Goals and Priorities
We can never say it often enough. Our goals are to love our God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. These goals are high, some would say unattainable. However, as we strive for them, we find our lives enriched by them.
We reach for them through:
- Worship: We seek to connect our hearts to God’s through individual devotions, small group sharing, and public worship.
- Christian Formation: We try to model our lives after Jesus of Nazareth, cradle to grave. This includes Christian education learning centers (a.k.a. Sunday School), lived experiences from turtoring in our fellowship hall to mission trips abroad, small group studies, hosting theologians, and an action/reflection approach to life!
- Christian Outreach: We are a “hands on” and “empty our pockets” kind of church. “Hands on” means among other things: serving in a soup kitchen, welcoming those who are temporarily homeless to live in our church building, and working on a Habitat House. “Emptying our pockets” includes giving change for Souper Bowl Sunday, raising dollars to build a school room abroad, and providing four digit gifts to local not-for profits. Our financial goal is 25% of our current local expense for others.
- Congregational Life and Fellowship: Once described as a partying church, we follow Jesus who enjoyed good meals and good times with his friends – and made sure that everyone knew they were his friends. Among our favorite activities are retreats, small groups, music and drama events, and, yes, eating together!
Some of our specific priorities are:
- Doing justice: We are a part of the newly formed New Jersey Together at Montclair, a faith based community organization;
- Going green: We are trying to reduce our foot-prints on God’s good earth;
- Maintaining our buildings for use by the congregation and community (a.k.a. we have some major repair work to do).
- Being a source of beauty for life in Montclair (restoring our stained glass windows and rebuilding our antiphonal organ).
