About Us

Who is First Reformed Church?

When visitors come to First Reformed Church for the first time, they often remark what a warm and heartfelt welcome they receive. Our congregation represents every age group and many different denominational backgrounds, and is involved with serving the community of Hawthorne. Despite being a local church, we have church members from all over Passaic and Bergen counties, and online worshippers from all over the country!

Our church began when eight women organized the “Hawthorne Mite Society” in 1873. The purpose of the “Hawthorne Mite Society” was to collect funds for local Christian work and to meet for spiritual help and comfort. Through donations from many different denominations, this society was able to build a Union Chapel at the current location of the First Reformed Church. Finally, society thought that the building and the people should belong to a denomination in order to continue their ministry.

In 1893, the Union Church of Hawthorne decided to transfer its property and funds over to the Reformed Church in America. Then in 1895, a group of twenty-four people became officially recognized as the First Reformed Church of Hawthorne. The church began to grow as the community of Hawthorne grew under the guidance of Rev. John S. Moore (Pastor from 1929-1962). The church was able to build and add Sunday School rooms and a large Fellowship Hall during this time. At this present time, the First Reformed Church is a very exciting place to be. Recently, we have seen wonderful growth and enthusiasm through our children and the Sunday School program. Talented musicians and vocalists also bring excitement by sharing their gifts in worship leadership.

Above all, we are keenly aware of and thankful for God’s grace and provision. For in 1873, a group of eight women sought to raise funds for Christian work and service and gathered together for spiritual help and comfort. More than a hundred years later, the people of First Reformed Church still gather to raise funds for Christian work and service and gather for spiritual help and comfort.

What We Believe

Along with most Christian churches, the RCA affirms three creeds that were written in the first few centuries after Jesus’s death: the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed.

Four statements of belief, known in the RCA as Standards of Unity, express what the Reformed Church believes: the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, the Canons of Dort, and the Confession of Belhar. In 1978, the RCA approved Our Song of Hope as a contemporary statement of faith.

To be clear, the Bible is the only rule of faith and practice in the RCA; the creeds and confessions simply explain the beliefs set forth in Scripture. Confessions do the following:

1. A confession declares that God is historical. The world (creation) is the theater of God’s action and God’s glory and the purpose of God’s action.

2. A confession declares that the church is gathered, not for its own purposes, but to be the manifestation of God’s healing, redeeming, repairing, and renewing of the world.

3. A confession professes to the world in word and deed that the church’s business is God’s business and that God’s business is the world.

4. A confession gives expression of faith, by and through the church, giving rise to action, mission, and an historical witness to the truth that God is living, active, expressive, and moving in events and time.