At All Souls, our desire is to be a church that consistently speaks and lives a message of grace. But as a people who freely admit we are broken, we know we will struggle to do so. What gives us hope, however, that we can be a different kind of church, is not that we don’t struggle, but that we worship a God who provides for struggling people. You see, ours is the God who promises to bring order to messed up lives, mend wounded hearts, and bring healing to broken relationships.
Therefore we are encouraged by what we know of Jesus to be a church that is transparent in our weaknesses and honest about the difficulties of life, so that together we can experience more and more of this life as it was created to be enjoyed. Because it’s THIS life, after all, that we all share. And it is THIS life, that Jesus is all about fixing.
So who are we?
In Fall of 2008, Grace Redeemer Church in Teaneck, NJ (www.graceredeemer.com) commissioned a small group of us who were living in the Rockland area, but worshipping at Grace Redeemer, to begin praying about a new church in Rockland, for Rockland. Early on, we were known simply as The Nanuet Project, but when we finally began meeting for what we called “preview” worship (just our way of saying we had not yet found our groove) in March of 2009, we felt it was time to pick a church name that captured who we are, and we have been All Souls Community Church ever since.
the gospel
We believe that the world is fundamentally broken, and no matter how hard we try, we cannot fix this brokenness ourselves. The good news, however, is that heaven came to earth in the Person of Jesus Christ to fix all that was and is broken in our world, and to offer as a free gift to all, life as it was meant to be… “life to the fullest” (John 10:10).
the church
We believe “church” is not where we go on Sunday mornings, but who we are everyday of the week. As the church, we are fundamentally designed to live in real relationships with God and with each other, where we actually experience the irony of the gospel–that the one who gives his or her life away for the sake of others, is the one who will actually find real life (Matthew 16:24-45). Therefore, we are a church that values and pursues deep, trusting, peaceful relationships that function to help each other grow more like Christ in our lives (Ephesians 4:15-16).
the community
We believe that the gospel changes people. We believe that changed people, living with gospel priorities and goals, transform their communities and the world. Therefore, we are a church that seeks to be neighbors in every sense of the word: truly hospitable (Romans 12:13), caring for those in need (Luke 10:25-37), eager to see God’s blessing through Jesus spread to every nation (Isaiah 49:6).
To know Christ, and share His gospel peace with Nanuet, Rockland, and the world.
