Our Pastor

The Rev. Michael Cook began service as our part-time Interim Minister in October of 2025. In May of 2026, he was called to serve as our Transitional Minister, to serve as our pastor and to lead the congregation through an intentional, three- to four-year process of discernment of God's will for the future of our ministry. Pastor Cook was born in West Virginia, but grew up in the suburbs of Baltimore. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1980, and worked as a classical actor in theaters in New York and other cities until 1988, when he entered Union Theological Seminary in New York under the care of the Lutheran Church. He received his Masters of Divinity in 1992 at what is now United Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia. He served urban Lutheran churches in Boston for nine years, with ongoing specialized training in interim ministry, conflict resolution and community organizing. He left the ministry in 2001 for a time of reflection until 2005, when he was called to his family's home church, Philippi Christian Church in Deltaville, VA, and his ordination was officially received by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He returned to show business in 2011 under his stage name Alexander Cook, this time mainly working in films and television. He returned to interim ministry in 2017, enrolled in Claremont Seminary in California for a year of study, and has served two Disciples congregations since. He is delighted to serve Hillsville Christian Church, a joyful and deeply faithful community. He He is avid sailor, and is near completion of a three year boatbuilding project, a 27-foot modern replica of a Polynesian double canoe (catamaran), which he hopes to use in a retirment ministry on the waterways of the Chesapeake Bay.

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Let us encourage one another to good works and praise God together! Hallelujah!

(Hebrews 10, Psalm 34)