Emergence Articles

Emergence's First VBS: June 25-29!

Fri, 11 May 2012 02:25:00 GMT

We're pumped for Emergence's first Vacation Bible School! This year's theme is Sonrise National Park. It'll be a wild adventure with Jesus as the center of it all!

June 25 - 29
8:45am - 12:00pm
Eastern Christian Elementary School
Midland Park, NJ

Vacation Bible School registration is open from Sunday, May 13 to Sunday, May 27.
VBS is for children 4 years of age through students entering grade 5 in the fall.

You can register your children at our weekend gatherings or by clicking the link below (please note, you'll need to create an account with Fellowship One to register your children for VBS).

Registration may be limited and registrants will be accepted on a first come, first-serve basis. We're hopeful that we will be able to accommodate the children of Emergence, their friends, and children who you know and love that need to know Jesus!

As an added bonus, Eastern Christian is also opening up a session of Eagles Day Camp for the afternoons of VBS. This would allow your child to participate in VBS and attend camp after VBS until 5 pm. There is a cost for Eagles Day Camp, but not for VBS. We'll have more info about the camps soon and all of the registration info to get your kids signed up!

If you've got some free time that week, or can make some time, help is still needed for Vacation Bible School. To get more info, click the link below! Pray that God would send the people needed for the work!

Looking forward to June 25th! Sign up soon to reserve your spot!

College-ish is back! May 30-July 25

Wed, 02 May 2012 18:53:23 GMT

It's baaaaack... and so are you.

Welcome home from school--well... soon.

We're in a new location now, but excited to once again open the doors for 8 weeks of College-ish. If you have not been with us in past years, College-ish is a relaxed gathering of people who range in age from 18-24ish. We get together for 8 weeks in the summer to provide an opportunity for those who come out to connect to truth and to each other.

Each gathering lasts about an hour and a half. Sometimes we'll have some music. Somtimes we won't. Each time we'll have a time of teaching from folks like Ryan, Steve, Mike Reed or others. We'll also go out afterwards to a local restaurant to continue the relational connections outside of the building.

It's all pretty simple, but has been a valuable part of the Emergence community each summer. No RSVP needed. Just come on down, and bring whoever you want (so long as they're 18-24. no creepers!)

Here are the details:

College-ish: Galatians
May 30 - July 25 (no meeting July 4)
8:00pm - 9:30pm

at the Emergence Building
930 Riverview Dr. - Suite 500
Totowa, NJ

Experience Mission in Community with Emergence this Summer!

Tue, 01 May 2012 02:29:18 GMT

This Sunday, we're excited to present a few opportunities for everyone at Emergence to experience living on mission through short-term experiences this summer.

While the mission of God (reconciling the world to Himself through Jesus) is meant to be experienced every day, sometimes the routines and the environments we find ourselves in do not give us the space to see, experience, and participate in that mission easily or naturally. This is where short-term mission team experiences are so valuable.

This summer, we're hoping as many people as possible at Emergence take the opportunity to experience mission in some unique ways. These opportunities span two continents, multiple weeks, and are available to multiple generations of people.

Check out the opportunities available below:

Serve the City

Brussels, Belgium

June 28 - July 10

for High School Seniors and older

What is Serve the City?

Serve the City is a 10-day summer service project in the city of Brussels, in which both local and visiting volunteers seek to show God’s love in practical ways to people in need. This is done by partnering with local organizations that normally work with those in need, such as refugees, orphans, homeless, prostitutes, handicapped, elderly people, and the poor. It is also done by reaching out to others in surprising acts of kindness, and in raising the awareness of
needs in Brussels and beyond. Serve the City (STC) is a tangible demonstration of the gospel, so that before people in Brussels have heard the gospel, they will have seen, felt and tasted it--with an opportunity to be in relationship with those who can share the truth of Jesus as well.

Serve the City is organized by The Well: a missional, international church in Brussels. Many other local churches in Brussels are involved
in the project, and a number of US churches including Emergence have sent teams to participate. STC started in 2005 in Brussels and is now active in more than 80 cities around the world.

Why do we Serve the City?

“We know them by their needs… what if we knew them by name?”

Serve the City was born out of a desire to make the Gospel real to people in Europe who have prejudices and preconceptions against the
church as an institution, but are open to the compassion that God’s grace implants in the heart of humanity. Because of Europe’s
difficult history, “post-christian” Europeans are largely ambivalent to and dismissive of Christianity. Serve the City is an attempt to
demonstrate the gospel in order to break down relational barriers. We do this by inviting believers and non-believers alike to join together
in acts of compassion and service in order to touch the hearts of people, both the served and the serving.

In doing so we draw two segments of the population into relationship with the local christian community: the marginalized immigrant population (often Muslim) and young, educated, and unchurched Europeans living in Brussels. Often these relationships continue long
after the service projects have ended, providing significant opportunities for authentic life-on-life evangelism and discipleship.

How do we Serve the City?

On June 28th, we will fly to Brussels, Belgium. We’ll be staying with other visiting volunteer teams in a beautiful, old, christian-owned
rooming house. Each day we will travel by streetcar to STC headquarters in the Marolles district of the old city, where we’ll gather for devotions, a time of welcoming and celebration, and then disperse throughout the city to serve with the project of our choice.

Projects include: feeding the homeless community at train stations and parks, house painting, soccer camps, giving haircuts and beauty treatments to the elderly and poor, doing neighborhood clean-ups, and many others.

Then on Saturday, July 7th we’ll throw a huge block party at the Place du Jeu de Balle, a cobblestone square in heart of one of the most
historic, but poorest neighborhoods in Brussels. We’ll bless the community with tons of food, music and fun and get a chance to meet
lots and lots of people from the neighborhood.

Of course throughout the week we’ll also have plenty of opportunities to explore the city, worship at different churches, and spend an
afternoon with a local family. We’ll return home July 10. If time permits we will also travel to Rotterdam in the Netherlands to visit one of our supported Emergence missionary partners, Rogier Bos.

Serve the City Baltimore, Maryland

2 Trip Options:

July 3 - July 8

for High School students only

July 24 - July 29

for Adults and High School Students (Middle School students permitted if serving with parent(s))

Much like the opportunity listed above, STC Baltimore is a 6-day summer service project in the city of Baltimore, in which both local and visiting volunteers seek to show God’s love in practical ways to people in need. This is done by partnering with local organizations that normally work with those in need, such as refugees, orphans, homeless, prostitutes, handicapped, elderly people, and the poor. It is also done by reaching out to others in surprising acts of kindness, and in raising the awareness of
needs in Baltimore and beyond. Serve the City (STC) is a tangible demonstration of the gospel, so that before people in Baltimore have heard the Gospel, they will have seen, felt and tasted it--with an opportunity to be in relationship with those who can share the truth of Jesus as well.

Serve the City Baltimore is part of an 80-city wide international organization committed to providing opportunities for those who are outside of the Kingdom of God to walk and serve alongside those who know Jesus in the hopes that by serving shoulder-to-shoulder those outside the faith may see Jesus in the lives of those they work with.

We're heading to Baltimore during two different weeks in July.

The first week will be a trip for High School only. Led by Emergence's own High School leadership, this team will head to Baltimore to get a taste of the work and grow together in the Gospel.

The second week is for adults and high school students, with provision available for Middle School students, so long as they are serving with their parent(s). High School students can also choose to be a part of both trip weeks.

Accomodations for the trip will be in a hotel or mission center, and each day will include corporate gatherings with the teams as well as service projects and debriefing. You'll get to know other Emergence folks and people from all over as you join together in anticipation of what God might do each day.

These three great opportunities are designed to spark missional living and make a change in the world for Jesus--not just on the trip, but especially when those who venture out return!

If you're interested in these trips and would like more information, fill out the form below. You're not signing your life away! You're just gonna get the low-down.

If you're interested specifically in the Brussels trip, consider coming to an informational session this Sunday night, May 6, at 8pm--following the evening service at the Emergence building.

Fill out my online form.

Download Emergence Band's First EP Album!

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:40:08 GMT

We're thrilled to announce that for the first time, we're making an album of Emergence Band music available as a package.

The album is a 6-song package recorded live at this year's Good Friday services. Each of these songs were recorded in one take, with no overdubbing or additions during the mixing process. What came out is an offering to Jesus--a group of songs reflecting on the ultimate, completely sufficient work of Jesus on the cross.

We've made the album available in a number of different ways. Our hope is that it will be an encouragement to all of us as we pursue Jesus in our daily lives. As always, the work of Emergence is centered on the comunity God has grown and injected His life into in North Jersey. However, we also realize that He can use it beyond our walls, and we pray He will.

As such, we have developed an honor system to receive the album free of charge, as we never charge for the things we offer to the Emergence community.

If you are connected to Emergence or any other local church in North Jersey, or if you aren't connected at all to a church, you're welcome to it for free. Simply click the link below, fill in your email address, and it's all yours.

If you are from somewhere outside of North Jersey, we ain't checkin'. We'd simply ask that you consider investing in the work of the Gospel in North Jersey by downloading the album from iTunes (when it goes on sale later this weekend). None of this is for the money, so if you don't want to, then by all means, get it for free. If you want to help support the work, though, you have the opportunity.

You can get it all tonight. Enter your email address, and a link will be on it's way with all the files. The six tracks are:

What Wondrous Love Is This?

Jesus Paid It All

How He Loves

Death In His Grave

The Old Rugged Cross

and How Deep the Father's Love for Us

Praise be to Jesus for His work. May we somehow be a reflection of Him and bring Him glory.

Click here to get the album for free!

Check out the redesigned Digital Bulletin for the latest news and info!

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 01:25:15 GMT