About Us and Our Denominations
Welcome!
- Worship and Education: The experience most central to our life as a faith community happens Sunday mornings when we worship God with praise and thanksgiving, and connect with one another for fellowship and support. From September through June our worship service is at 11am, with Christian education for all ages at 9:30. During the summer our worship service is at 10am.
- Throughout the week, members of our faith family engage in a wide array of ministries including social gatherings, bible studies and other educational opportunities and hands-on service to the needy around and among us. What is your passion? What is your calling? There’s a place for you here!
- Contact Rob Leveridge, Associate Pastor, with any questions as you get to know First United Church better: rleveridge@firstunitedoakpark.com
- Visit Us: When you visit us for the first time, make sure you grab your free copy of Take This Bread, a memoir by Sara Miles. You can get your copy from one of our greeters or pastors. We look forward to meeting you soon. Grace and peace be with you! Click here for Map and Directions.
About Us:
- First United Brochure with Member Testimonials
- We are a union church of the Presbyterian Church USA and the United Church of Christ. We affiliate with both denominations. Follow the links to visit their websites.
- We are a “More Light”/”Open and Affirming” congregation. Read more about “Open and Affirming” on the UCC website.
Our “Vision 2020”
Our elders appointed a Vision Team in 2009 to develop a new vision for the next 10 years of our life together.
What is our motivation to embrace a new vision? First, our mainline Protestant churches are shrinking slowly but dramatically. Both the UCC and PCUSA have lost 44 percent of our members in the last 50 years. Second, the needs of the community are growing. Food pantry usage alone has quadrupled in the last three years. Third, a church without a vision is like an airplane without wings. We’re all sitting in the cabin together, but we’re not able to take off and move in a new direction. A vision provides focus, inspiration and energy. It allows us to stop doing things that do not contribute to our vision. It pulls us into God’s future. We developed three phrases to capture this vision:
Moving from words to witness in our relationship with God. From rhetoric to God-pleasing actions. From symbols to life-changing, visionary action. We will voice our beliefs and express words that speak to our beliefs AND we will embody those words through action, not expecting that someone else will take the action.
Moving from individualism to intimate fellowship in our relationship with other members of the church community. To live our love for God, for each other and for our world. First United Church will be a community based on deep connections, bringing people of faith together in love and support of one another and in service to God.
Moving from charity to changing structures in our relationship with the world. While we continue to support those in need, we will invest passionately and aggressively to improve the social and cultural structures which create and sustain the need. We developed a statement of God’s vision for the next 10 years of life at First United:
I see that one day First United Church will be so radically Christian that your acts of love, compassion and generosity will astonish everyone. Your unashamed faith in me will burn like a shining beacon, attracting people of every age, race, creed, and spiritual condition to create a community of life-changing worship and reconciliation. Though others have used my name to oppress, exclude and preserve their own privilege, you will bear witness to me by liberating the poor, welcoming strangers, and caring for your neighbors – even when it is unpalatable, even when it requires sacrificing your own comfort and convenience. Though you are accustomed to knowing, discussing and deciding things by your own power, I see that one day you will expect everyone in your community – children, youth, adults and seniors – to be shaped, challenged and renewed by the power of my Spirit. Your life together will be rich with deep connections, nurturing relationships and grace-filled prayers that extend far beyond Sunday morning. One day every member of First United will live with profound spiritual humility and commitment to this shared vision. No one will be a spectator. Everyone will be actively engaged in worship and ministry. Your faith community will create a nurturing quilt of love for those who are wounded, alone and in need of healing and hope. I see you move beyond simply providing charity to people in need toward working to change structures that sustain injustice. You will call congregations, charitable organizations, governmental organizations and businesses in your community to join together to address the root causes of poverty, hunger, homelessness, drug abuse, gangs, crime and discrimination. One day all of you will be sent out as advocates for all people, in our nation and around the world. You will invest your resources with joy to bring long-term, lasting change for generations to come. You are here so that my realm will come and my will shall be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
God’s vision is our call to action.
First United Church of Oak Park is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church USA.
Presbyterian Statement of Faith
In life and in death we belong to God.
through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit,
we trust in the one triune God, the Hold One of Israel,
whom we alone worship and serve.
We trust in Jesus Christ,
fully human, fully God.
Jesus proclaimed the reign of God:
preaching good news to the poor
and release to the captives,
teaching by word and deed
and blessing the children,
healing the sick
and binding up the brokenhearted,
eating with outcasts,
forgiving sinners,
and calling all to repent an believe the gospel.
Unjustly condemned for blasphemy and sedition,
Jesus was crucified,
suffering the depths of human pain
and giving his life for the sins of the world.
God raised this Jesus from the dead,
vindicating his sinless life,
braking down the power of sin and evil,
delivering us from death to life eternal.
We trust in God,
whom Jesus called Abba, Father.
In sovereign love God created the world good
and makes everyone equally in God’s image,
male and female, of every race and people,
to live as one community.
But we rebel against God; we hide from our Creator.
Ignoring God’s commandments,
we violate the image of God in others and in ourselves,
accept lies as truth,
exploit neighbor and nature,
and threaten death to the planet entrusted to our care.
We deserve God’s condemnation.
Yet God acts with justice and mercy to redeem creation.
In everlasting love,
the God Abraham and Sarah chose a covenant people
to bless all families of the earth.
Hearing their cry,
God delivered the children of Israel
from the house of bondage.
Loving us still,
God makes us heirs with Christ of the covenant.
Like a mother who will not forsake her nursing child,
like a father who runs to welcome the prodigal home,
God is faithful still.
We trust in God the Holy Spirit.
everywhere the giver and renewer of life.
The Spirit justifies us by grace through faith,
sets free to accept ourselves and to love God and neighbor,
and binds us together with all believers
in the one body of Christ, the church.
The same Spirit
who inspired the prophets and apostles
rules our faith and life in Christ through Scripture,
engages us through the Word proclaimed,
claims us in the waters of baptism,
feed us with the bread of life and the cup of salvation,
and calls women and men to all ministries of the church.
In a broken and fearful world
the Spirit gives us courage
to pray without ceasing,
to witness among all peoples to Christ as Lord
and Savior,
to unmask idolatries in church and culture,
to hear the voices of peoples long silence,
and to work with other for justice, freedom, and peace.
In gratitude to God, empowered by the Spirit,
we strive to serve Christ in our daily tasks
and to live holy and joyful lives,
even as we watch for God’s new heaven and new earth,
praying, “Come, Lord Jesus!”
With believers in every time and place,
we rejoice that nothing in life or in death
can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus
our Lord.
First United Church is affiliated with the United Church of Christ.
United Church of Christ Statement of Faith
We believe in you, O God, Eternal Spirit, God of our Savior Jesus Christ and our God,
and to your deeds we testify:
You call the worlds into being,
create persons in your own image,
and set before each one the ways of life and death.
You seek in holy love to save all people from
aimlessness and sin.
You judge people and nations by your righteous will
declared through prophets and apostles.
In Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth,
our crucified and risen Savior,
you have come to us and shared our common lot,
conquering sin and death and reconciling the world to yourself.
You bestow upon us your Holy Spirit,
creating and renewing the church of Jesus Christ,
binding in covenant faithful people of all ages, tongues, and races.
You call us into your church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship,
to be your servants in the service of others,
to proclaim the gospel to all the world and resist the powers of evil
to share in Christ’s baptism and eat at this table,
to join him in his passion and victory.
You promise to all who trust you forgiveness of sins and fullness of grace,
courage in the struggle for justice ad peace,
you presence in trial and rejoicing,
and eternal life in your realm which has no end.
Blessing and honor, glory and power be unto you.
Amen