CHURCH WITHOUT WALLS :: Urban Village Church’s calling to deepen inclusion and seek justice — particularly to become a multi-ethnic, multi-racial church and to serve the urban family.

In Mark 12:29-31, Jesus shared the most important commandment: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.

After months of congregational conversation and discernment beginning in Summer 2011, Urban Village Church collectively felt called by God to deepen our inclusion and to serve the urban family – and to do so in a bold and relevant way. After all, God consistently and repeatedly challenges us throughout the Bible to broaden our understanding of who our neighbors are.

• Micah 6:8: “God has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
• Galatians 3:8: “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” 

WHERE WE’VE BEEN

We knew that much would be required from all of us in this challenging, intentional, audaciously divine project: listening and speaking, unlearning and learning, prayer and action, radical dependence on God, and Christ’s love for each other in the process.

We also recognized the all-encompassing, challenging work of inclusion. While our goal is to live out and constantly improve radical, Christ-like inclusion at every level (heart > church > city > world), we first sought candid conversation, reflection and prayer with Urban Village’s leaders. The diverse Strategy Team deeply discussed and amended our thoughts, seeking affirmation and input from the Rev. Candace Lewis and the Rev. Paul Nixon (both church planting strategists), Urban Village Staff, and Site Teams for conversation, feedback, and amending.

WHERE WE ARE NOW

After five months of conversation and exploration, the Strategy Team offers this foundation on which to move forward:

• This collective calling of Urban Village Church is not a one-year “program” but the emergence of a total new way of being and doing as a congregational culture/church planting movement for the future.  Our plans cannot be solely programmatic but must be extensive and sustainable.
• This calling is so important, so messy and hard and right and good, that we can’t walk naively into it — we don’t want to do harm to anyone as we seek good for everyone. Similarly, this calling is so important, so messy and hard and right and good, that we must actually start it—we can’t fall into the trap of talking ourselves into not moving.
• A crucial undergirding of this project of transformation requires us to address and overcome the inherent barriers and injustice in us, our church, and the world — which are expressions of the deeper and underlying condition traditionally called “sin.”
• A life dedicated to inclusion could begin its transformation at many places. After much discussion, the Urban Village Leadership, Staff and Strategy Team  recommend beginning our calling with an exploration of race, ethnic and cultural inclusion and our current personal and societal barriers to such inclusion.
  • America’s journey with racial diversity and struggle against racism are still relevant today, in ways perhaps unique to other national contexts. Given the stark visibility of this condition, we felt first called to bring all together to share, reflect, pray, and act to dismantle racism (both individually and systemically) as a keystone of our broader inclusion calling.

Even with all that conversation and hard work, we realize that we are still only at the beginning. We have sought to be very intentional, honest, and open to diverse perspectives, and yet we know that with seismic callings like this one, there is never a “good enough”—we can always do better but we can never be perfect.

OUR BOLD, INCLUSIVE & RELEVANT CALLING

We are called by God to be a church—both nurturing home and challenging spiritual launch pad—that includes people diverse in race, ethnicity, culture, gender, sexual and gender orientation, socioeconomic background, politics, theology, and life experience.

We are called to love God with all of our being and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Our neighbors include people who are different from us.  This love is not theoretical but practical.

We are called to a life-long commitment—not a one-time initiative. We invite all people to join this challenging salvation journey and to take proactive responsibility for the process. Everyone is responsible.

We are called to hold together the belief that all people are created in the image of God with the commitment to overcome the inherent barriers to fully living out that image. While there are many barriers (again, individual and systemic expressions of the underlying condition traditionally called “sin”), we believe that addressing the particular problems of racism and economic injustice will be a means toward the goal of a total congregational culture fueled by grace/inclusion/action/change for all people, in every sphere of life: heart > church > city > society.

WHERE WE’RE GOING

The true life force of this calling to build a church without walls is you, the Urban Village Church community, with the guidance and power of the Holy Spirit. Your participation and feedback are essential to understanding and identifying issues and opportunities to further infuse inclusivity into our culture and all that we do. We are committed to bold, inclusive, relevant courses of study and action beginning this Winter.

As such we invite all of you to join us on Sunday, February 12^th, following worship at every site for an All-Community Gathering. We will discuss in more detail our approach and some exciting opportunities and things we have planned through the year, including retreats, sermon series, small groups and personal reflection programs.

We are excited to begin this transformative work and know changes will happen most fully with all of us in this together. For none of us is as good as all of us. We are the body of Christ.

If you have questions or dreams, we hope that you will join us on February 12th to share them! You can also email us at info@urbanvillagechurch.org before then. After Feb 12th, there will be more information on our website, including programmatic details, opportunities for continued questioning and ideation, point people and feedback loops, and more.

In the name of Jesus, who makes us one,

Christian Coon & Trey Hall, Lead Pastors

The Urban Village Church Strategy Team

The Urban Village Church Staff

Mavis and I each received a portion of the receipts from the sale of the Dreier and Streyffeler farms in 2007.  Because we have always been careful about planning for our retirement we were clear that we had sufficient funds from pension programs, social security and other investments to be able to live comfortably without the additional monies received from the sale of the farms.  Thus we set about “giving the Streyffeler farm away.”

I have been committed to the social justice witness of the Sojourners Foundation in Washington D.C. (you may have heard of Jim Wallis who is frequently interviewed regarding religious trends and issues in our time).  So we sat down with representatives of that foundation in our living room and wrote out a check for $50,000.  The only other time I have signed my name to a check that large was for the down payment on the house we currently live in.  Another $50,000 was given in smaller amounts to various organizations in the life of the church including a special mission fund at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, my alma mater, to encourage seminary students to take mission trips to explore the work of the church.

Finally, we set up a Charitable Gift Annuity with the Northern Illinois Conference Foundation and once again our dining room table became the altar on which we offered our gift–this time for $125,000.  Each June we receive the interest on that money which we use beyond local church giving to support various organizations, political causes, and missional projects including ongoing work in the Senegal Mission.  When I die that annuity will go to the Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church in Washington, DC to support justice ministries and church builders within the Northern Illinois Conference.   Thus the farm keeps producing.

After exploring the Urban Village Church from a distance (Naperville) since its inception, we decided to move into Chicago in May and are now committing our tithe to the congregation because we are committed to church planting.

I hope that as you read “One Donor’s Story” you will be drawn to consider how you are involved in this Streyffeler story of generosity which extends back several generations and lives on in each of us.

–Al (and Mavis) Streyffeler

If the Streyffelers’s testimony inspires you and Urban Village Church is becoming your community, pray about making a financial commitment yourself. Click the “Give” tab on the menu above for more information.

I feel blessed to have joined a church community that encourages me to engage in such conversations, accepts me for who I am, and challenges me to grow spiritually at the same time. Because of that blessing I feel joy in being able to help spread the news of a loving God, as well as help support this faith community through which God is working.

I started giving to Urban Village financially because I felt it was the next step of involvement for me in my faith journey. Giving allows me to make a tangible contribution to helping this community grow and also challenges me to rely on God in a real way.

I’ve found that God provides more than enough for us, and calls us to give some of what we don’t need so that it can be used for something greater than a new pair of shoes or jeans- and something great is exactly what I see God doing throughout this wonderful faith community.

–Donnie Cottingham

If Donnie’s testimony inspires you and Urban Village Church is becoming your community, pray about making a financial commitment yourself. Click the “Give” tab on the menu above for more information.

So much of the vision for Urban Village really fit with what I was looking for in a church home.  One element that particularly spoke to me was the inclusiveness; Jesus demonstrated radical inclusiveness that tore down barriers; he consistently welcomed the least, the lost and the last. Over the years, I have encountered so many people who have been deeply hurt and even excluded by their church.  I believe that as disciples we are called to continue to tear down those barriers, to actively include everyone.  Church is meant to be a place of healing and community for those who are hurting.  It is a place to share our joys, our sorrows, our doubts and fears with a community that welcomes all of who we are.  There are so many opportunities for community, including the many small groups throughout the city.

It is also important to me to be part of a church that lives out its faith in tangible ways.  I find that Urban Village is out in the world in real ways, serving at Grace Place and Ravenswood Outreach, helping with urban gardening, helping rebuild in Haiti and so many other ways.

I believe that maintaining my relationship with God is like maintaining any other relationship; I need to commit to it and work at it.  Just as our friends drift away when we don’t commit to nurturing the relationship, we can drift away from God if we don’t work at our faith journey.  One of the tangible ways I can live out my faith and nurture that relationship is to commit both time and money to supporting the work of Urban Village.  Giving is a spiritual discipline that is an important part of my faith journey.   Pledging financially is, for me, an important act of commitment and one way of saying thank you for all that God has given me.   The act of giving alone is a discipline.  Intentionally being in prayer, then planning out what I can give, what I can give up in order to give a little more, and then making a commitment and following through is for me a deeper and more meaningful discipline.  And it is a discipline that helps me on my faith journey.

–Ellen Feliciano

If Ellen’s testimony inspires you and Urban Village Church is becoming your community, pray about making a financial commitment yourself. Click the “Give” tab on the menu above for more information.

At one point in high school, while teaching the preschool class at my church’s Vacation Bible School, we had a competition between grade levels: whoever could raise the most money by the end of the week from our daily offerings got a prize. By day 4, the preschoolers were woefully behind. But I, in my smug little way, decided to send the preschoolers into first place by tossing in all of my accumulated summer tithe money on the last day. It probably didn’t amount to a whole bunch at the time, but I got the biggest kick out of watching all the preschoolers’ eyes light up upon finding out that they had pulled into the lead after being dead last, and would be winners of the prize.

As I grew older and my income began to grow, the 10% that we always put into the church envelope grew from a few dollars a month to a few hundred. Yet the prospect of continuing to give a tenth, and sometimes even more of my income continued. Eventually, God helped me begin to understand the deeper purpose of giving, and it began to evolve from the exercise enforced by my folks to something I enjoyed and chose to continue on my own.

In college, an anonymous donor paid for a plane ticket to Germany for me so I could take an unpaid internship there instead of a more lucrative option at home. I never will know who that donor was, but that event helped illustrate the point for me. The ability to empower another person less fortunate, to help someone achieve a goal that they weren’t able to accomplish otherwise, is an intensely joyful experience and a blessing from God, even when you never receive a thank-you card in return, The original intention of giving is to bless others, yet God often blesses those who give just as richly.

Since that time, giving has morphed from an exercise in obligation to one of joy and happiness. Following my college graduation, I returned the favor and donated a plane ticket to a student going to Germany on a summer internship. The next year, I donated three, and this year, five tickets’ worth. I have no idea who that money goes to, and it doesn’t even matter. The feeling of being able to bless someone in this way is one of God’s most wonderful blessings. I may not be a pastor or missionary, and yet God can work through me as a “normal” person to change the world – even if it’s the world of only a single person. Now that I am a member of Urban Village, and I see the wonderful things we are doing in the community, I have begun to support our work as well, and I continue to give as much as I am able. Sometimes it’s almost frustrating because there are more things I would like to give to, but am limited in my means. But as God continues to bless me, I continue to give, even as one person with limited means, and want to bless others right back. It feels like a way of saying “thank you” to God, and it’s one of the most joyful things I’ve ever done.

–Scott Saxsma

If Scott’s testimony inspires you and Urban Village Church is becoming your community, pray about making a financial commitment yourself. Click the “Give” tab on the menu above for more information.

We were excited to get involved, meet new people, and invest our time and energy into the UVC community.  As time went on we not only enjoyed the Sunday services, but we were inspired by the stories that we heard and the people sharing those stories.  It was obvious that the desire to ‘love a God who changes everything’ was influencing the way that people lived their daily lives, not just the way that they worshipped.

We attended some social gatherings, started to help out with service opportunities on a regular basis, and eventually joined a monthly small group.  Little by little, we found that UVC was changing our view of not only faith, but also the way that we think about community, our city, and our role in it all.

The decision to give financially seemed to make sense — we wanted to invest our finances as well as our time and energy.  The idea of UVC reaching people all throughout the city, spreading that message of unconditional love, and working towards justice, was inspiring.  We believe that giving financially is another way for us to invest in the mission of UVC, and that is something we’re excited about!

–Jess and Craig Root

If their testimony inspires you and Urban Village Church is becoming your community, pray about making a financial commitment yourself. Click the “Give” tab on the menu above for more information.

It’s hard to believe that eighteen months after Urban Village Church launched, three neighborhood worship sites are running—including Andersonville, which started last week with 144 people, taking us to nearly 300 people in worship across the city!

We’re moving from worship into discipleship and service. Twenty small groups meet around the city. Faith becomes action in volunteer projects and street evangelism, inviting everybody to God’s party.

We’re also growing our staff team in number and diversity, in order to lead and equip a church planting movement for all of Chicago—in different neighborhoods and cultures, to urban families, to singles and seekers and students and skeptics.

We invite folks who consider Urban Village Church their community of faith to support God’s bold mission here! Will you make a regular financial commitment from now into 2012?

Please consider the information below about our “This is why I give” campaign and pray about what God is asking you to give. For first-time givers, we’re even launching a matching gifts ministry this year!

To contribute, click the “Give” tab on the above menu. Click on the [Pledge Your Commitment] link to fill out a simple commitment e-form. After that, we encourage you to click the blue “Donate” button to set up online giving, which is the easiest, greenest, safest way to give.

If you prefer, you can also email your commitment to give@urbanvillagechurch.org or complete a short form in worship to drop in the offering basket. However you choose to give, making a commitment by Sun., Nov. 13, will help us plan wisely for the year to come.

THIS IS WHY I GIVE :: Stewardship FAQ

What is stewardship?

The practice of stewardship reminds us that all we have is not ultimately ours, but God’s.  Our money and material possessions, as well as this good earth, are brimming with God’s grace as each sustains us.  We are called to use what we’ve been given:  grace is never to be consumed greedily or thoughtlessly, but with great generosity toward others and the work of God’s kingdom.  A challenging practice, to be sure, but we come to discover that it actually gives us more than it asks. It’s been said that nothing can make God love us any less, and nothing can make God love us any more. That’s true with financial giving. We don’t give because we have to: we give because we can. We give because our giving helps lives be changed—even our own.

Why do we invite concrete commitments in advance?

As we grow, we want to be responsible stewards for the future: we are developing a comprehensive budget for our next seasons of ministry. This budget is funded by the generosity of attenders and friends, primarily through annual commitments. Commitments (or pledges) are especially important because they help us estimate the resources available and plan accordingly.

What if I’ve never given before?

It takes only a small step to start the journey. To help, we’re starting a matching gifts ministry for new givers this year. Your first-time commitment of $250 (or some multiple of that) will be partnered with an extra gift from a seasoned giver. So your $250 pledge would become $500.

How do I make a commitment?

Click the “Give” tab on the menu above and click on the [Pledge Your Commitment] link. Even if you’re already a giver, we ask you to signal your commitment for 2012. Alternatively, you can email give@urbanvillagechurch.org or write down your commitment in worship in November.

E-giving

We encourage starting (or moving to) online giving: it’s green, consistent, and safe. Visit newchicagochurch.com/give and click the blue “Donate” button. You’ll be asked to create a profile, input your information, and specify debit, credit, or automatic account withdrawal.

How much should I pledge?

Take time to pray and discern.  We encourage giving a deliberately-chosen percentage of gross income. We are challenged to set a tithe (the Biblical word for 10% of our income) as the giving goal in our lives. Start where you can and begin the journey. Some fully tithe or give more than a tithe; others take an incremental approach—increasing their gift by 1%, 2%, or 3% per year—to gradually move toward 10%.

What if my financial circumstances change?

If you need to change your commitment at any time, just let us know. This commitment represents your voluntary giving; it’s not a binding contract. For more information, email give@urbanvillagechurch.org

Want to share a story, a response to “This is why I give”?

Email your story to give@urbanvillagechurch.org. In your email, let us know if it’s okay to share the story with the congregation.

The successful applicant will have a heart for God, a heart for children and families, and a heart for being a part of a staff team that’s leading a new and exciting church in Chicago.

The position requires skills in volunteer recruitment and training, curriculum development and selection, and administrative oversight. The Director of Children’s Ministries for our Downtown location is 15 hours a week and will also include some attention to our Wicker Park worship location. The Director of Children’s Ministries for our Andersonville location is 10 hours a week. Salary is based on individual’s experience.

For more information and/or to apply for the position, contact Christian Coon, chris@urbanvillagechurch.org. Applicants are encouraged to send a resume and reflections on your approach to children’s ministries.  Ethnic minorities are strongly encouraged to apply.

WHAT URBAN VILLAGE CHURCH IS ABOUT
1. Core values
• Bold: rooted in the main thing—the Gospel
• Inclusive: bringing down the walls
• Relevant: faith is about living differently/doing something

2. Multi-site, and here’s why:
• Evangelical: sharing the gift that we’ve received/are receiving
• Flexible/reinventing: attentive to cultural change and the subsequent need to reshape our strategy
• Equipping: raises up, equips, and sends forth new lay and pastoral leaders

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE PART OF URBAN VILLAGE?
All are invited to be a companion on the journey, regardless of starting place or pace. At Urban Village, these practices/experiences (the 3Gs) are signposts of commitment:
1. GATHER: commit to gather regularly in worship
2. GROW: commit to grow spiritually through small groups & to build relationships with others
3. GIVE : commit to offer your gifts, passions, and financial resources (we are all challenged to move toward a tithe, or 10% of our financial income) to serve the world

HOW IS URBAN VILLAGE CHURCH ORGANIZED/HOW DO WE HOLD TOGETHER
1. Site teams: responsible for local/indigenous ministries at each site, including invitation and neighborhood outreach, the nuts and bolts of worship (greeting, hospitality, set-up, etc.), congregational care (reaching out to those who may need emotional or spiritual support), and social/community life.
2. Strategy teams: responsible for total culture ministry, including administrative tasks, big-picture visioning, and checking in to see how we’re doing.

EMERGING PASSIONS AND MESSAGES THAT GOD IS GIVING URBAN VILLAGE
1. We are a community of diverse people seeking to be more racially and generationally diverse.
2. We are community that wants to serve the urban family (in the many senses of “family”).