About Us
Our History
Our History
Our roots trace back to the 1930s, when a businessman named Tom Allen started a youth outreach in a vacant chapel on Jacksonville Road in Lincoln Park, New Jersey. This growing movement was soon incorporated as Jacksonville Chapel, a church that built on its youth ministry to begin serving all generations. In a culture where people were increasingly left cold by the formality of traditional religion, Jacksonville Chapel became known as a different kind of church—one that embraced historic Christianity in a way that people could grasp and live out in practical ways.
More than 80 years later, The Chapel has never lost its emphasis on serving the next generation and approaching faith in practical ways. But we have now grown into a thriving church community that meets in Lincoln Park, Wayne, and Online. We are grateful for our rich history and confident that our best days are ahead.
Our Mission
Building a family of Christ-followers who love God, love people and serve the world.
Our mission flows from two of Jesus’ most foundational teachings, known as “The Great Commission” and “The Great Commandment.” In the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20), Jesus commissioned his followers to go and make disciples—in other words, to be so committed to the flourishing of other people that we actively help them to follow and serve Jesus. And in the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-40), Jesus stated that our most important ethical responsibility is the scriptural call to love God and love our neighbor.
We are passionate about our mission, which guides our church in two distinct ways:
- First, it expresses our METHOD: we build a family of Christ-followers by creating environments where people love God (worship), love people (fellowship) and serve the world (service).
- Second, it expresses our MEASURE: we are becoming a family of Christ-followers when our lives increasingly reflect a love for God, a love for people, and actions that serve the world.
Our Values
GRACE. In a word, grace means “gift.” This is a massively important concept to us because we believe all good things in life—from the simple provision of daily bread to the breathtaking privilege of a relationship with our Creator—are generous gifts from God himself (Ephesians 2:8-9). Far from a dry, theological concept, grace is a way of looking at the world that creates humility, gratitude, and spiritual well-being.
Grace is so central to us that the rest of our values spell G-R-A-C-E.
GGrowing Disciples Intentionally. Our ministries are designed to help people become more like Jesus.
RReaching Neighbors and Nations. There is both a local and global reach to our mission.
AAuthenticity. We are honest about our imperfections and our constant need for God’s grace.
CCommitment to Future Generations. We’re passionate about investing in, listening to, and empowering the next generation.
EExpository Teaching. We allow the content of the Bible to drive our message.
Our Beliefs
the bible
We believe in the verbal inspiration of all the Scriptures of both the Old and New Testaments and that they are the final authority in faith and life.
god
We believe in one God eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
deity of jesus christ
We believe in the virgin birth of Christ, and that He is true God and true Man.
the atonement
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins, and that with His shed blood He obtained for us an eternal redemption.
the resurrection
We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord, in His ascension into heaven, and in His present life there as our high priest and advocate.
condition of mankind
We believe in the total depravity of all mankind, and in the necessity of regeneration.
salvation
We believe that salvation is the free gift of God, entirely apart from works, and is possessed permanently by all who have by faith received the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior.
the holy spirit
We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person and that He indwells all believers. We believe that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the sovereign work of God that occurs at the moment of conversion, whereby the Holy Spirit places the believer in the Body of Christ.
christ's return
We believe in the personal, imminent return of our Lord Jesus Christ.
judgment
We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust, the everlasting blessedness of the saved, and the everlasting punishment of the lost.