If you want to find out the history of this church from its early beginnings, you can click here to read an article that details the beautiful history from way back in the early 30's until 2006.

It was then, around that time, that Pastor Gary Hilgendorf and his wife Michelle, with their children, began serving in this beautiful community. 

If you know Pastor Gary you will soon find out that he is a man like not many others. His heart for God and others exudes out of this personality. His bubbly and lighthearted demeanor will endear you to him right away. His passion for caring for others, selfless attitude, tender compassion and generous spirit are only some of the many gifts God has gifted him with and that he has put under God's service. Anyone in the community that knows him will testify to that. It would be hard to find one person that would have something negative to say about him. And he used to be a car salesman!!! While serving as the lead pastor, he also had to be bi-vocational for a season. And he became a car salesman. But that only made things better. He can always tell you a story of how many of the people that have come to church were at one point his customers. And because of that he has been able to reach to so many. God helped him build a reputation that shone God's glory. At some point it was clear he needed to be full time, so the board and him got together, prayed and trusted God to meet all of their needs. Since then many things have happened. Gary served as the Senior Pastor at the little white church in the Vale from 2005-2016. He was the only full-time staff during all those years. Spider Lake Church enjoyed and was blessed with a great community of volunteers and they stayed busy. But it wasn't God's plan for SLC to remain "little". At the beginning of the year 2016 another church in the community was reaching a time of change, and their pastor was retiring and no one was going coming to take his place. So the board of that church prayed and felt guided to contact the SLC, specifically Pastor Gary. And after talking and praying, the board of that church believed God was guiding them to ask the SLC to take over their remaining congregation and with them would come the building and the property as well. WOW! So this presented both a blessing and a challenge. How would Pastor Gary care for and lead these recently added family members and what use could be given to this building? Pastor Gary already kept himself very busy with ministry. So the SLC church prayed and asked God for guidance. As they prayed, God orchestrated another out of this world event. While sharing what God was doing with a friend and supporter of the church, the issue of needing an associate pastor who could help lead a new generation of youth and also lead contemporary music came up. This friend of the church suggested someone he knew that he thought had the characteristics they were looking for. So, at that meeting, they made a phone call to David Teran, who, together with his family had been in ministry for many years. It was quite the miracle. David and his wife Leah had been praying about their direction after having spent a couple of years working in Houston, TX. They had moved there pursuing better job opportunities, but now they found themselves wondering if God would lead them back to Hayward, where Leah's family is from. 

The call could not have come at a better time. They had just been done surrendering their idea of coming back to Hayward and had laid it all before God and committed themselves to making it work in Houston until God would open the door. 

No sooner than that afternoon the call came, and the rest is history. They ended up moving to Hayward that summer, and they became a part of this wonderful family. They led a Saturday night service to meet the needs of the new family of believers, and also used that building to establish a youth ministry. 

Now the story doesn't end there. Around 2 1/2 years later another God moment happened. Another church in town was going through the same process, and they also felt in their hearts to reach out to SLC and Pastor Gary and asked to get together to pray about taking over that church family and adopting them into the SLC family. After praying, all partied felt it was the right thing to do so they also gifted the SLC with not only the family of believers,, but the building and property. Another WOW moment!

But with that came the need to meet the demands of what would be now 3 different and very diverse families. How to blend, work together, unite and fellowship altogether with 3 buildings, 3 different backgrounds and styles?

Well, it has not been easy, but God's grace and favor has been upon us as we seek to obey and surrender to His leading. 

Soon after that last event happened, God called another wonderful servant to join us as another full time staff. Pastor Mike Thompson came on to the scene in the same kind of divine appointment. His gifts and training, along side his passion for growth, discipleship and his many credentials and experience have been pivotal in furthering God's work both within the church and outside of the church. Pastor Mike has helped to birth new ministries, disciple leaders and provide training resources to the church and also different non-profits, other churches, government and private organizations, always leading with the heart and word of God. 

Pastor Mike's many qualifications and motivation have helped to open many doors for the church to come in and bring the hope of the gospel to places where many churches might not get to walk through. We are very blessed.

SLC, though small in numbers, has become a very strong presence in the community, addressing and meeting the needs of many in the area. From SLC many ministries have sprung forth, but not claiming to be SLC ministries, but networking with other area churches to bless, minister and love the needy and broken in this place. You can read about those ministries and efforts in our MINISTRIES page. 

But it is not only Pastor Gary, Pastor David and Pastor Mike who conform the leadership of the church. There are a few other pastors/ministers that daily and weekly lead and minister other believers as well as part time or in a volunteer capacity, giving out of their generous hearts. You can get to know all of the leadership of the church in our LEADERSHIP page. 

In there you will find out about who else preaches weekly, ministers to the little ones, the youth, the elderly, the sick, the addicted, the homeless, the single moms and dads, etc.

Our vision is three-fold. 

Every person a believer

Every believer a disciple

Every disciple a disciple maker.