2023-2024 Program Guide

From that humble start, Ocean Grove grew and continued to provide a place
of respite for those seeking to come away from the hectic pace of life.
Permanent buildings were added for worship and cottages were established
year ’round until an entire community was formed. The original members of
the Association laid out what would become one of the first planned
communities of the Victorian age.
In 1870 the New Jersey State Legislature granted a charter, setting Ocean
Grove aside as a place of perpetual worship to Jesus Christ. Promoting that
original purpose remains vital as the Camp Meeting continues to provide a
place for spiritual birth, growth, and renewal in a Christian seaside setting.
Our lives today are even more hectic than Ocean Grove’s founders could have
ever imagined, the tyranny of the urgent often drives us, and a place of peace
and relaxation is just as necessary to rejuvenate body and soul. We invite you
to discover today what Ocean Grove’s founders did 150+ years ago. Indeed, “a
more magnificent site,” can still hardly be found.
Our History
In May, 1869 a group of Methodist ministers felt called to search along the New
Jersey coast for a suitable camp meeting location - a place of respite where
“religion and recreation should go hand in hand.” After an extended search,
they came upon a virtually uninhabited grove of trees, free from mosquitoes
which had tormented them at other sites previously visited and pleasantly
surrounded by two lakes and the Atlantic Ocean. Despite its isolation, Ocean
Grove’s founders later wrote that, “it seemed to us that a more magnificent
site for cottages could hardly be found.