PRINCETOWN
Princetown is an unincorporated area of Schenectady County, New York, ten miles west of Albany and seven miles southwest of Schenectady. It is a somewhat rural area, yet on the edge of the suburbs and easily accessable to and from the cities. Many of Princetown Church's members and attenders come from Rotterdam, Duanesburg, Delanson, Schenectady, and Guilderland.
EVANGELICAL
Being "Evangelical," we believe in spreading the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout our community. We are a Bible-centered church that holds true to the traditional interpretation of Scripture and moral values. We take seriously the words of Jesus in His Great Commission.
PRESBYTERIAN
Historically, Presbyterians belong to a family of faith that can be described in two ways. If you talk about how we govern ourselves, we are called "Presbyterian" which means "rules by Elders." Our form of government is different from the episcopal form with a heirarchy, or the congregational form where the government is by the congregation, for we have a representative form of church government.
If you talk about what we believe, we are called "Reformed." This means that our belief grows out of the Christian faith as it was "reformed" during the Protestant Reformation, particularly through John Calvin and John Knox.
CHURCH
We believe that a church is people, not a building. Our church building is simply a meeting place for the real Church to come together - those who love Jesus, those who serve Him, and those who are becoming interested in Christianity. We try to focus not on the facility, rather the Family.
"The First Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the Town of Princetown" was started in the year 1828 by missionaries from the First Presbyterian Church of Schenectady in order to be a "missions outpost" to what was then the "New York frontier." Since then, the church has been known alternately as "The South Princetown Reformed Church," "The Dutch Church at Princetown," "Giffords Reformed Church at Giffords, NY," "Princetown Reformed Church," and, currently, "Princetown Evangelical Presbyterian Church."
In March of 1978, the hundred-year-old church building burned to the ground. All that was salvaged was what is currently the Assembly Hall. A plan was enacted to build a new church a few hundred feet west of the original placement. This new building was dedicated in 1981, with an education wing added in 1995. The church congregation voted in 1998 to switch from the Reformed Church of America denomination to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.