Transformational Worship
Worship and adoration happen through Jesus Christ when we are in the presence of the Lord of the Universe. Transformation of our lives occurs as we hear and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, worship is the cardinal purpose and missional activity of the church and it must engage the mind and heart through the gospel.
We will seek to allow the Holy Spirit to create an atmosphere of corporate worship each week we gather—worship that is gospel-centered and therefore intelligible to any human being; a worship that is both thoughtfully and passionately provocative.

Kingdom Prayer
The pattern set for us in the Lord’s Prayer is an overriding passion and concern for God’s holiness, renown, will and kingdom. This overriding passion becomes the basis for and the end of all other corporate and personal petitions.

We will seek to allow prayer to permeate every corner of the church’s life—prayer that is oriented toward God’s Kingdom and toward the further restoration of lives for the Kingdom’s sake. We will seek out opportunities to pray for God’s Kingdom’s purposes to be accomplished in Pennington and Hopewell townships and the surrounding area. We will seek to create partnerships of prayer with like-minded congregations in this area, especially with respect to the planting of biblically sound, vital churches around college communities.Relational Evangelism As human beings we all wrestle with profound questions about life and its meaning. These questions are best addressed in the context of significant, personal relationships. We will seek to build relationships of substance with those in our community that currently do not know Jesus Christ. These relationships will be substantive in as much as they share and engage with one another at deep levels over questions and circumstances of life, its meaning and purpose. We will provide venues for building these relationships through the church. There are four people groups that we will intentionally focus our efforts upon. They are the college community—students and faculty, community and corporate leaders, the out of college twenty-somethings, and families.

Vibrant Community
In a time of shallowness, people who know Jesus Christ and believe the gospel have both the motivation and power to live authentic lives with one another. We are wired to live in relationships like this since we are created in the image of God. The Gospel restores the possibility for such relationships to be formed and grow for we are all equally fallen sinners and recipients of the Father’s grace and mercy in Jesus Christ.

We will seek to learn, share and mature together as a local body of Christ. Making principle use of the Scriptures, we will also draw from our tradition, using mostly the Heidelberg Catechism and Westminster Confession, and good books and curriculum, in our study, training and leadership development of those in the church. We will teach our children, youth, college and adults making full use of these various means. But maturing together is more than just learning together, it is also sharing our lives with one another. Through facilitated times of prayer, social events, small groups and informal get- togethers, we will seek to build relationships of authenticity with one another that rest assured in the gospel, that speak the gospel to one another every day. We will seek to facilitate the building of these kinds of relationships within the children, youth, college and adults, as well as across these various groups.

Missional Presence
The Gospel must always be proclaimed in word and through our lives in deeds to those around us. The Lord desires to extend the reign of Christ throughout the various aspects of community life: government, business, leisure and sports, the arts, education, and community services. The church exists for the community. Therefore, the mission of the church is the exaltation of Christ and the demonstration of the transforming power of the Gospel. This is done locally and around the world.

We will seek to minister to the spiritual, social, emotional and economic needs of our community. This will mean engaging in ministry with the poor, socially disenfranchised and emotionally hurting in our community. This will be accomplished through existing agencies where such ministry is being done effectively and through creating our own ministries. We will seek to do this through counseling opportunities in the work place, police and firefighters, the YMCA, sports associations, and the seniors’ retirement community.

We will seek to come alongside and assist those missionaries particularly engaging in church planting in other countries around the world. We will assist them through prayer, financial support and through short-term field visits from those in our congregation. We actively encourage the pursuit of vocational missions through the church. Church Multiplication
One of the most significant ways of advancing the Kingdom is through planting new churches in communities with a significant university or college presence.
We will seek in our immediate area to plant three other churches around the communities of Princeton University, Rutgers University, and Rider University. We will seek to build a network of EPC churches in New Jersey who are together committed to establishing new churches in various towns and cities across New Jersey—in particular targeting college and university settings. We will also seek to build an alliance across denominational boundaries with those who are committed to planting biblical sound, vital churches in New Jersey.

Cultural Bridging
The Gospel builds bridges across typical cultural divides as it speaks to the transformation of those cultures. We will seek to span the cultural divides in our area of economic status and ethnic origin. Our immediate area is composed mostly of middle to upper class, but it has to the south a large working class population. These two groups do not largely interact with one another. Another group that is often alienated for their ethnicity is the Hispanic community. We desire to identify and disciple Hispanic leadership to the end of better meeting the needs of this community. We also desire to plant a Hispanic congregation which will share a joint children’s and youth ministry with our church but will have a separate worship service—one church, two worship services. From this Hispanic community we desire to raise up church planters for other Hispanic communities that exist around college towns in New Jersey and enable them to pursue a similar model of ministry that we will establish here.

Leadership Development
Reach the leaders and you reach the community. Build leaders and you will help build the Kingdom. The method of discipleship that Jesus employed was one of investing himself in a handful of people.
We will seek to imitate this model of ministry and discipleship. We will seek to reach community leaders who will facilitate the spread of the Gospel in our immediate area and around our region. We will seek to build leaders in this church who desire to grow deeply in the love and knowledge of Jesus Christ, who want to see others mature in their faith, and have a profound desire to reach their neighbors and co-workers with the Gospel— and who are equipped and ready to do so in highly relational and culturally engaging ways.