Our staff represents a vibrant community of people who have been transformed by Jesus to love and serve the church by inspiring and equipping every member to live a life of full devotion to Christ.
Our Lead Pastor is Jay Thomas, who has served CHBC since 2011. He earned a B.A. from Wheaton College, and an M.Div. and Th.M. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Pastor Jay is passionate about expository preaching and gospel-centered theology. He is a co-author of “Sex, Dating, and Relationships” and “1 Corinthians: A 12 Week Study” in Crossway’s Knowing the Bible series. He is married to Rebecca, and they have four teenage children.
CHBC started in 1970, originally meeting in a lecture hall on campus at UNC. We have grown over the past 50 years to be a church that averages 1,000+ on Sunday mornings with an 80,000 sq. ft. building, which resides on 30 acres of land. We are a church that is multi-ethnic, with many nations and languages represented: China, Taiwan, Mexico, Columbia, England, Russia, Japan, South Korea, and several nations from Africa, to name a few. Community is a high value at CHBC, as we have 50+ small groups and several adult communities. We are also multi-generational, with vibrant kids, youth, college, and adult ministries. While our congregation comes from six different counties in total, most of our church lives in Chapel Hill or its neighboring city, Durham.
Sunday morning worship at CHBC aims to be transcendent, yet modern. We seek to bring the rich history of theology, hymns, and liturgy before our church in a style that is fitting for today. Our discipleship strategy pushes our members out of their comfort zones so that we as a church can be refined and conformed to the image of Christ, applying the gospel in all of life. Our vision to see people come to faith in Christ stems from a vision of gospel-driven cultural renewal, and finds its expression in personal evangelism, global missions, faith and work integration, and church planting.
The culture of the staff, a team of almost 20+ people, is one of the best aspects of working at CHBC. We are a relational team who strives for excellence, creating a fun and exciting atmosphere. You can often find staff members talking shop while preparing a pour over coffee. We desire to fulfill our roles with dignity while not taking ourselves too seriously. We work hard to eliminate silos. Professional and ministerial development is a priority, as we have yearly off-sites and attend conferences. Yet, despite the ambition we have as a team, work-life harmony is very important to us.
Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh together comprise the region famously referred to as the Research Triangle. The Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the hub of the area, and is home to many tech companies such as IBM, Cisco, and GlaxoSmithKline. During the 2010’s, Raleigh was a top-ten fastest growing city in the country. The foundation of the Triangle are the large universities UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, and NC State University. The Encyclopedia Britannica considers the Duke-UNC basketball rivalry as the number five sports rivalry of all time.
The campus of UNC gives downtown Chapel Hill the prototypical “university town” feel. College students are abuzz when school is in session, and alums descend upon the town on game day.
The city of Durham abounds with culture, entertainment, and entrepreneurship. Downtown Durham is the home of the Durham Bulls (Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays), as well as the Durham Performing Arts Center. There are numerous independent restaurants and coffee shops, leading Southern Living to declare Durham “The South’s Tastiest Town”.
Both Chapel Hill and Durham have been considered top-25 cities in the U.S. to live in.