Community Reformed Church of Whiting NJ is part of the Reformed Church of America, the oldest protestant church in America. The Reformed Church in America is a fellowship of congregations called by God and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be the very presence of Jesus Christ in the world.
In the small colonial town of New Amsterdam, on a Sunday in 1628, about fifty people gathered around a crude table in a mill loft. Their celebration of the Lord’s Supper marks the birthdate of the Reformed Church in America. The congregation they founded still continues today as the Collegiate Reformed Church in New York City, the oldest evangelical church in North America with a continuous ministry.
The Reformed branch of Protestantism is rooted in the Reformation of the 1500s. Its primary leader was John Calvin of Switzerland, whose reform movement spread to Scotland, where it became the Presbyterian Church, and the Netherlands, where it became the Dutch Reformed Church. For More information on Reformed Church of America, please visit www.rca.org/about/history
Our Theology
Reformed Christians sometimes say we're "Reformed and always reforming." This means we never stop asking whether we are being faithful to God's vision and reforming the church to follow God's will. We do this because we believe humans are broken and we know how easy it is for our sinful nature to corrupt God's church.
Scripture is the highest authority on our faith and its practice. Statements of belief called creeds and confessions also shape our faith and root us in Reformed theology. While people often associate Reformed tradition with Calvinism, there is more to our reformed beliefs than the five points of Calvinism you may have heard about. For more information on Reformed theology please visit www.rca.org/about/theology
Reformed Church Government
The Reformed Church in America (RCA) has a presbyterian government. Those who hold an ordained church office serve on governing bodies that oversee different levels of ministry within the denomination. But unlike in a political democracy, those in church office do not represent the will of the people; they represent the will of Christ. For more information of Reformed Church Government please visit www.rca.org/about/government/
Worship
Worship services in RCA churches are as diverse as the denomination itself. You’ll find some churches that follow a traditional liturgy. They use the same set of words and elements from week to week. Other churches follow a more contemporary format, ad libbing prayers and incorporating unusual elements. Many churches take a hybrid approach, adapting the traditional RCA liturgy for their context. (Liturgy refers to the way the parts of a worship service are ordered. It comes from a Greek word that means “work of the people,” because God’s people are the ones who do the worshiping!)
In the midst of such diversity, worship in the Reformed tradition has some recognizable patterns. After all, our denomination has deemed worship foundational enough to make the liturgy part of our Constitution. In other words, one of the things that sets Reformed churches apart is the particular pattern of worship that we follow. (The other parts of our Constitution are our doctrinal standards and Book of Church Order.)
Although the expressions of worship in Reformed churches vary wildly, we share a common understanding about the nature of worship. For more information on Reformed Church Worship please visit www.rca.org/about/worship
Vision
The RCA has a 15 year vision of Transformed and Transforming. For more information please visit www.rca.org/about/vision/
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