ key leaders under the leadership of Sebastiaan to become a multi-site church; a church that meets in several locations, yet shares one name, one vision and one leadership team. It is our desire to help found other communities of believers in various cities, both in the Netherlands, and beyond, through the multi-site vision. We’ve already taken the first step on this road with the start of Thousand Hills The Hague in 2010.

The story of Thousand Hills is an example of what God can do when believers from all over the world work together in unity to let the light of Jesus shine in their communities. Even so, we know we’re only at the beginning of this journey with Him. Will you join us on our journey?

‘Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest’ (John 4:35)

Your Story

Would you like to share your experience of God with the rest of the church community? We encourage you to share YOUR story with us via Facebook.

Bibian’s story

I hope you are okay. My name is Bibian Lambart Mwale, a born again Christian from Zambia. I work for Christian Radio Voice, a Christian Ministry that broadcasts to Central and Southern Africa. I know you don’t know me but I just want to share with you this short encouragement. I’ve been in Holland from January and this week I will be going back home. During my stay here I came to your church.

Before leaving my home country I prayed that God should lead me to a living church where I could find people who were devoted to him. I was amazed when i entered the Thousand Hills building because there was such an awesome presence of God. I found it easy to pray and to worship my living God in the midst of the congregation. From the first Sunday I came, I told myself I would pray for the Church in Hilversum, your church.

I was really inspired when you spoke about ‘Crossing the Jordan‘. The messages were timely. The guest preacher who spoke about how God healed him from cancer truly tickled my faith. My experience in your ministry helped to increase my faith to new levels.

Please, always remember that you have a unique ministry and God is in your midst. He has promised that he will watch over your church and no gates of hell will prevail. I have come to realize that there are obviously so many challenges all around but God has raised your ministry to be the salt of Holland. Keep the faith until the very end and you will see the blessings of the Lord.

Bibian Lambart Mwale

1. Experience-Based Worship

Worship at Thousand Hills is filled with the dynamic presence of the Holy Spirit, who leads us all forwards to meet Jesus Christ. (John 4:23-24)

2. Reconciliation

We focus on the reconciliation that is possible in Jesus Christ, not only between God and man, but between nations, races, ethnic groups, communities, classes, neighbours, and families. (2 Corinthians 5:16-21)

3. Relationship

We aim to develop meaningful relationships with both God and each other in order to strengthen every area of our lives. (1 John 1:1-4)

4. Multiplication

At Thousand Hills, we are committed to equipping leaders and launching churches to serve every language and every ethnic group represented in the Netherlands. (Acts 1:8).

Multi-site

Thousand Hills is a multi-site church. This vision is inspired by our fourth core value: multiplication. Multiplication means that we have a desire to grow, to invest ourselves in others and to be a part of something greater than ourselves, sharing our gifts and talents, and inspiring others to grow and develop. Multiplication also means that we want to plant new churches to participate in God’s mission of reaching out to a world in need of grace and a relationship with Christ.

Thousand Hills in Hilversum, The Hague and any future sites together one church with one vision, one strategy, and one name. Some of the ministry-related activities and office support will be centralised for the whole church, to make organisation – and multiplication – easier.. However, the ministries that directly serve the people in the local sites are led by local leaders. Each site has its own Site Pastor, staff and volunteers. The Site Pastors work closely together with the Lead Pastor to inspire each other, share encouragement, vision and ideas, and give direction to the church.

Some reasons why we’re embracing the multi-site approach:

1) The model allows us to be ‘missional’ as a local church. Being ‘missional’ means that we look beyond our walls, engaging ourselves in God’s greater mission of reaching out to the world.

2) Church planting is in our DNA! It’s the reason Thousand Hills Hilversum was first created, and we want to embrace our responsibility of planting other communities of faith.

3) A multi-site vision allows us to reach a broader geographical area

4) The multi-site vision doesn’t limit us to large expensive buildings. When a church becomes too large, it’s a perfect reason to start a new site!

5) We increase our visibility using a common name, enabling us to communicate more clearly with the outside world.

6) As a multi-site church, we can serve as a training centre for future local pastors, church planters and staff members, as well as volunteers who are eager to serve in a local church.

7) The multi-site vision helps us to increase the number of international churches in our country more rapidly, allowing us to better serve the needs of the growing international community that has found its home in the Netherlands.

Vision and Mission

The purpose of Thousand Hills is to bring culturally diverse people to Jesus and to create a place where everyone can belong, grow to be like Jesus, and be equipped for ministry in the church and their life mission in the world in order to magnify God’s name.

Sunday messages

Missed last Sunday’s message? Click here to search for a particular message from our Sunday celebrations and other events.

Podcast

The Thousand Hill’s podcast is an easy way for you to listen to the weekly Sunday Celebration messages. By subscribing using iTunes, other podcasting tools, or RSS readers, the weekly message will be automatically downloaded to your computer. You can listen at your computer or take it with you on your iPod or MP3 player.

Blog

If you are interested in keeping up with developments within the church, want to hear the thoughts of our pastor or simply want to read some words of encouragement, then we invite you to check out Sebastiaan’s blog.

Gallery

Our photo gallery gives you the chance to see photographs of our church community taken on different occasions throughout the year, from family picnics to baptisms and Christmas celebrations. If you would like to add some of your photographs to the gallery, then please send them to our web team: info@thousandhills.cc.

Facebook

Thousand Hills is on Facebook! Join the Thousand Hills Page here to receive updates on the Thousand Hills community as a whole, or else become a member of Thousand Hills Hilversum to find out more about local events and to connect with friends from the church in Hilversum.

Twitter

Follow our lead pastor Sebastiaan on Twitter by clicking here.