Hessel Church

I visited Hessel Church this Sunday (July 24th) with my good friend, Rev. Dave Weidlich. Though Hessel Church is about 10 miles northwest of Petaluma (5060 Hessel Road), I made an exception to my usual practice of visiting only churches in Petaluma, since about 15-20% of it attending members come from Petaluma, and with an attending membership of near 1,000, that means about 150-200 members attend from Petaluma, which is larger than many Petaluma churches. (Most of their members come from nearby Rohnert Park, Sebastopol, and Santa Rosa.)

Though the nearby logo for Hessel Church states Sebastopol, California, it is actually about 5 miles south of Sebastopol in the middle of the country. Once you find Hessel, California, which is not a town or a township (a geographical location - a small community), you suddenlycome upon a complex of about 6 buildings that comprise the church, including a large sanctuary auditorium facility.

My overall impression is that Hessel Church is a thriving evangelical church. Almost everything conveys the impression of being well-run. The members especially impressed me. They spoke about the church as their church, and they were a vital part of it. They were very willing to take time to tell Dave and I all they could about their church, to answer any questions we had, and to do their best to make us feel welcome. Walking about the grounds, I noticed that the Sunday School rooms for children were well marked for age and grade so there would be no confusion, and they had facilities set up for services held in other languages, including Chinese. I very much enjoyed my visit there.

The members proudly told me about how their church began about a hundred years ago when a woman, concerned that there were no nearby churches, began a Sunday School for the nearby children, and the church grew from there. They are still affiliated with American Missionary Fellowship which began this work.