🎧 EPISODE 1 — FIRE IN THE BELLY
Some stories are carved in stone.
Others are written quietly—
in late-night conversations,
in creaking pews,
in small sanctuaries where the carpet is old
but the grace is new every morning.
Oak Hill tells the story of a young man named Chase Smith, wandering through the ashes of a broken plan in the early 1990s.
Fresh out of college, broke, disillusioned, and feeling abandoned by his own calling, Chase stumbles into Oak Hill Community Church—a tiny A-frame tucked into the quiet town of Redwood Glen.
There he meets Pastor Reed Halvorsen, a man whose creativity is disarming,
whose compassion is disarming,
and whose wisdom carries the warmth of someone who has walked with God long enough to know His rhythms.
Where Chase sees failure,
Reed sees fire.
Where Chase sees confusion,
Reed sees calling.
Where Chase sees an old church with fading carpet,
Reed sees a place where God still writes stories.
What follows is a deeply human journey of mentorship, spiritual formation, conflict, heartbreak, and grace—told through the intimate, memory-soaked lens of small-church life.
If you’ve ever wrestled with purpose…
ever longed for a mentor…
ever lost your way and hoped God hadn’t forgotten you…
Welcome to Oak Hill.
There’s a place for you here.
Before calling becomes clarity,
it almost always becomes crisis.
Episode 1 opens with Chase Smith at his lowest—
college behind him, a recession ahead of him,
and a fast-food apron wrapped around dreams
that once felt holy.
His home life is fractured.
His confidence is fading.
And the God who once spoke so clearly
now feels painfully silent.
But every silence hides an invitation.
When Chase agrees, almost reluctantly, to interview at a tiny church he’s never heard of—Oak Hill Community Church—he expects a polite conversation and a closed door.
Instead, he meets Pastor Reed Halvorsen, a man whose loosened tie and warm eyes carry a rare mixture of strength and gentleness.
A man who listens deeply.
A man who sees potential before performance.
A man who speaks a single word that Chase hasn’t heard in years:
“Fire.”
In the dim sanctuary beneath wooden beams and dust-covered hymnals, something stirs.
Not certainty.
Not confidence.
But the faint, unmistakable spark of calling rediscovered.
Before Chase walks out the church doors, he’ll receive an offer he never expected—
and a glimpse of the life God has been quietly preparing him for all along.
This is the beginning.
This is the spark.
This is Oak Hill.
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