On a tree-lined block of High Street in Newton, New Jersey, the white clapboard walls of First Presbyterian Church have stood since 1786, two years before the Constitution was ratified in Philadelphia and a hundred and seventy years before Sussex County became a place where the church's bell choir would carry hymn tunes across its sanctuary. The congregation describes itself as an "openhearted family of faith," and that phrase, more than any slogan or doctrinal tagline, captures what the church has been up to for nearly two and a half centuries: staying rooted in the Reformed Presbyterian tradition while remaining stubbornly curious about who walks through the doors and what God is doing in their lives.
The current pastor, the Rev. Michael J. Cuppett, was installed as the eighteenth called pastor of the congregation in January 2025. He arrived with a background in clinical chaplaincy and church operations, a Master of Divinity and a Master of Arts in Christian Education and Formation from Princeton Theological Seminary, and a habit of reading biblical stories slowly, on the lookout for characters who get ignored. The sermons posted online are the kind that quote Wil Gafney, Stanley Milgram, Cotton Mather, Martin Luther King Jr., Mary Oliver, the Confession of Belhar, the Barmen Declaration, and the Wizard of Oz in the same breath, and they trace a clear theological center: the God of Jesus Christ is a God of openheartedness, welcome, and justice, and the church is called to be both a worshiping community and a working one.
Sunday Morning at the Sanctuary
The week pivots around the 10:00 AM Service for the Lord's Day in the sanctuary. The service includes a full liturgy of singing, preaching, and the Sacraments, with Communion celebrated on a regular rhythm. Visitors who arrive a few minutes early will likely be greeted by a handful of greeters, the murmur of bell choir warmups from the rear of the room, and the smell of coffee drifting in from the fellowship area. There is no formal dress code; people come as they are, and the same pastor who preaches about the humility of a stinky, dusty Jesus will be the first to insist that visitors should feel free to wear whatever they walked in wearing.
Children are very much part of the Sunday rhythm. Nursery care is provided for infants and toddlers, and there are activities and learning woven into the worship hour for older children. The bell choir rehearses in the same sanctuary on Thursday evenings and often rings for worship on Sundays, so the building becomes a place where children's laughter, bell chimes, and the same Reformed liturgy pass through the same walls.
The service is also available to anyone who cannot be in the room. Recordings of the most recent Sunday service are posted to the church's YouTube channel, and the bulletins for each week are published online so that listeners can follow along with the prayers, scripture readings, and hymns in real time.
The Bell Choir and a Living Music Program
Music is one of the ways the congregation marks time at FPCN. The Handbell Choir, directed by Mindy Kline, rehearses every Thursday from 7:00 to 8:00 PM in the sanctuary and rings for worship on Sundays. New ringers are warmly welcomed. The handbell tradition pairs naturally with the congregation's broader music program, which is open to all ages and includes both vocal and instrumental ensembles. Ann Socha serves as the church's accompanist, working with the choirs, soloists, and instrumentalists who give shape to the music each week.
The musical life of the church is also a teaching ministry. Music education is one of the ways members can deepen their craft: handbells, chimes, and vocal music are all available regardless of prior experience, and ensembles are generally open to all ages. For a small-town congregation, the willingness to take a beginner seriously at the bell table says something about the wider culture of the place.
Faith Formation for Every Age
Sunday morning is not the only hour that matters. At 9:00 AM, an hour before worship begins, the congregation gathers for Adult, Children and Youth Faith Formation Classes. Children move into multi-age classrooms where they explore God's love, the sacred stories of the Christian faith, and what it means to live as disciples of Jesus Christ in the world. Adults and youth meet together with Pastor Michael for a class that is intentionally inclusive of all ages and is shaped around the lectionary, the church year, and the questions that come up in everyday life.
On Sunday evenings during certain program seasons, the church hosts Gather and Grow, a seven-week series that combines adult education with a youth group meeting in the Fellowship Hall. Recent seasons have worked through Walter Brueggemann's Journey to the Common Good together, putting adults and teenagers around the same table to wrestle with what discipleship looks like in their own neighborhood.
Pastoral care for children, youth, and adults is taken seriously as a ministry of presence rather than a referral service. The congregation's leadership describes spiritual care as a willingness to sit with big questions about meaning, purpose, suffering, who God is or isn't, and what it means to be human, and the leadership team includes people who can walk with families through grief and the particular spiritual needs of children and adolescents.
Wired Word, Vespers, and a Summer at Swartswood
For a small congregation, FPCN runs an unusually rich weekday rhythm. On Monday mornings at 10:00, the Wired Word Bible study gathers online via Google Meet to discuss current events and their connection to scripture. The format is conversational and intentionally rooted in the news of the week, so that members can practice reading the Bible as a living text rather than a museum piece.
On Wednesday evenings at 8:00 PM, the church gathers for Vespers, a short online service centered on scripture, prayer, and discussion. Vespers runs about thirty minutes and is held entirely online, so participants can join from a kitchen table or a hospital waiting room. The same weeknight pattern shows up across the calendar: Bell Choir on Thursday at 7:00 PM, Hearts and Hands Crafting Group on Friday afternoon, and a wide mix of one-off and seasonal events in between.
During the summer months, the congregation takes its midweek worship outdoors. The Summer Worship Series meets on Thursday evenings at 7:00 PM at the pavilion of Swartswood State Park. The service is contemplative, centered on scripture and the Sacrament of Holy Communion, and the setting on the edge of the lake gives the gathering an unhurried quality that fits the season. Members have described these services as a time to step out of the busy-ness of the year and into a quieter kind of attention to God, with the sacrament shared together as the sun goes down.
Hearts and Hands and the Readers INK Book Club
Not everything at FPCN is built around a sermon. On Friday afternoons from 1:00 to 3:00 PM, the Hearts and Hands Crafting Group gathers for fellowship, conversation, and creativity. Quilters, knitters, jewelry makers, artists, and the occasional complete beginner sit around tables working on whatever project they have brought with them. Hearts and Hands also runs a couple of sales a year, including a fall craft sale, and the group's presence is woven into the life of the building in ways that are less about product and more about presence.
On the third Tuesday of each month at 1:30 PM, Readers INK Book Club gathers to discuss that month's selection. The book club is open and easy to join, and the conversations tend to wander in the way good reading groups do, from the text at hand into the wider questions of life and faith.
Two other recurring rhythms fill out the week. On the second Thursday of each month at 10:00 AM, members and friends of the congregation prepare and cook the meal served that day by Manna House, the local soup kitchen that operates out of FPCN's Fellowship Hall. On a fourth Tuesday evening each month, Jubilee Women meets for an hour and a half of study, prayer, and fellowship.
Feeding Sussex County: Manna House and Bread of Life
FPCN's commitment to the wider community shows up most concretely at the tables inside its own Fellowship Hall. Through Manna House and Bread of Life Newton, the congregation hosts free, hot meals six days a week for anyone who walks through the door. No documentation, ID, or questions are required; the only requirement is to come hungry and leave satisfied. The meals are described as an offering from "loving people of faith throughout Sussex County." That phrase, more than any theological formulation, captures what it is like to eat lunch at Manna House on a Wednesday afternoon.
The meals are also a place of partnership. FPCN houses three partners in mission on its grounds: Literacy New Jersey of Sussex County, which supports adult literacy and English-language learning; Family Promise of Sussex County, which works with families experiencing housing insecurity; and Manna House itself. The church is a hub where neighbors help neighbors, and where the building is meant to be shared rather than walled off.
Beyond the building, FPCN has made its facilities available to other nonprofits at low or no cost. Nonprofits can use the chapel, sanctuary, parlor, fellowship hall, kitchen, gymnasium, multipurpose rooms, or study rooms for meetings, programs, and events. The church treats this as part of how it lives out its calling to build community and seek connections between organizations and neighbors, and the same buildings that hold Sunday worship also hold recovery meetings, literacy tutoring, and community meals throughout the week.
The Pastor's Calling
Michael Cuppett was called as the eighteenth installed pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Newton in January 2025. He is a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and came to Newton with a background in clinical chaplaincy and church operations, as well as an undergraduate degree in music pedagogy. He completed both a Master of Divinity and a Master of Arts in Christian Education and Formation at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he was awarded a Fellowship in History and Ecumenics for research on women within Christian extremism.
The early sermons give a clear sense of the pulpit's voice. The preaching reads biblical texts closely and refuses to tidy them up. On the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15, the sermon names her as an indigenous mother whose cries break through the noise of "nationalistic and ethnic hegemony." On the midwives Shiphrah and Puah, the sermon asks whether they might have been Egyptians rather than Hebrews, and reads their disobedience to Pharaoh as a holy act of faithfulness to God. On the parable of the yeast, the sermon lifts up "woman's work," the domestic, invisible, and unglamorous labor by which the kingdom of heaven is brought about. On the Beatitudes, Jesus is described not as a "law and order" figure but as a shalom figure, and the Roman peace of his day is set alongside the false peace of segregation in 1956 Alabama.
The sermons draw on a wide range of references: biblical commentaries from Working Preacher; the Yale Reflections essay on violence and scripture; the work of biblical scholar Knut Holter on the Canaanites; the Stanley Milgram obedience studies at Harvard; V (formerly Eve Ensler) on truth-telling and abuse; Mary Oliver on the wild geese; Walter Brueggemann on the shalom of God; the Confession of Belhar and the Barmen Declaration; and the parables of everyday life, from a smoke-filled brisket to a moonwalking bear in a basketball video. The preaching is unafraid to name names, whether that means Elon Musk's net worth or the history of cotton, and it does so in the same voice that turns to bread and wine, to baptismal font, and to the small, faithful life of a small-town congregation trying to follow Jesus.
Leadership, Staff, and Governance
The church is governed by an active Session and supported by a Board of Deacons and a small staff. The Session is currently composed of Ed Caffrey, Jerry Chandler, and Laureen Armstrong (Class of 2027); Janice Fisher, Jim Hermes, and Jim Kline (Class of 2028); Mike Bailey, Dave Brocker, and Gail Hoffman (Class of 2029); with Terry VanAuken serving as Clerk of Session. The Board of Deacons includes Cheryl Bailey, Amanda Celentano as Moderator (Class of 2028), Howard Fisher, Susanne Gerdes, Justin Weaver, and Jess Smalley.
Day-to-day ministry is held up by a small staff: Janet Lasko as Office Administrator, Ann Socha as Accompanist, Heather Woods as Childcare Provider, and Mindy Kline as Handbell Choir Director. The office is open Tuesday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM.
Members and friends who want to stay connected are encouraged to subscribe to the weekly email and monthly newsletter, and a member login through Church Center gives access to giving, directories, and event signups. Online giving is available through the Church Center giving portal.
Weddings, Funerals, and the Wider Use of the Building
FPCN's historic sanctuary is one of the more striking features of High Street, and the congregation welcomes couples who want to be married there. The pastor, Rev. Cuppett, officiates all weddings at FPCN and works with couples on the service and the marriage license; other clergy may assist at his invitation. At least three sessions of premarital counseling with a licensed clinical provider are required for all couples, and at least one member of the couple should be a Christian church member.
Two packages are offered to non-members: a ceremony-only package at $1,500 and a combined ceremony-and-reception package at $2,000, with reduced fees for members and their immediate children. Both packages include use of the Sanctuary, Parlor, Chapel, two classrooms, the Fellowship Hall and Kitchen, plus folding chairs, tables, china, the wedding rehearsal, and a Friday setup window. Photography and videography are permitted during the service, with discreet guidelines; alcohol, smoking, and vaping are prohibited on the grounds.
Funerals and memorial services are generally reserved for members and their families, though accommodations can sometimes be made. The church does not maintain a cemetery, columbarium, or mausoleum.
The same campus is also a working facility for the wider community. Rates for facility use are kept affordable: the Chapel is $50 for four hours, the Community Room $100, the Fellowship Hall $100, the Kitchen $100, the Parlor $25, the Sanctuary $125, and a Study Room $25. Events with more than thirty guests require special event insurance. Nonprofit rates are handled on a case-by-case basis, and the building is shared generously with community partners.
An Openhearted, Progressive Presbyterian Witness
The congregation's self-description as "an openhearted family of faith" is more than a marketing line. The church belongs to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and the sermons and the mission statements alike reach for the wider Reformed tradition while insisting on a particular set of commitments.
The church reads its own life in long arc. It was organized in 1786, which makes it older than the United States itself, and it has worked with the Presbyterian Historical Society to archive records going back to 1812. The current pastor often names that history as part of the congregation's call: long enough to have been on the wrong side of various moral questions in earlier eras, and long enough now to be led somewhere different.
Theological commitments show up in small but telling places. The Confession of Belhar and the Barmen Declaration are named in sermons as part of the church's Reformed inheritance, especially around questions of justice, faithfulness, and resistance to unjust systems. The preaching names the genocide of the Canaanites as a real text in the Bible, refuses to use it to justify modern violence, and asks instead what it would mean to read Abraham's journey as a story about being a blessing to strangers and immigrants. The Beatitudes are preached as a call to shalom rather than to law and order, and the parable of the wheat and the weeds is preached as a warning against the spiritual arrogance that comes with certainty about who is in and who is out.
The church is also open about who it wants to be. The same Sunday morning that welcomes new members also welcomes those who have been away from church for a while with this quiet, direct invitation: "If it's been awhile since you've worshipped with us, or anywhere, we've put together a short guide for our time together." The congregation has welcomed more than ten percent growth in members over a single program year, and the welcome is treated as a charge to reorganize relationships, leadership, and ministries rather than as a problem to be managed.
Living Stones on High Street
For two hundred and forty years, the people of First Presbyterian Church of Newton have built themselves up as living stones in a place that was once a frontier and is now the seat of Sussex County. The building at 54 High Street is still the center of that life: a place to be baptized, married, mourned, fed, taught, and sent back out into Newton and Sussex County. The Session, the Deacons, the staff, the choir, and the volunteers keep showing up, sometimes for Sunday morning liturgy, sometimes for a Friday afternoon quilt, sometimes for a Wednesday Vespers online, sometimes for a Thursday morning shift at Manna House. The hope, as the sermons keep saying, is that none of this is the work of the church by itself; it is the work of God in the church, by the Spirit, in a world that God is still in the process of redeeming.