Urban Village Church

In a special outdoor beach service, Rev. Dr. Pamela Lightsey makes her UVC preaching debut by preaching from Romans 5:3-8. 

Tune in as Pastor Juan Pablo concludes our "Vital Signs" sermon series with a message from Luke 4 on igniting the city.

Tune in as Pastor Chan continues our "Vital Signs" sermon series with a sermon from Acts 2 on "community."

Wing Yun, our Communications Director, gives a message from Galatians 3 as we continue our sermon series "Vital Signs." They ask the question, how do we measure our adherence to the value of inclusivity as a community?

Pastor Chan continues our "Vital Signs" sermon series with a message on how our community can reflect the value of being "Jesus-loving."

Pastor D'Angelo continues our Lake Effect series with this sermon from Mark 1:16-20.

Community member Drew Jones shares a word from 2 Kings about soul friendships. Join us for online worship Sundays at 10:30am CST!

Worship streamed live from our Wicker Park location on June 12, 2022. On this Sunday we began a new sermon series, "Making Soul Friends." Join us to hear Pastor D'Angelo preach about deep connectivity in relationship.

“When the day of Pentecost had come…” is today! This past Sunday we concluded our sermon series ‘Share the Love' with some dramatic meaning-making from Pastors Juan Pablo, Christian, D’Angelo, and for the final time with UVC, Pastor Hannah Kardon. We celebrated together while being honest about the times we find ourselves in. In our fear, awe, skepticism, and also hope, we are reminded God’s Spiri...

On Sunday we continued our sermon series 'Share the Love' with Student Pastor Alexa inviting us to consider how spreading a good word can *actually* be good. Many times when we think about sharing our faith we imagine a history, themes and moments that don't feel liberating. But sharing and inviting should be liberating for all involved! Pastor Alexa encourages us to consider how sharing about our...

We all need love... Love for ourselves, love for one another, and the love that comes for us & through us in God. But sometimes, it’s hard to find. It’s also hard to share! All this month we'll be exploring the love, joy, silliness & celebration that Jesus invites us to and ask how we can share it with the world.  In worship, Pastor Emily explored how the Samaritan Woman who speaks with Jesus shar...

Candace Coleman is a black disabled woman from the South Side of Chicago. She works closely with disabled people affected by the justice system to organize around racial justice and disability. This includes anti-bullying, the school-to-prison pipeline, restorative justice, police brutality, and deinstitutionalization. She is dedicated to teaching disabled people of color to take pride in all aspe...

We hope you enjoy guest preachers, like Edgwater member Sara, who’ve committed to sharing throughout our sermon series ‘Disabled Jesus, Disabled Love.’ Disabled leaders, thinkers, and advocates have always been at the heart of Christian communities. In the US, one in four people live with a disability. Yet our faith has a long history of teaching about our bodies & needs in ways that hurt, limit a...

Zoie is a fourth-year medical student, staff member for UVC’s partner young adult ministry, the Inclusive Collective, and a disability activist and consultant. They work with various organizations across the city — particularly in healthcare and faith spaces — to increase accessibility and support communities in unlearning harmful beliefs about disability. Zoie is a member of UVC Wicker Park.  . W...

This Sunday closes out our sermon series ‘Disabled Jesus, Disabled Love’ with guest preacher Vincent Tufano. Vincent has been an active UVC member at our Wicker Park site since the summer of 2019 and is currently finishing their teaching degree at Northeastern Illinois University while remaining engaged in their community and family. In our passage from John, post-resurrection Jesus shows up wound...

UVC openly celebrates how we are “perfectly imperfect.” Still, disability is often framed as something in need of healing. In our panel discussion facilitated by Pastor D'Angelo, we discuss how disability is not only a journey of acceptance, but a journey of deeply recognizing all of our emotions. The panelists discuss how faith expands our human capacity, not restricts it, and still, we have much...

Disabled leaders, thinkers, and advocates have always been at the heart of Christian communities. In the US, one in four people live with a disability. Yet our faith has a long history of teaching about our bodies & needs in ways that hurt, limit and erase.  In worship, Pastor Hannah - in conversation with disabled leaders and advocates - encourages us to consider the experiences of every person i...

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen! On Sunday Pastor D’Angelo reminded us that we are resurrection people. Our faith calls us to remember and tell the resurrection stories in our own lives. Like Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and others who arrive at the the tomb and became the first to know Jesus the Christ was alive again, what happens when our faith reveals to us a truth that is h...

On Sunday we celebrated Palm Sunday looking at Luke's version of this occasion. One verse that particularly grabbed Pastor Christian was when the Pharisees ask Jesus to order the disciples to stop celebrating (Lk 19:39). The religious authorities weren't thrilled with all of the rejoicing and proclaiming -but Jesus responds that even if he told them to stop, the stones would cry out! In those time...

On our final Sunday before Holy Week - we consider the Mount of Olives.  It’s a good reminder that we all need sacred spaces and places in our lives. We need places of solitude where we remember how God has fulfilled God’s promises to us; special places where we go regularly to pray and meet with God; places of hope where we are reminded to trust God; and places of redemption where we remember how...

On Sunday, we continued our sermon series on spiritual practices focusing on song and dance. Because of the scripture passage of the day, Pastor Christian asked Cantor Julie Green to add insight on common Jewish practices during the Passover celebration. Before Julie offered commentary to the scripture in Mark, she blessed the community with this testimony. We hope you enjoy. . You can listen to J...

This Sunday, we continued our sermon series on spiritual practices focusing on song and dance. With the help of Cantor Julie Green, we’ll explore how scripture reminds us that singing and dancing are important expressions of our faith, and how both can help shape our faith lives . urbanvillagechurch.org . . .   Sign up to receive our eNews and stay in the know! (link to sign up is at the bottom of...

What is worship? Who is it for? And, why should we even bother? These are questions that came up for a lot of folks over the course of the last couple of years.  Jesus spent a lot of time in worship – teaching, preaching, praying, and being in community with some folks he agreed with and a lot of folks he didn’t. But, it was less about whether or not he agreed than it was about the people: People...

Any dream worth dreaming involves risk of some kind. And, if it were only up to us to see our dreams through, it might feel impossible. Our passage today reminds us that when it is God who has given us the dream, it is also God who will help us keep going when the going gets tough.  . urbanvillagechurch.org . . . Sign up to receive our eNews and stay in the know! (link to sign up is at the bottom...