24 Years After Starting The Remnant, Pastor Dennis & Jan Hill Ready to Retire

Ceremony Set for Feb. 7 as Kolbe & Rachel Hill Take Over Church Leadership

In 1994 Dennis and Jan Hill and their three children moved to La Grange.

He had accepted a job coaching at La Grange ISD and she was hired there as a teacher.

But in the summer of 1996 Dennis and Jan Hill began holding prayer services in their living room on Saturday nights and Wednesday night Bible studies.

“I’d come out of my room and there would be no space on the living room floor,” their daughter Rachel said. “It was an adventure.”

What started in their living room and later a rented spot in a strip center, has grown into The Remnant Church, a nondenominational church that has grown massively over the last 24 years.

Now 250 current church members worship in a sparkling new facility right next to the adjacent Remnant Academy where 130 kids ages six weeks to 10 years attend day-care and school.

On Feb. 7 at the 10 a.m. service, Dennis and Jan will officially retire from pastoring and pass the church leadership on to their son-in-law Kolbe and daughter Rachel, who have been on the church staff since 2005 and until Feb. 7 are the Associate Pastors.

“Everyone is welcome and invited to come and say thank you to them for 24 great years,” Kolbe said of the celebration on Feb. 7.

But Dennis and Jan aren’t leaving.

“We’ll be the best church members ever,” Jan said.

The legacy Dennis and Jan leave behind is quite remarkable.

After overfilling their living room 24 years ago, Dennis said he knew God was calling him to a different path after 21 years as a coach.

“God said La Grange is ready for a place like this and y’all need to do it. That was the Fall of 1996,” Dennis said.

Coach Hill was ordained as Pastor Dennis Hill in 1997. That same year, The Remnant Church was opened in the Riverside Shopping Center west of downtown La Grange – in a former bar.

“When I first walked in I was like, this is the place,” Dennis said.

There were 80 people at the first service.

Two years later, in 1999, they bought five acres of land on Cedar Creek Drive as well as the children’s church building, which was already on the property.

Dennis remembers the early days of the church, when they would walk around town carrying a big cross.

There was some resentment from people in the community to the opening of what was really La Grange’s first non-denominational church.

“That crushed me, the pushback from the community,” Dennis said. “But no work that starts with God is without difficulty.”

Jan left her teaching job in 2000 to work with the church.

The church continued to grow in people, faith and facilities.

In 2002 ground was broken for the new Remnant sanctuary.

In The Remnant’s seventh year, the church’s main sanctuary was completed on June 15, 2003.

The church was growing so much that in 2004 “we called Rachel and Kolbe and said we needed them,” Jan said.

At the time they were living in Houston where Rachel was attending the University of Houston and Kolbe was managing a Chick-Fil-A.

Kolbe had been one of those kids that had first become involved with the Remnant when services were in the Hill’s living room. He is a 2001 graduate of Texas Bible Institute & a 2002 graduate of the Leadership Training Course School of Ministry in Columbus. He also completed the Willmington School of the Bible through Liberty University.

Rachel is a 2001 graduate of Texas Bible Institute, and a 2006 graduate of the University of Houston with a bachelor of arts in dance theatre and a minor in music theory. She leads the Praise and Worship Team Ministry.

Kolbe and Rachel were married in May of 2003, and ordained by Pastor Irvin McCorkle in December of 2004. They have two daughters, Zoe and Gracie.

In 2007 the Remnant Academy opened with 12 students one Director and one teacher, but now serves about 130 children and provides employment for about 24 local people.

Jan Hill was the original director, and at the end of 2020 she turned the directorship over to Emily Gonzalez and Leticia Villalobos.

The growth of the church has continued – and it is still a family affair.

Ten members of the Hill family, spanning three generations, work at the church.

All three of Dennis and Jan’s kids and their spouses live in La Grange and are raising their families here.

Dennis said he’s not emotional about the upcoming retirement.

“You do the best you can with what God tells you to do,” Dennis said. “The Remnant’s best days are ahead. I’m not sad. These two will take this church to a level I couldn’t take it.”

Kolbe and Rachel, meanwhile, are excited about what the future holds for them and the church.

“We’ll take it one day at a time. Trust God and follow God,” Kolbe said.

Appropriately Kolbe is now preparing his first sermon series for after Dennis and Jan retire, and he’s calling it, “Into the Unknown.”