8) (The Rev. Tim Greco in his office at the Church on the Hill. Annie Chesnut The Church on the Hill, located in Cold Spring near the Nelsonville border and formerly known as the First Baptist Church of Cold Spring, has deep roots.

The building dates to 1833 but the church was chartered in 1797, when men of faith, with names like Josiah Mekeel and Ebenezer Cole, first hosted services at their homes. In recent years, the church fell on hard times, and American Baptist Churches USA nearly shut it down. That’s where the Rev. Tim Greco enters the story.

Greco grew up in Norwalk, Connecticut, one of five children in a Roman Catholic family.

“We were raised with a lot of religion,” he says, “but I don’t really think we had the answers we were looking for.” His first interest was the arts, and he studied theater at the University of Connecticut. But when Tim’s brother moved to Colorado Springs—which Tim says “is like the Vatican for Evangelicals”— he discovered a new kind of faith, one that Tim and his other siblings at first rejected. Eventually, though, “through his example and the way he lived his life, it spoke to us,” and all five of them embraced evangelical Christianity. Tim went to a Bible college in Springfield, Mo., and has been an ordained minister in the Assembly of God Church for 25 years.

The Church on the Hill at the top of Cold Spring’s Main Street. Catherine Garnsey He held pastoral positions in Connecticut and upstate New York, until he met and married his wife, Beth, who is an administrator at The Walter Hoving Home in Garrison. Beth and Tim now live in Garrison and Beth’s son Jason is in the 7th grade at the Garrison School.

Greco’s gifts are obvious. He has an enthusiasm for people, for history, for life, and for faith in God (“not religion,” he reminds us, but simple faith) in whatever form people can most easily embrace it.

“My forte is getting smaller churches healthy,” Greco says, adding that he had helped several other churches that were struggling, getting them to a point where they could afford to hire their own pastors again.

In a June 10, 2010, PCN&R article, “Will the Chimes Go Silent?” reporter Catherine Garnsey described how trustee Ray Champlin, of the Cold Spring Baptist Church, “wrote an impassioned letter to the PCN&R announcing that his church on Main Street in Nelsonville would have to be closed unless there were some new members or financial help coming from the community. Specifically, Champlin requested that people remember the Baptists in their prayers, and to consider joining them at their 10:30am Sunday services.”

In response to that one request, several donors stepped up, and Tim Greco, after reading the article, offered to do what he could to help revive the landmark church, not as an interim pastor, but in more of a mid-week consulting role. Eventually he was invited to take the Sunday commitment as well. And after praying on it with his wife, Tim agreed, even though it would eventually represent an economic challenge for his family.

Today, about six months after stepping in, Greco says that most Sundays there are 25 to 30 people on hand. While it is still a Baptist church, the congregation adopted the church’s nickname, “the Church on the Hill” instead of its previous, more formal name. One of the reasons was purely practical: Greco says that ever since the rise of the controversial Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas, some churches that formerly had “Baptist” in their names are changing titles in order to avoid being negatively associated with what is considered by most to be a radical splinter group “that really verges on a cult.”

While Greco says he is not there to change the church entirely, he is there to “update it, and make it more user-friendly.” In his view the changes he has made are part of an overall effort to “adapt to survive,” and former parishioners who might originally have objected to too much change now understand that only change will keep their church alive.

The biggest changes have probably come in the services, Greco says, “And you know, Baptists love tradition.” While the Sunday services offer a traditional hymn at the beginning and one at the end, the middle part of the service is looser and more inspired, with songs, choruses, and the congregation reacting to them as they feel moved. The church still offers communion once a month, and while Greco hasn’t yet used the baptismal tank that rests under the altar area, he will do so whenever the opportunity arises.

“The path goes up and down,” the pastor admitted, but in his view, the overall trend in membership and enthusiasm is upward. The majority of parishioners come from the Philipstown area, but there are also families from Fishkill and Wappingers Falls, Greco says.

“The younger people that are coming in love it,” he says. While the older people might be a little more hesitant, he says, they have understood that the only other alternative was to close, and that trying something new seems to be working.

Greco takes inspiration from pastors such as Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church in California, and author of The Purpose Driven Life. The ultimate message that he wants to share, Greco says, is one of love, a personal, and “come as you are” relationship to God and to church—“let’s let people have their faults and accept them,” he says.

“It’s a much more personal way of doing things …The way the [traditional] church is set up now, we judge a lot, and we say we don’t, but we do,” Greco adds. “Throughout the New Testament you’ll find one thing: Don’t judge.”

Working from that premise, Tim and Beth have begun a Rick Warren-based “Celebrate Recovery” ministry for people who are struggling with addictions or other life challenges. They had nine people at their first meeting.

Near the end of his conversation with the PCN&R, Greco talked about his commitment to Philipstown. His long-term goal, both for the church and for himself, he says, is to be an active, contributing part of this community. “That’s why I’m so involved with the Lions Club,” he says, adding that he “couldn’t find a better group of people” than the Cold Spring Lions, which he currently leads.

As if he didn’t have enough on his plate, Tim has also been involved in the planning of the June Philipstown Relay for Life fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. The kick-off meeting is scheduled for March 27 from 3pm to 5pm at The Chalet on the Hudson. As a cancer survivor, Greco has a personal investment in the success of this new event.

In the meantime, Greco says, he’s grateful that the church was able to make it through such a rough winter, meeting expenses and staying afloat. “We’re just trying to get the church back on the road to recovery,” he says, smiling.