PROFILE OF ROCKLAND COMMUNITY CHURCH

Rockland’s Vision statement is…to know and to encounter the love of Christ for the glory of God and the good of others.

Rockland’s Mission Statement:
To Proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ:
Through worship and praise within a community of faith
Through teaching
Through reaching out to others in word and deed
Through loving and supporting one another
Through bringing people to Jesus Christ as Savoir and Lord so that together we will grow in …the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit – 2 Corinthians 13:13


To Proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ:
Through worship and praise within a community of faith:
Rockland is located like a “city on a hill” on the Front Range of the Rockies in the scenic watershed of Mt. Vernon Creek which starts near an area where the city of Denver maintains a herd of buffalo and flows down the valley paralleling Interstate 70. Twenty miles west of Denver on the way into the high mountains, our sanctuary faces those mountains bringing constant strength to our resolve to live as a Christ-centered congregation in a challenging world. Our congregation comes from small communities nearby: Evergreen, Golden, Genesee, Lakewood, Wheatridge, Highlands Ranch, Idaho Springs, Dumont, as well as metropolitan Denver to the east and the rural mountain areas to the west.

Rockland has been serving Christ and the good people of Colorado since 1879 and is one of the oldest, still-active churches in Colorado. We are a congregation of 889 members, 455 non-member regular attendees, and 798 children and youth. Our average attendance at our Sunday morning Worship Services is 800. A majority of new members joining our congregation come from varied denominational backgrounds, bringing a rich and varied theological diversity, which we consider to be a strength.

Rockland has been described as a very friendly and caring church with all ages represented. Demographically there is a preponderance of families with young and older children but we also have many singles and seniors.


Our music is blended as we have a powerful traditional Chancel Choir, vocal and bells, barbershop quartet, and a once a month contemporary group of musicians and vocalists.
The Chancel Choir presents major programs twice a year – Christmas and Easter. We also have a youth choir, and several children’s choirs divided by age brackets. On Wednesday nights we have “Food, Fellowship, Family & Friends” potluck dinner prior to many of the choir rehearsals and adult studies.

We have recently completed our third and final expansion of our church building, a facility which will serve the needs of our congregation and the community for years to come and enable us to carry out an expanded mission for Rockland. Now we are concentrating , not so much on congregational numbers, but on the spiritual growth of each of our parishioners and expanding our mission and outreach to the world.


Through teaching:
There are numerous Bible Studies throughout the week and on Sunday morning led by both staff and lay leaders. We have classes on Exploring Christianity, C.S. Lewis
books, leadership classes – Jesus on Leadership, Becoming a Servant Leader, Growing as Disciples, Contemplative Prayer Workshop, and many others.

Our staff includes: Senior Pastor, Associate Pastor, part-time Pastor, Church Administrator, Caring Ministries & Discipleship Ministries, Congregation Ministries, Adult Choir Director, Organist/Pianist, Director of Children’s Ministry, Youth Ministry Support, Director of Children’s Music Ministry, Director of Youth Music Ministry, Sr. High Youth Director & Youth Worship leader, Middle School Youth Director, Office Manager, Financial Manager, Wedding Coordinator.

Our Youth program has been described by an expert in the field, that our program, numerically speaking, is in the top 99% of all church youth programs in the nation! What this means is that we have ample opportunities to minister the gospel of Jesus Christ to a great number of youth. Our Christian Education enables children and youth to know Christ personally and grow in the Christian faith. Our program is outstanding as it prepares the young ones to step up to the responsibilities of the older children. There are mission/outreach opportunities for all ages. Each year our Youth group participates in a mission project which has led them to working in the urban centers of major cities, Appalachia poverty areas, Indian reservation, and to Romania. Annually, the Middle School and High School Youth, spend months in preparation in order to be in charge of Youth Sunday in which the High School seniors give inspirational mini-sermons at each of the services.

We are the first church in the west to participate in the Fellows Program which hosts young people out of college to grow in Christ and to participate in the life of the church as mentors to our Youth.



Through reaching out to others in word and deed:
We have a widening mission outreach to our community, region, nation,
and world, including a relationship with our sister church in Tanzania and extensive mission work in both Romania and Russia. This year will be the third year of mission teams from our congregation traveling to Tanzania to help in construction. They have completed the church in Urusha, built a child-mother clinic, and this year, a girl’s school. Previously, teams traveled to Russia to help build an orphanage, and members have traveled to Romania to assist at-risk children and set up a Vacation Bible School. Locally, Rockland is very involved in a ministry to help the near homeless in the Denver area, set up a food bank, and a teen center in Idaho Springs, and assist local food bank and clothing center in Evergreen. We also support Campus Crusade for Christ, Youth for Christ, and our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan with letters and gifts.

With a congregational background we are governed by a Board of Elders with all our ministries (Worship, Youth/Children , Congregational Care, Discipleship, Outreach, Operations) led by Deacons; Standing Committees (Stewardship, Finance, Personnel, Leadership Recruitment) with many supportive committees, clerk and historian. We have an Annual Meeting in which these Elders and Deacons are elected, the financial status and “state of the church” is reported, the annual budget is approved, and any by-law changes are considered.

Through loving and supporting one another:
In reaching out to others, the congregational care groups demonstrate love and compassion through Stephen Ministers, Caring Calls, Caring Cards, Healing Prayer, Prayer Quilts, Daily Bread (distributing food to those in need) Grief Ministry and Caring Friends. Many people reach out regularly to others with whatever help is needed. This is a vital and indispensable part of our church’s caring community.

Because we are a mountain church, many of our congregation participate in the wide-range of outdoor activities available nearby – skiing, golf, biking, hiking and at the present time we have a group of women training for a fundraising triathlon. This year a number of our members participated in Run for the Cure. Rockland sponsors an annual 5K run around the hills near the church in order to raise funds for our Youth Program. The Youth also raise funds for their annual mission trip by selling Mother’s Day corsages and hosting a pancake breakfast and car wash over Memorial Day weekend.

We are a very active congregation with a sense of community within the church through creative social events that help people develop personal relationships with other members so that Christ’s love can be shared. We have several annual events: picnics, dinners, celebrations, and Young at Heart luncheons. There are a number of small groups with a variety of interests; supper clubs where couples meet (and rotate) monthly with dinner in their homes; book clubs; classes on marriage and parenting; Women’s Ministry; Men’s Fraternity.


Through bringing people to Jesus Christ as Savoir and Lord so that together we will grow in …the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit.
– 2 Corinthians 13:13:

Rockland is affiliated with the United Church of Christ and is a Christ-centered church that is catholic and evangelical in its faith and theology.

By catholic, we mean that we are a part of the church universal and that we affirm the ancient creeds of the church.

By evangelical, we mean we affirm the absolute centrality of Jesus Christ and his saving life, death and resurrection. We affirm the authority of Scripture, and that salvation by grace and by grace alone, which we receive through faith and repentance.

We also stand in the reformed and congregational tradition of the church, seeking to be a church of both Word and Spirit, a church that is centered in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

In terms of the broad theological spectrum, Rockland is somewhere in the middle. We hold strongly to the ancient principle: “In the essentials, unity; in the non-essentials, diversity; and in all things, charity.”