Dear Friends, Members, Seekers, Strangers who have wandered on to this page somehow: Grace and peace be yours in the name and Spirit of Jesus Christ!

 

And welcome to the webpage of this gathering of churches called the Fox Valley Association of the Illinois Conference, United Church of Christ.  We are a diverse bunch – urban, suburban, ex-urban, rural – who join together in the unity of God’s Spirit that we may support, celebrate, partner, even challenge one another in our faith and practice.  I and the leadership of this Association and Conference seek to be partners in ministry with our pastors, chaplains and congregations as we proclaim the “old, old story” in a very new world through ministry, mission, action, reflection, standing firm and moving in new amazing directions as God leads us out of church buildings into peoples lives, local communities and the world!  We acknowledge that we need each other more now than ever as we learn the new ways which the Spirit is calling us to be “church” together in a strange new world.  More than ever, we need to find a path of mutual accountability and support that we may grow in Christ as well as in strength, in faith, and in the solidarity and unity which is Christ’s will.  And so the Association and Conference is here to provide resources, support, guidance and avenues for ministry beyond the local congregation.

 

If you are new to the United Church of Christ, I invite you to explore more through this website, the Illinois Conference and United Church of Christ websites.  Here you will find something familiar yet something very different in the variety of church communities you might have come from or explored: a church were we truly believe that, while the Bible is authoritative, our God’s Is Still Speaking and we need to listen; a church where questions are welcomed and mutual exploration for answers celebrated; a church which is “extravagantly welcoming” and “evangelically courageous” speaking out for world unity, justice and peace flowing out of our faith in Jesus Christ; a church where each member, congregation and wider manifestation of the church is autonomous – self-directed – yet in which all have joined in covenant to walk together in unity regardless of differences and autonomy.

 

I guess what we affirm is that we truly believe most of all in Christ’s prayer for us: “That they may all be one.”  We are a funny kind of United, a funny kind of one in the United Church of Christ.  In some mysterious, puzzling, funny way we participate together in a one that isn’t based on demographic data or unified doctrine, but is in fact as broad and high as the love of God, the love we see revealed in Jesus.  Borrowing from Jesus, as all good preachers do: “So that the world may know that God has sent us and has loved them even as God has loved us.”  I in you and you in me and we in them and them in us and God …God in all in all.  “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.  I hope someday you’ll join us.  And the world can live as one.” (Imagine by John Lennon)

 

Again – welcome, explore, pray, do something for God’s sake! 

 

Jonathan Knight

Associate Conference Minister

serving Fox Valley and Chicago Metropolitan Associations