Welcome to Riverside!

In March 2017, my husband, daughter and I moved from a little rural town in Ohio to Riverside, NJ. After serving a rural church where we were living, legitimately in a corn field and next-door to horses, moving to a downtown with a pizza shop across the street was a bit of an adjustment. But what we found was a community that was on the verge of something great. Not just the First Moravian Church, but the whole town is sitting at a place where it's waiting for a new start. Town revitalization! New businesses moving in! Energy and enthusiasm to discover what was next.

The church, positioned at the corner of Washington and Bridgeboro, was no different. We found a church that was ready to be led into the next age and that was ready to discern it's call from God. You could feel the energy when you walked in--a loving group of people who were ready to try what was needed to spread God's message of love out from their walls into the community... but, where do we start? That's always the biggest question that faithful disciples have asked and wondered for years. Though we hear of prophets who have willingly said "Here am I, send me!" and we want to follow that as well. But so often after we hear the call to serve, we then stand there and say, "Ok, now what?"

Well, we are standing in a "now what" moment. The First Moravian Church has begin to engage in a process through the Moravian Church called AID--Assessment, Inquiry, and Development--Program. It's a way of discerning what God is calling us to for the next chapter.

From Genesis, Isaiah, the Gospel accounts, all the way into Revelation, the promise from God is to continue making things new. The act of Creation wasn't done in simply 7 days, but is happening constantly. We are called to constant re-creation of ourselves through listening for God's calling to us and what God is asking of us. I invite you to join us for worship where you will find a community full of love, joy, acceptance, and genuine hearts. Join us as we discover what God is calling us to for the next piece of Creation.