Unity Church of the Hills

I wish I could give this church ten stars. Inspiring Sunday services, interesting classes, friendly congregants… and most importantly, a staff that truly cares. They’re the real deal…

My wife and I met up with some of the members of this church in South Africa while they volunteered with a youth camp we were working with over there. When we returned home to Missouri we came to visit Austin to process the trip with these volunteers a couple of times, visiting the church with the arch. We found it full of authentic, caring people serving each other in such authentic ways. On one of our trips down Mary Bolen asked, «So, when are you moving to Austin?» We answered, «No, not us, we’ve lived in Houston and we are not moving to Texas?» She replied,” You know Austin isn’t really Texas.” We all laughed.
We went back to Missouri and found ourselves talking about where we wanted to settle down after finding ourselves in transition. We discussed that we could live anywhere we want and then started narrowing down the locations. In the end the real decision came because of this amazing church and the love, and the beauty, and the real authentic people that would show up for each other even around the world. A few weeks later we found ourselves back in Austin finding a place to live because of this church. We decided that if it didn’t work out when our lease was up we could move somewhere else. It has been three years and we are still here.
We started taking some classes and found them powerfully enriching and the community of support just kept adding to the feeling that we were truly home.
This is one of the most powerful, joy filled, committed and caring Unity communities I have ever seen. There is a deep power in the love and the light that shines from each person.
My wife and I have been working with the high school youth in Unity for over 14 years and as you can imagine, we showed up in support of the youth for this church as well.
We bless you on your search for the perfect spiritual home and would be glad to meet you along our path.

We tried out Unity of the Hills today. I’ve been SO excited to try out this church that sounded well rounded and used affirmations. I was VERY surprised and disappointed that the preacher never reference the bible or read from the bible. I would give this church 4 stars if they did.
The crowed is much older 45−65+, the church is somewhat dated but the preacher is very funny and keeps you engaged. Too bad they don’t read from the bible. Our search continues…

I attended Unity churches sporadically over my lifetime, but when I walked in here it felt like home right away. That was back in 2002 when I crossed the threshold for the first time. I’ve been a member at the church through a lot. Through upsetting the ministers, to those ministers leaving, to getting a new minister, and now to being a contract worker for the church. Not to mention that I was married there, and both my children were christened there.
This church is truly a place that love is building, and we do love everyone, even those that have left over the years for various reasons. The thing about this church that is really the same as every other church you may go to is that you will only get out of it what you put in. If you put in Love, which most do, then that’s what you’ll get. But if you put in judgment and a «Show me I’m wrong» attitude then it may not be for you. What I love about this church/​faith that others do not seem to exhibit is that you actually create your own destiny and you manifest your own reality. That is different from other churches I have been where God becomes either a benevolent master, dictating your life, or a absent parent figure that you keep wondering about.

After attending a nearby church sporadically for 5 years, something told me to turn into Unity one Sunday… and I’ve been hooked from that first visit.
The church leaders and parishioners are filled with such joy and authenticity, that I felt truly welcomed right away. Plus, I was fascinated to find that the church also serves as a community center… with constant classes & events. Some of these have to do with spirituality and some just with camaraderie, as they have everything from weight watchers, «coffeehouse» music night, yoga to toastmasters… there are definitely all kinds of ways to meet new friends and try new things.
I’ve been attending Unity Church of the Hills for 2 years now and am so grateful for the spiritual, intellectual, and emotional nourishing I’ve experienced while being a member. I highly encourage anyone to come to one of the 3 Sunday services or any of the many events you can find on the monthly calendar and give it a try! :-)

I’ve been attending Unity Church of The Hills for a couple years now. I would reccomend UCOH to anyone who is «seeking» a loving, inclusive enviroment to explore your spiritual self.
The childrens programs are incredible.
Music is awesome!
If your looking for a spiritual home check it out, see if it feels good.

I used to go to amazing Agape in Los Angeles, and Unity Church of the Hills is the closest thing I’ve found to it here in Austin — they even sing some of the songs from Agape. So you’ll hear some great music at the services, and there are lots of different «New Age» classes and events to attend. The people I’ve met here are also very nice. It’s not quite as energized as Agape (the congregation here is a little stiffer when it comes to the group singing, and people in the back need to loosen up a little more), but on the plus side, you don’t have the ridiculous Disneyland queues and parking issues that Agape had. Unity of the Hills is more intimate and yet can still generate some of that uplifting feeling you get when in a huge congregation.
If there’s one big downside for me — it’s what another reviewer here also expressed — it’s the overly simplistic, fundamentalist «Law of Attraction» philosophy that infects «New Thought» churches. I really don’t care to use my spiritual power and energy to «manifest» for myself a shiny luxury car. Hey folks, how about using that power to help others? And I’m sorry, while I think positive thinking can be very powerful, I just don’t believe that we create *everything* that happens in our lives.
That said, Unity as a denomination is actually better about this stuff than Religious Science denominations, who tend to totally throw Jesus and his «help others» message out the window for the most part, except for comparing him to Buddha occasionally. Unity finds more of a happy middle between the best of Christianity and New Age.
But still, much of the New Age Narcissism can be found here, such as that silly song «I love myself that much, that I can love you so much, that you can love you so much, that you can start loving me.» (facepalm)
It’s for these reasons that I just keep my toe dipped in Unity while I am spending more time exploring my «traditional» Christian roots (Episcopalian). There’s a lot of great stuff going on in Christianity with things like contemplative prayer that places like Unity aren’t really on the bandwagon about. And there’s a meat there that I just don’t get at the fluffy New Thought churches.
All that said, Unity still has a lot to offer, even if I don’t go to their services often. I check their events calendar frequently and have enjoyed great workshops there. I’m glad it’s here because I miss my Agape experience and it’s nice to have a close cousin available.

I’ve recently have found this Church and it’s a great place. You have all types of people, the culture is friendly, and I like area. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a place to worship and learn about spirituality.

UCOH is a community of vibrant, easy-​going, spiritually rich people.
Unity sheds most of the dogma found at other churches, such as: Jesus died for your sins; there is a physical place called heaven and hell; and there is a white bearded dude sitting on a cloud passing judgment on everyone.
Instead, Unity offers spiritually enriching beliefs such as: You are an expression of Christ Spirit and it is innately who and what you are … and heaven and hell is an experience of the here and now, so choose wisely.
Unity has some dogma that I find nonsense. While Unity encourages members to seek the help of modern medicine, they also believe that one can think and pray oneself into healing of the physical body. I find this rather strange since there are no statistics anywhere showing that people with those beliefs live any longer. In fact, teachers of these beliefs have died from all sorts of maladies. Of course, they will point to a person who had a miraculous recovery; but for every one of those, there are also many more people (even atheists) who were convinced that they were doomed to die from their illness but instead also experienced an unexplained recovery. It’s simply difficult to reconcile for a thinking person.
As well, for lack of a better term, Unity believes in a variation of the Napoleon Hill’s «Think-​and-​Grow-​Rich» mentality; that one can think and pray abundance into one’s life. Again, there are no statistics that show people with these beliefs are any more richer than anyone else. In fact, in their own experience, the church continues to struggle financially because of bad decisions by the board to expand the church in a way that wasn’t fully useful and practical.
With those teachings, there is an undercurrent of energy that says something must be wrong with you if you are struggling financially or not physically healthy. It’s fundamentalist dogma, just repackaged in a different way. Ultimately, those teachings create a lot of duality.
That all said, there are useful things to take away from those teachings. Certainly a positive attitude in how one approaches and interprets healing and abundance can be paramount to releasing pain associated with sickness and/​or the illusion of lack. Also, the many classes offered on the subject provides a pathway to moving forward instead of sitting on one’s duff and doing nothing. But, I find the whole notion of praying or «Master-​Minding» a Mercedes into your garage is silly nonsense.
While the basis of education offered in Sunday messages are derived from the teachings of Jesus, offerings from other spiritual masters as well as current contemporary teachers are also proffered. The messages are good, but can be repetitive and fluffy. For thinking people, it would be nice to have more ‘meat’ in the service.
The teachings have a lot of narcissistic focus. Social justice is rather an afterthought. They try to get people to hold hands and skip down the street together singing Kumbaya, which is great and all, but not the reality of the world we live in.
Unity is fully accepting and affirming of the LGBT community. LGBT people are perfect just the way they are and one doesn’t need to change anything. UCOH offers ‘Rainbow Ministry’ which is dedicated to the LGBT community and facilitated by LGBT members, but LGBT people are mostly just integrated into the culture of the rest of the church. There is an abundance of community acceptance and support. The current minister and board walk their talk on these issues.
Most of the music is amazing. The former minister recruited professional musicians. There are a few singing groups but the main group is called ‘Celebration’ — they are excellent. They serve up tunes that leave you breathless. For most, besides the vibrant community of people, the music team is the main draw and the reason many people return to UCOH. They are a ministry unto themselves.
Kids within Unity are taught that they are loved and fully affirmed as perfect expressions of Christ rather than other churches that teach children that they are doomed to hell unless they drink the kool-​aid.
We were members for over 10 years before leaving for a few different reasons. The church devolved into nepotism; most of the ministers and office staff are related to one another. As well, we found out that the process of gaining approval for church expansion from membership was not done with a high level of integrity, bordering on fraud.
The congregants of UCOH are amazing people. Unfortunately, elements of church leadership just do not match their high vibrational energy. Congregants who volunteer and/​or have a lot of contact with office staff tend to leave the church. While they are attracting new members, weekly attendance is not growing because there is a lot of turnover. Many former board members have also left the church, which is a huge red flag. They also censor posts on their Facebook Page, so apparently communism is alive and well in their office.

Two things right off the bat:
1) I am a member of this church.
2) I feel totally weird reviewing a church
So, my review is this: I agree with the messages and lessons at UCOH and they have a hearty youth program for the kiddos. What I *love*, though, is the music. Former pastors recruited professional singers and there’s just a big group of talented folks there. Technically, it’s contemporary but it seems more charismatic to me. I think it’s worth a visit for that alone.
Peace, Unilocal