Excellent community with a lot of different activities and projects throughout the week. Large…read moremulti-faceted community space.

Having attended regularly for many years, I have found First Parish a warm and supportive place to…read morepursue my spiritual journey. The program for children and youth is excellent. I raised my children there, and as adults they continue to live by beliefs they learned here: honoring the value of every person, the importance of searching for meaning, and respect for all existence.

I have been attending this church for about a year. My experience here has been very positive. The…read morepastor is a man of God and he preaches in a expository style. Everything is directly from the Bible. The elders are all Bible centered and want to truly serve the Lord. The parishioners are very friendly and my experience with them is that they are truly dedicated to Jesus Christ. I was attending a mega church prior to joining Hope and I consider myself fortunate to find Hope Christian Church. I am growing spiritually and I have found opportunity to serve the Lord here.

From the owner: Hope began when a handful of Winchester families wanted to start an Evangelical church. The group…read moregrew from a living room, to the Lynch School, to our present location in 1997.

I've been attending since summer 2007, and, through years of expected and unexpected changes, I've…read morefound that Reservoir Church has remained accessible to those with a lot, a little, or no organized religious background ("Christian" or otherwise) with the central unifying theme of a benevolent God who is eager to connect with us individually and as a community, simply and helpfully, in our daily lives. Sunday morning service comprises free coffee and bagels, welcoming smiles, and a simple program. But, if the talks are thought-provoking and applicable and the music uplifting and participatory, the real opportunity to maximize your experience is to engage the community: chat with a seat mate after service, attend a class or a weekly small group, help out on a Sunday morning team, or volunteer with community outreach such as the local summer youth "Soccer Nights" (totally according to your comfort and availability)! By and large, the community is diverse, smart, scientific, artistic, networked, compassionate, old, young, curious, humble, hopeful, and committed. One of the mainstays for me has been the safe place to get (and offer to others) dynamic prayer (for literally anything and everything). Say hi if you visit!

I am writing this review so others are aware of the experiences of some, so potential attendees and…read moremembers can make a holistic decision about whether or not to attend and commit their time, resources, and relationships to this church community. I will also self-disclose that all I write here has been brought directly to Steve Watson (Senior Pastor), Trecia Reavis (Executive Pastor), Ivy Anthony (Director of Community Life), and Lydia Shiu (Director of Social Justice). I will focus on stating facts vs offering commentary. It's too long to rehash the details of 7-8 years, so I will provide two select examples. I began attending Reservoir some time in 2017 and, initially, was a member of a community group led by Steve and his wife until 2018 or so. When my father passed away suddenly after a ~20 year struggle with illness and increasing disability in May 2019, I received a text from Steve expressing his condolences and apologizing he could not attend the Sunday memorial services. After that, none of the pastoral staff personally reached out to me other than to comment on my social media postings processing my grief. I regularly attended Sunday services and, beginning in Fall/Winter 2019, co-led a community group for a few years. After more than a year of grieving, I let the staff know about my sense of hurt/disappointment/disorientation at navigating a major personal loss without pastoral care. I was told that the norm and expectation is that my community group members and friends were tending to me: the pastoral staff would not be able to directly care for congregants in these ways given the large attendee size of the church. If I needed more engagement, I should initiate to schedule a meeting. The staff will often offer times to connect during business hours, when many adults are working. For context, typical Sunday service attendance is under 300 attendees with 5 full-time (pre-January 2026) and a few additional part-time church staff. After the church leadership decision to lay off a long time staff member in 2025 with limited congregational communication, lack of community dialogue, and low process transparency, I made the decision to attend Sunday services elsewhere. After nearly 5 months of absence, I received an email from Steve noting this and asking me not to attend a late-April meeting that was scheduled to "heal" and "reconcile" after the aforementioned lay-off. Rather than calling or otherwise relationally reaching out to check in if I was okay, I was sent a pro forma email to make it clear I should not attend what was announced as an open meeting because my lack of Sunday attendance. I was able to insist on speaking to Steve and articulate that it is unhelpful to delineate "insidership" and "outsidership" given the stated intention of the gathering. For context, the established practice at Reservoir is to welcome all -- regardless of membership status -- to "Membership Meetings" and other gatherings. There is more that I can write, but I will leave it here to allow others to make their own decision about the church.

I don't know what it's like to visit as a church-goer --- but as a concert organizer, I love it!…read moreIt's inexpensive to rent, and the church administration is kind and helpful. Note: PACC has 2 venues: - The chapel is visually attractive, has comfortable seating, and is very live. Longwood Opera's condensed Ring Cycle in that space was a bit too much for a few overly-sensitive ears! - but its Hansel and Gretel and Tosca in the same place were just right. - The meeting hall is a barer-looking space, with folding chairs we have to set up... but used correctly, it can be transformed into a lovely concert hall, with acoustics which I personally prefer to the chapel. The trick here is to place the performers on the stage *in front of* the closed curtain, because the stage behind the curtain isn't acoustically useful. That's how we used it again on Sunday Oct. 30, 2011, 3-5PM. for the 9th annual Music to Cure MS concert. We also took advantage of the kitchen area in the back - not to prepare food (which would cost an extra fee), but to set up refreshments to sell during intermission, in order to raise more funds for the Accelerated Cure Project for Multiple Sclerosis. Read about the concert at http://singtocurems.org ... and get ready for the 10th annual concert in October of 2012!

I had the honor of serving as an interim pastor here and found it to be a healthy, vibrant,…read morespirit-filled congregation. If you are looking for a place where you can find spiritual renewal, a warm and accepting congregation, an outstanding educational program, an uplifting classical musical experience and a true church dedicated to worship, faithfulness and service then this is about the best I have ever seen!

Hope fellowship church is a church that really does care about everyone the people are supper…read morefriendly and so are the staff and elders

I saw a couple reviews that mentioned the church's Southern Baptist Convention roots and just…read morewanted to speak to that. I understand the resistance, truly I do. The past year that I have been in Boston has involved a lot of researching denominations and trying to understand them and the SBC certainly is a hard one to grapple with for many. But no matter how many times I've ventured elsewhere, I *always* come back to Hope Fellowship. Mostly, that is because I'm convinced that Hope Fellowship is led by godly, prayerful people and that the Spirit is bearing fruit here. Again, trust me, I get the doctrinal disputes and I struggle with the SBC on certain issues. At Hope, the leadership doesn't shy from hard topics but it also doesn't give black-and-white, pre-scripted answers; nor does it give wishy-washy, ungrounded ones. I've only ever seen Hope leadership tackle highly sensitive subjects in a nuanced, thoughtful, and humble way. Even if you don't agree 100%, you know you can share your perspective with leadership and be heard and loved. Furthermore, personally, I've found that this church has a refreshing way of incorporating confession and also rejoicing in God's mercy. During each service we have a call-and-response of a Psalm and then a prayer of confession and then a passage reminding us of how we have been redeemed from that sin. It's so balanced and thoughtful and, to me, really models what we see throughout Acts as people come to faith--a rhythm of repentance and joyfully accepting God's grace. If you are looking for a church that does not shy from tough questions and that will continually extend the love of Christ to you and motivate you to do the same for others, this place does that.

I was shunned by The Boston Church of Christ in the 90"s. It was a traumatic experience. These…read moremembers actually tried to invite me to church on the train last year. I put out my hand and screamed back off. I often wonder If these people actually know the pain they caused past members. I have moved forward in my life. I advise people to stay away from any type of church that tries to control them. Take care of yourself. Stay safe.

I moved into the area and started attending this church in the last 2 years and couldn't be happier…read morewith my experience. Bible based preaching, strong relationships, and a lot of fun. Highly recommend this group to anyone in the area looking for a new church home, come check it out!

The Boston Temple is soooooo beautiful!! All the temple workers are amazing and the grounds are…read morealways well kept and beautiful! Beautiful inside and out!

I was not raised in a church as my parents believed in science. I went to First Parish at a dark…read moretime in my adult life and have been there for over ten years. I found a community of belief consistent with my own: the free exploration of religious beliefs, the focus on "dwelling in peace" with all, sharing the commitment to making the world a better place for all people, One of my only regrets in life is that my children did not get a UU education. This, I believe, would have protected them for the negative values in our culture, especially the ones adolescents have to cope with. I have found good people, made close friends, and found a Church home. In addition our present staff could not be better. The administrator, our building and grounds manager, our pastoral care associates,our musical director and most importantly our minister are outstanding. Going for the music or sermons alone would be worth it

My family and I have been members for two years now and we love this church. The community is…read moresupportive and warm, people of all backgrounds and religious beliefs are welcome, the programming for children (my husband and I have two) is great (Easter egg hunts, children's choir, fun Sunday school classes, family events like the chili cook-off), and overall it's a warm and welcoming place. Also, children who go through the religious education program will learn about the world's major religions and about having strong and healthy relationships in life. Good stuff. I highly recommend it!