Founding Pastor
Urban Village Church | Hyde Park-Woodlawn
Projects and Work
A New Kind of Church
Emily planted and is currently pastor of Urban Village Church (Hyde Park | Woodlawn), a new faith community on the south side of Chicago that is theologically critical, unapologetically gospel-centered, and committed to radical hospitality. This congregation reflects the area: comprised, primarily of young adults (early 20s-late 40s) consisting of a diversity of identities (race, sexual orientation, gender identity), theological locations, socio-economic and educational attainment levels. As the planting pastor, Emily's role has been to build organizational structure, cast the vision, articulate the culture, and grow the community in both numbers and finances. Because of the unique context, she also "holds" the cultural tensions of a diverse community, helping the community navigate them with love and grace. In addition to this, she works alongside her colleagues from other sites to build capacity around shared ministries like service, justice, discipleship, and being an actively anti-racist faith community that works for racial justice. Areas of ongoing leadership include:
Inclusive Outreach + Evangelism
Anti-racist leadership and congregational development
Design Thinking in Ministry
Student Pastor Formation
Grant-writing
Interdenominational, Multi-Ethnic Worship Planning
Recent sermons can be found here / Special sermon on supporting the creation of a trauma center on the south side here.
National Leader for Church Innovation
Emily is a church planting coach, working with existing congregations and church planters to strategize, refine, and map out pathways for innovation that is contextually meaningful. She is a recognized leader throughout the church and in her own denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA): Emily is has served in various forms of leadership with the Forum for Theological Exploration, helping to strengthen and equip young adults for vocational discernment and pursuit. She is a consultant to the Chicago Presbytery, working with clergy and lay leaders in the Presbytery to develop plans for planting two congregations on the north side of Chicago, in conjunction with existing PC(USA) congregations in the region. She has extensive experience working with leaders across diverse networks and Christian traditions, having preached and presented nationally on the topics of vocational discernment, preaching for millennials, church planting, social media in ministry, inclusive evangelism, mental health in ministry, and anti-racist church leadership.
Available for
Comment/Consultation on
Preaching
Anti-racist church leadership
Church planting
Interdenominational church ministry
Ministry among Millennial/Xennials
Design Thinking in Ministry
Writings
"A Legacy of Resistance," Ecclesio (6/19/2018), [READ]
"Disrupting Babylon" in Intercultural Ministry: Hope for a Changing World (3/2017) [on Amazon]
"Good Enough" Presbyterian Outlook (7/9/2015) [READ]
Worship Companion to the Connections Commentary (forthcoming from Westminster John Knox Press)
Press Coverage
"The T in LGBT" (PBS' Religion and Ethics Newsweekly)
Interview with Preachers on Preaching
"Dare to Lead Differently" (The Forum for Theological Exploration)
"The Hope of Something New" (Justice Unbound)
Hope and Courage: Meet the New Fellows (Beatitudes Society)
"Congregation-Based Community Organizing" (Justice Unbound)
"Religious Groups Mobilize to Promote Feminism and Faith" (Truth-Out)
"Shaping the Church: Thinking, Reimagining and Envisioning" (Huffington Post Religion)
"New Hyde Park Church Woos LGBT Christians" (DNA Info)
"Millennials Flocking to Non-Conventional Churches" (Crain's Chicago Business)