Billings First Congregational United Church of Christ

Billings First Congregational Church

AN INCLUSIVE AND PROPHETIC Downtown cHURCH Where All Are Welcome.

Built in 1882, Billings First Congregational Church (BFCC) is deeply woven into the fabric and history of Billings, Montana. BFCC is a courageous congregation and community with a vision for a just world for all and a mission to reconcile our past, serving others in our community and around the world through positive social action, justice, and love of neighbor, children and creation.

wORSHIP

SUNDAYS AT 10:30 A.M.

IN-PERSON & ONLINE

not sure where to park? CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO.

WHAT TO EXPECT...

You can expect to find authentic people, made in original blessing, beautiful, colorful, diverse and fabulous. You can expect to find a place where creativity and fellowship come together to worship Creator in new and exciting ways. You can expect to be encouraged, challenged, cared for, and, most importantly, welcomed.

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I'm New

Thinking about membership in our diverse and loving church? Wanting to know more about our denomination, the United Church of Christ?

Join us on an exploration of our church and denomination!

Users

Groups

Billings First Church is pleased to offer groups, classes, and events to help us keep growing in Biblical/theological literacy, cultural literacy, spiritual literacy, and spiritual practice.

Heart

COmmunity

Be part of this local church’s common life in all of its diversity. Give your time and talent to our new and ongoing outreach projects, community dinners, clothing drives, service work, special events, decorating, and more!

Hands

Give

Our ministries are many, too many to name here, but know that when you support our church, you create a more just and equitable world with us through an ongoing act of generosity and solidarity with God’s plan for peace and wholeness.

Our Church Partners

A Commuinity that is interconnected and woven together.

Our partnerships with different organizations are united together through the love we share for our sacred community. We are invested, involved and connected in these relationships for the long run, learning from one another and ministering to one another.

View all of Billings First Church's Campus Partners

Campus Partners.

Billings First Congregational CHurch Resiliency Project

nATIONAL fUND fOR sACRED PLACES & nATIONAL tRUST FOR hISTORICAL pRESERVATION

The Resiliency Project will renovate our historic church and help us live out the values in the Sermon on the Mount. It will add capacity for the transformative and life-saving work that happens here on our campus.

We provide shelter for the homeless and office space for diverse justice-seeking, groups and activities.

It will add resilience and sustainability to our collaborative work with Indigenous and LGBTQ constituents and other partners.

We urgently need sprinklers to meet fire codes and protect those sheltering and working in our church; a new HVAC system for our sanctuary, gathering spaces, and offices to replace our unreliable and expensive one; and a lift for ADA access to the top level. We have a deep history of working for social justice, epitomized by our role in the ‘Not in Our Town’ fight against hate in 1992, which became a national movement.

We are ready to raise funds and make these changes as a result of years of discerning, planning, growing, and honoring our church’s bold past and bright future. Our passion to serve our campus and community requires repair and renovation made possible by this project, our capital campaign, technical assistance from the Fund and other sources.

Our church has been an integral part of this community for 140 years, in acts and works of radical service, hospitality and justice.

We are that sacred space and community, whose care and love, for neighbor and stranger, for the downcast and the oppressed, and for the wholeness of community, is without boundary.

We've wanted to be a place of such healing and transformation that people would be drawn to our city because a church and place like ours exists within it.

We've also worked really hard on being healthy. We've flattened out our leadership models, such that they are not vertical, but horizontal.

We've inserted ourselves in critical community conversations, not as a one off, but as committed partners in the hard, sometimes long, journey toward solutions.

We've made a name for ourselves, not in the masses of money we've stored up or how shiny we are, but in the way we speak and act and serve.

We've built, in marketing terms, a solid brand in our community and region. And, there are folks who, while are not members of the church, want to see the church flourish and sustain.

In a harsh world, it can seem like there is little justice or joy,; our church is a place of justice and joy. And we need that. Our community and world need it. Here, in Billings, our Indigenous siblings need that. And together, with the National Fund for Sacred Spaces, we can make that a reality for a long time to come.

Make a donation

Click here to learn more about the Billings First Congregational Church Resiliency Project.

Volunteer & Serve

1 Peter 4:10 "Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms." As a church, we aim to love those in our community, and we do so by serving others. Join us and help us change the world. Be part of this local church’s common life in all of its diversity. Give your time and talent to our new and ongoing outreach projects, community dinners, clothes drives, service work, special events, decorating, and more!

Growth Groups

ongoing and seasonal offerings

Billings First Church is pleased to offer groups, classes, and events to help us keep growing in Biblical/theological literacy, cultural literacy, spiritual literacy, and spiritual practice.

Meet Rev. LIsa k. harmon

Sr. Pastor of Billings First Church

It’s a call. It’s a practice. It’s remembering who we are in soulful, joyful belonging.

I am called as Minister of Healing and Transformation of beloved community.

A 500-hour certified, trauma-informed yoga instructor, I teach 2-3 classes a week. I teach at the Montana Women’s Prison, having started a program there, at Passages, a pre-release center, at Billings First Congregational Church (weekly class), and am a substitute at a private studio.

In my years of community work, I knew that God’s spirit was working in me; I knew that God was in our midst in the beloved and broken community that I was called to serve.