Wading River Congregational Church is a faith community located in Wading River New York.  We love Jesus and would love to meet you!

We believe in the good news (aka the Gospel) of Jesus! We believe that healing, forgiveness and new life are found in Jesus.

You’ve hopefully heard that God loves us, that he actually IS love (1st John 4:16). But when Jesus says he loves us, that means something specific and powerful. The Bible explains that the greatest demonstration of God’s love is that Jesus, the Son of God, came here to sacrifice himself for us, to save us from ourselves and from a world filled with corruption and pain, and to give us New Life in him.

We believe that this New Life was proven real and powerful when Jesus rose from the dead. Because of this, trusting in him can bring us together, gives us peace, and sustain us. But that’s not all. This New Life in Jesus has the power to change us, to make us into the people we were meant to be, to make us part of something much bigger than ourselves. This is possible because Jesus is Emmanuel, which means "God with us". Through faith in Jesus, we not only receive forgiveness and New Life, we also receive the presence of God in and with us, so that we are never alone or forgotten.

This is our hope. This is the promise we trust. It’s also the hope we work to share with everyone around us. We want to tell the world, starting in Shoreham-Wading River, about our hope in Jesus. We want to help many more people come to know that the God of the universe loves them. We want to help them understand what that really means.

To learn more about our beliefs, check out our Statement of Faith.

One of the most important things to know about us is that we are a community with a mission. We don’t exist just to sustain ourselves. We’re not a museum or a club. We’re part of the work that Jesus began and is continuing to do in this world, to bring hope and healing to the hurting and broken, to proclaim good news, and to build a loving community together. This mission is from God himself, and he has given it to us, promising to use us for his glory and the good of many people. This mission is summarized in our Mission Statement.

WRCC Mission Statement: Wading River Congregational Church invites people of all ages and backgrounds to come hear the good news of Jesus, experience His grace, and develop a relationship with the living God. We are seeking to live Gospel-centered lives by building a loving community and helping each other in concrete ways, as we glorify God and demonstrate his love in action.

This is who we are, and this is our purpose, to help people of all ages and background experience and understand the love of God through Jesus as we work to put his love in action. We hope you’ll come and join the mission. After all, you were created for a purpose, to be a part of something bigger than yourself. That purpose, the meaning we all long for, is found in Jesus. Come and see!

Sunday Morning Worship – Sundays at 10:00 a.m.

Join us on each Sunday morning to celebrate the God who loves us and is present in our lives! In all of our worship services we sing, pray, hear the word of the Lord, and hear about God’s work in our lives. Our worship typically includes a mix of traditional hymns and contemporary worship songs in a relaxed and welcoming environment.  Our worship services are made up of people of all ages who worship together. So come, just as you are, and join us!

One of the most common questions we hear is, what is a Congregational church anyway? If you are not familiar with Congregational Churches, it might sound more like something out of a history book than a place you would actually want to go.
The good news is, the answer to this is really simple:  A Congregational Church is a Christian church that is run by its people. For us, this means that we are not under the authority of any leader or organization beyond the people of WRCC. Of course, God is our ultimate authority and this is his church, but the members of WRCC make their own decisions on things like the pastor and leaders of the church. It also means that we are fully self-funded, and work to use the resources God provides us in the ways that help us achieve our mission and put God’s love in action here in Shoreham-Wading River.
Wading River Congregational Church is affiliated with the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches.

Senior Minister

John Brock Evans became the Senior Minister of Wading River Congregational Church by a unanimous vote on June 18, 2023. John was raised primarily in […]

Diane Hanwick

Diane Hanwick started taking piano lessons at 5 years old, and she has been playing the organ/piano at WRCC since 1976 – that’s over 45 […]

Diane Hanwick

Diane Hanwick has served as the part-time Office Administrator at WRCC since September of 2021. She graduated from Dowling College in 2000 with a BS in […]