Urban Village Church

Drag & Spirituality: Named & Known is an ongoing series about with hostess B0NNi33 Vi0L3T (@aqueerchaplain). In our series premiere, B0NNi33 Vi0L3T speaks with Saya Naomi (@queensayanaomi)!! In each conversation B0NNi33 Vi0L3T will guide a conversation around drag & spirituality, with drag artists of a variety of spiritual experience, gender, race, age, sexual orientation, size, ability, and style...

Pastors Hannah, Emily, Juan Pablo, and Christian discuss their favorite way for naming and addressing God, their most challenging concepts around God’s many names throughout Scripture, and how naming God in a diverse amount of ways impacts their discipleship, theology, and faith community.  What is your favorite name for God? What lessons around using the names of God have you learned from your yo...

Site Pastor D’Angelo Smith preaches today about darkness providing an opportunity to learn. Sometimes  the darkness forces us to look right in front of us instead of far ahead, and this can be scary. We like to see far ahead of us. Still, darkness forces us to look for God’s imagination instead of our own expectations. Who would expect God to be found where animals eat?? This morning, let’s look c...

This winter, some of us may be feeling the fear and anxiety of shorter days and longer nights. But it is in the darkness that we find some of God’s greatest, most nurturing gifts. This Advent we’re looking back on Christmas stories and finding in them the places where darkness holds us, loves us, guides us, and liberates.  UVC Pastoral Intern Drew Jones reflects on God’s promises in the dark. Jose...

Join UVC's Teaching Pastor Hannah Kardon and Executive Pastor Emily McGinley as they discuss scripture, formation, and God's bold, inclusive, and relevant love with new Site Pastor (Hyde Park-Woodlawn / Wicker Park) D'Angelo Smith!

This morning, UVC Pastoral Intern Sam Coker reflects on the prophet Isaiah who anticipated destruction and exile yet prophetically claimed a hope for a new way and a new expectation. Through Isaiah’s message of consolation, we are invited to reimagine the ways we think about darkness, the dichotomy of light and dark, and how binary ways of thinking lead to exclusion and division opposed to an incl...

Continuing our series “the gifts that keep on giving,” we look towards Scripture which consistently resists the myth of scarcity. We recognize scarcity leads to segregating us from our community and our neighbor. The Bible is clear about this attitude: it is sin. Pastor Myron Krys preaches that although our resources do not belong to us, we do not put our faith in our abundance, but the Giver of a...

In Mark 12 we read a story of Jesus condemning the systems and structures that exploit and do not protect, that restrict and do not liberate, by honoring the giving of the poor widow. The text says she gave everything with her whole being and whole existence, reflecting Jesus’ commandment to love our God and neighbor with *all* our heart, *all* our mind, *all* our soul, and *all* our strength. The...

This has been a year! A year of grief, a year of politics, and a year of activism. What are these to the Christian, and what do they have to do with each other? Today we celebrate All Souls Day by taking time to remember those who have died and the ways in which, in Christ, we are all, even still, one community. With the names and memories of our collective “cloud of witnesses" who brought us this...

UVC turns 10- wahoo! This morning, pastors Christian Coon (Pastor of Emerging Ministries), Emily McGinley (Executive Pastor), Hannah Kardon (Teaching Pastor) and UVC co-founder Trey Hall (Director of Evangelism and Growth at Methodist Church London, UK) share about this deeply radical and ancient idea that God loves us, so we can love others. This is what has shaped UVC the last decade. This is al...

UVC turns 10- wahoo! As we enter our 10th  year, we're living in a time defined by fear and sorrow, skepticism and suspicion. Even so, we continue to boldly trust in – and live by – God’s vision for UVC: to be bold, inclusive, and relevant.   This morning, guest preacher D'Angelo Smith centers in on UVC's second "ingredient" for community: being inclusive. Although God’s wisdom may seem foolish to...

As we enter our 10th year, we're living in a time defined by fear and sorrow, skepticism and suspicion. Even so, we continue to boldly trust in – and live by – God’s vision. Executive Pastor Emily McGinley reflects on how BOLD it was to start UVC and how that boldness continues to call us forward into a new and abundant future. We believe in the resurrection of Christ! Part of what resurrection do...

Christian Coon, pastor of Emerging Ministries, leads us to reflect on God-given wisdom and discerning humility in how we apply that wisdom to our lives. We were empowered to believe our call as people of faith is to use our minds to deepen our faith - and like Dr. George Washington Carver - do so humbly. Our intellect is not meant to be put on a shelf to admire, but used for the benefit of others....

Juan Pablo, UVC's Church Planting Resident, leads us this week in our continued series “God and Science” to reflect on how ancient faith communities heard and interpreted the Creation Story. Instead of a scientific account, ancient Israel heard the creation stories in Genesis as a theological declaration about the goodness of creation. God’s love of creation invites us to be co-creators of God’s g...

John 14:1-7 — Some folks imagine that science and faith are at odds, incompatible, or two ways of life to choose between. But in fact, the practices and promises of science can only enhance our faith, and our understanding of the extraordinary Creation we are a part of. In a time when science and reality are under attack, it is more important than ever to find our Christian call to be seekers, lov...

Psalm 44 repeats many of the themes found in Lamentations and Job. In our the series “God, What The F***?” we’ve explored lament, anger, confusion, sadness… but Psalm 44 also adds ways forward for faith and hope even amid hard experiences. First, the psalm roots itself in the ancestors and stories of the past. We can remember the past and all who came before us: what they survived, what they've do...

Can I Be Mad at God? In short... Yes! Being mad at God is an act of faith which scripture invites us to do as a natural thing in the midst of pain, just as we're able to praise God in time of joy. This is all a part of living in relation with God. We cry out to God because we know God is real, God cares for us, and God suffers with us.

What does it mean to proclaim faith and live faithfully in times like these? What do we do with our anger, grief, disappointments and seemingly endless dead-ends? Pandemic or not, we’ve all had a moment when we have thrown our hands up in exasperation and asked God, “What the f***?” Now is as good a time as any to (re)visit this question with all the faithfulness of a man named Job and all the hon...

This week Hannah Kardon covers "The Playful Spirit" in this weeks segment of Let's Play.

Jesus, playfulness, community, and communion: how are all these things connected? *We know that preachers pull from many resources in their sermon preparations and, if that's the case for you, we hope that this will inspire you as you prepare your message. Please be sure to cite and credit when appropriate. God bless you!

Today we begin a new sermon series, “Let’s Play.” In today’s sermon, Pastor Myron Krys invites us to “Get in the Flow” (Gen. 2:4b-6, 10)

Stuck alone by systems beyond his control, John finds solace in creativity and unconstrained, unlimited imagination, finding new beautiful and extraordinary things with God.

Honoring Palm Sunday - some sites also incorporate Passion Sunday texts into this Sunday worship service. 

Join us for worship this Sunday, 10:30AM. Whether you are gay, straight, or trying to figure it out; whether you prefer hand sanitizer or hand washing; wherever you are in the city, the country, or the world: you are welcome at Urban Village Church!

Jesus trying his darnedest to get alone because he sees its gifts - prayer, connection to God, comfort with the self - but he just keeps getting pulled away