The Black Lives Matter Committee leads the work at University Church in heeding Christ’s call to address the suffering of the oppressed by building solidarity for the Palestinian people. Below are links to materials for us to use and to share with others in working to follow that call.
Packet distributed at March 22, 2026 event with links to resources for learning about the history and current situation in Palestine and for building the capability to work among ourselves and with others in the United Church of Christ and beyond, including Kairos Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, in building solidarity for Palestine (printing the document at this link gives access to QR Codes for many of the documents, videos and websites).
SAVE THE DATE Monday, December 29, 2025 — YOUTH LOCK-IN AT UNIVERSITY CHURCH
CONTACT Min. Jeremy Young: (312) 841-4188 or jeremy@universitychurchchicago.org Pastor Julian DeShazier: Julian@UniversityChurchChicago.org
With so many complaints about “nothing” to do after Christmas and before school restarts, we created the Youth Lock-In back in 2013 to give our church youth a chance to fellowship together in a safe, loving space. Soon we expanded the invitation to other church youth groups, and one year had 11 (!) youth groups in attendance! We are back again this December, and would love to have you join us. Here are the details, because of course you have questions!
WHEN: Monday, December 29, 2025, beginning at 7pm and ending on Tuesday morning, December 30th, at 7am. Pickup time is 7AM SHARP.
WHERE: University Church, 5655 S. University Church, Chicago, IL, 60637
WHAT: a “lock-in” in the most traditional sense…the building will be closed to entry or exit, secured and monitored by chaperones the entire night, with food and activities occurring throughout the whole time. Phones are discouraged except when necessary to contact/update parents and guardians, and all of our activities encourage positive engagement with their peers and possible new friends. Some of our confirmed activities include
Concert/Mini-worship feat. J.Kwest (do one of your youth want to sing/dance/rap/spoken word?)
room for video and board games
room for karaoke
Nerf team activities (think laser tag, dodgeball, etc)
areas for quiet conversation and prayer
food all night (dinner, snacks, and breakfast, with all dietary restrictions and allergies considered)
separate sleeping areas for boys and girls (on separate floors)
WHO: all UChurch youth, their friends, and other youth groups! There is no age requirement – think 5th grade-HS senior. All personality types are welcome and will have something to engage them. All youth groups must send at least one chaperone for every five kids they register, with a minimum of one chaperone for every youth group attending (kids attending as part of UChurch or as friends of UChurch members are not required to bring a chaperone; the church will provide chaperones at a 1:5 ratio for our youth)
THERE IS NO COST FOR THIS EVENT. YOU MUST RSVP THOUGH, by contacting Min. Jeremy Young via the information above or using the link below:
Again, you MUST RSVP for EACH participant. For safety reasons, only those that RSVP will be allowed into the building.
QUESTIONS YOU ARE ASKING RIGHT NOW:
This is weird. I don’t know you. Why would I drop off my kids?
Great question, and considering the safety of your child should be your highest priority. It is ours as well. All of our staff have criminal background checks, and you can actually stay and be a chaperone for a portion or all of the evening. All rooms will be monitored constantly, no youth will be encouraged to (or able to) sneak off outside or in a secret room in the building, and boys and girls will be separated if they choose to sleep. In our 12 years we have never had an incident, and we have a strict conduct policy which every youth must sign upon entry (any violations and you will need to come pick them up). We take having fun seriously, and we take safety more seriously.
Wait, explain the chaperone thing again??
In short: if you are a parent of a UChurch youth (or your child is attending at the invitation of a UChurch youth) you do not need to stay the entire night, although you are welcome to! If you are part of a youth group from a different church, you must provide at least one chaperone for every five youth you register, with a minumum of one adult chaperone coming with each youth group. All chaperones must stay the entire night.
More questions? Need to talk to an actual human about this?
No worries. Contact Min. Jeremy or Pastor Julian at the info above.
We wanted to do something about the fact that Chicago is one of the most incredible and diverse cities in the world, and also one of the most segregated. Many people never venture into other neighborhoods, never meet people that look or think different from them, and never get to experience someone’s else story (or tell their own!).
We wanted to do something about what people living in Chicago were saying about people coming into Chicago across the past few years. Migrants were arriving on buses and every means possible to find a better life – just like every other immigrant community now living here – and not only was there a challenge to meet basic human needs (shelter, hygiene, food) but also a challenge of welcoming and accepting people who are not our own people, making room for them, and living life together with them.
And so with the support of the Walder Foundation, we created Youth Journeying Together. We invited high school youth from six different immigrant and migrant communities to spend a year in meaningful contact with each other…
…To visit each other’s neighborhoods …To share and hear each other’s stories of migration …To eat each other’s food and sing each other’s songs …To form lasting relationships across lines of division …To mold youth leaders that will return to their communities as ambassadors …To promote healing between communities in conflict …To change the narrative.
We called our partners at Woodlawn Restorative Justice Hub, Coalition for a Better Chinese American Community, HANA Center, Palenque LSNA, UChicago Hillel, and United African Organization and found 18 amazing youth leaders to journey with us
Beginning in February 2025, each organization hosted all of us for a daylong experience of storytelling, food, and fun together. They got a chance to “set the record straight” and teach the truth about the values they hold dear and the reasons they migrated to Chicago. It’s been an incredible experience, but don’t take our word for it, check out the pictures and video below!
Pastor Julian describing the program
What are our youth leaders saying about the experience???
Danae Kovac, Executive Director of HANA Center
And check out the gallery below to see pictures from each trip!
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Thanks to the Walder Foundation and ALL of our organizations for coming together to do a good thing. And a special shout out to all our YOUTH LEADERS – dreaming of a better world and working to make it so. Let’s keep going! If you or your organization want to get involved, send us a message! YJT@universitychurchchicago.org
Between the news, social media, competing views, and even the ideas we hold in our own body, there are many “lights” that want us to follow in their direction. But God is the true “North Star” that our lives should be pointed toward, and in this Lenten season we are willing to turn away (“repent”, literally) from everything else in hopes that God will show us the way. We enter this time of wilderness – just as Jesus did – for 40 days as a way of growing closer and deeper to our faithfulness, and letting that be our compass. Something powerful happens when we move away from these false and temporary lights, and move closer…
“TOWARD TRUE LIGHT”
Lenten Economic Fast…
6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? 8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly;
Isaiah 58:6-8
This year, the fast we choose is an economic fast from all companies that have diminished their DEI policies in recent weeks. The list of companies is on the flyer below, and we will update this page as we learn more. This commitment is in no way meant to be easy, and for some it may be impossible for whatever reason. We won’t judge each other in any way, but we will be turning away from companies that have said it is not valuable to even try and do justice to its employees and customers. On March 2, Pastor Julian gave a sermon about the history and faithfulness of boycotts (click here to view), which may be worth revisiting as you discern your fast for this Lenten season. If not the economic fast, then consider a fast from now until Easter (40 days, excluding Sundays) that represents a faithful turn toward God. Whatever you do, make the time to PRAY EVERY DAY, and try to move away from the many false lights that hold our attention.
Join us this season…
Every Sunday – 10:30am CST worship service. In-person + online (“University Church Chicago” on YouTube)
Every Tuesday – “GodTalk” Bible Study – 7:30pm CST via Zoom (link on calendar on uchurchchi.org)
Thursday, April 17, 6pm CST – MAUNDY THURSDAY service
Friday, April 18, 5pm CST – “7 LAST WORDS OF CHRIST” by Théodore Dubois (a musical journey through Good Friday)
Sunday, April 20 – EASTER SUNRISE SERVICE at Promontory Point (~6:30am, in-person only), and EASTER WORSHIP AT UCHURCH (10:30am CST, in-person and online)
*we will update this page regularly throughout Lent, so check back often!
See below for a list of voting guides provided to us by both members and partner organizations. These are not endorsements but opportunities for you to understand perspectives on candidates, do your own research, and make an informed, faithful choice! If you’d like to send a guide to be posted here, send to uchurch@universitychurchchicago.org
Chicago School Board Election Info:
From the Chicago Teachers Union, a list of candidates they are endorsing for the first ever ELECTED CPS school board, and a School Board Elections Pamphlet (CLICK TO OPEN) that provides an overview of the history and process…
VoteForJudges.org compiles evaluations by bar groups including the Illinois State Bar Association, the Chicago Bar Association, the Chicago Council of Lawyers, and maybe a dozen other lawyers’ groups that evaluate candidates for the bench in Cook County. Those evaluations will be available by June 1 in a simple grid through this website: http://www.voteforjudges.org/
(Note that the VoteForJudges.org now focuses on contested races where one candidate has been found to be better than qualified. They no longer publish in grid form results for races that are either uncontested or where all evaluations found all of the candidates to be merely qualified or unqualified.)
For judicial evaluations in the rest of the state, I don’t know of any one site that aggregates multiple judicial evaluations, but the State Bar Association is pretty thorough. You should be able to find them on their website at https://www.isba.org/elections
INFORMATION ON VOTING:
*sent by a member (we aren’t taking credit for this awesome information!)
The presidential election is on Tuesday, November 5, and early voting in parts of the state has already started. The State Board of Elections offers a list of early voting locations in every part of Illinois:
Also, your local election authority might have an online request form. (See below)
If you decide that you want to vote by mail, I encourage you to return it as soon as you can so that your local election authority has plenty of time to process it. If you don’t want to put your ballot into the mail, in Illinois you can submit it at early voting locations.
Whenever you decide to vote, here are some websites to get lists of all candidates who are running for office at your address, and to get evaluations (not endorsements) of candidates for judicial office.
Many of these websites will also allow you to request a mail-in ballot online and to confirm that you are registered to vote. If it turns out that you are not registered to vote at your current address, most of these websites will allow you to register online if you have a current Illinois driver’s license. If you don’t have a current driver’s license or if your local election authority’s site doesn’t offer that option, these sites will also have information on “grace period” registration, which will let you register to vote and cast a ballot at the same time on certain days in the offices of your local election authority and at the polling place on election day.
If you live somewhere else in Illinois, the State Board of Elections has a list of all local election authorities in the state, together with their websites (if they have one). Note that municipal election boards are listed after all of the county election authorities. Not all offer sample ballots, but many do. Have a look:
Also, there will be some non-binding advisory questions at the top of the ballot and depending on where you live, there may be some binding referenda in different parts of the state; those will appear right after the candidates seeking office but before those seeking retention as judges.
University Church is looking for the next dynamic person to direct our youth ministry! Below is the job description. If you’re interested or know someone that fits the description, please send a resume and cover letter to julian@universitychurchchicago.org – we are excited to meet you!
Director of Youth Ministry
JOB DESCRIPTION
Our church’s mission statement
University Church is a Christian community, which affirms the transformative power of God’s love, calling us individually and collectively to act for justice and to respect all creation. We value the life and teachings of Jesus and we believe that God continues to be revealed in the world.
Our Vision for a Youth Pastor
We are preparing for someone to lead spiritual formation for our youth (~30) – aged newborn to high school seniors – in collaboration with pastoral staff and highly engaged parents. This person will cultivate a meaningful, challenging, playful, and consistent environment where our children can learn, grow, and practice their faith.
This role is ideal for someone who loves God and working with children…
…who communicates effectively with parents AND children
…who has strong organizational skills and collaborates well
…who can creatively cultivate children’s interest in faith, church, and community through age-appropriate activities and lessons
…who can thrive in a diverse cultural and Christian theological setting
…who models good boundaries, integrity, and healthy relationships
…who enjoys life and a good church!
Position Overview
Time Requirement: Quarter-time (15 hours/week), starting immediately
Salary and Benefits: $1000-$1200/month, commensurate with experience
Reports to: Senior Pastor
Communicates with: Pastoral Staff and Youth Ministry Parents and Volunteers
Credentials: Seminary degree (or similar track) preferred; At least 2 years experience working with young people.
Pastoral Duties
Build relationships with youth and families, and provide pastoral care when appropriate.
Communicate regularly with families about programs, logistics and content.
Coordinate and manage our existing curriculum for our youth
Available each Sunday to lead during worship.
Connect youth ministry to wider congregational life.
Administrative Duties
Coordinate youth participation in worship and special events.
Oversight of Safe Church Policy (background checks, training, supervision of volunteers).
Oversight of youth ministry budget, including proper record-keeping
Coordinate Youth Ministry Parents meeting (every other 3rd Sunday, immediately after worship), regular staff meetings (2x/month), and annual job performance review.
Coordinate all programs within youth ministry
Nursery
“Sacred Circle” (up to age 8)
Youth Church (up to age 17)
Teen Group
Confirmation class
Youth Choir
DIRECT ALL INQUIRIES TO: Julian@universitychurchchicago.org
University Church is an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider candidates from all backgrounds. Candidates must be willing to undergo background check and take professional boundaries course upon hiring.
University Church has had a 24 year partnership with the rural Maya village of Saq Ja’ in Guatemala. The community sets its own dreams, goals and priorities for sustainable development, chooses projects and submits proposals and budgets, and University Church and friends help fundraise to bring these plans to fruition. We also learn from them the truth about the genocide of the Maya people during the 40 year Guatemalan Civil War that destroyed their community in 1981 and 1982 and about our government’s role in that conflict.
Through yearly visits and now through emails and texts, we stay in touch with Saq Ja’s leadership committee for these projects. In the early years, their priorities were to build houses and schools, create a gravity flow water system, plant fruit trees and vegetables for better nutrition, and acquire chickens for each family. Very soon their attention turned to the capacity- building goal of education beyond 6th grade—free primary school is all that the government provides.
For 20 years, we have sent funds for scholarships to supplement what families can afford to pay for middle and high school tuition. This year’s goal is to raise $8,000 for scholarships for the 2025 school year.
Alicia, one of the scholarship students, with her parents. She is at university studying nursing.
Alan (2nd from left), a scholarship student in 9th grade, with his family
In addition, community members are very concerned this year that the spring that feeds the water system is no longer reliable during the dry season, especially for houses furthest from the spring. Many women who live higher up the mountain are having to hike a long distance down to the river to collect water in large jars and carry it back up the steep slope for drinking water, hand washing, cooking, and laundry. It’s a hardship, particularly for the older women. The village has sent us a proposal to buy materials to install systems to collect rainwater from each roof during the rainy season and store it for the 14 houses that don’t have water all year. This year’s goal is to raise $5,600 for these water collection systems.
one of the spigots without water during the dry season
You can make a donation on this website by visiting THIS LINK and indicate that your donation is for the Guatemala Partnership.
Thank you in advance, and please keep the people of Guatemala in your prayers!
Click the link below to read our 2023 Annual Report, which includes reports from all ministries, budget overview, and a transparent look at the life of UChurch via our previous year.
In 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, there were still slaves in Galveston, TX who had not heard about their freedom. A group of Union troops came to deliver the news, and the last slaves were finally freed. This under-noticed occasion should be celebrated as a holy day in American history – I’ve gone on record many times crusading for Juneteenth to be a national holiday – and there is much wisdom to be found in our recognizing it now.
First, it’s important to debunk any romanticized notion that after they got the news, the newly freed slaves all dropped their tools and started partying in the middle of the field. All of our records re: the response after June 19, 1865, indicate a decidedly mixed reaction from the newly freed Galvestonians. This is not hard to imagine – have you ever received overwhelming news before? – some were overjoyed, others frightened at what this freedom meant for their new life (sounds like the disciples post-Resurrection), and many, many, many people simply went back to work. Even though they weren’t in bondage, they continued to work and live like slaves. They chose captivity because, of course, they saw no other options. But they were free.
Freedom is a complicated reality.
Of course, America making Juneteenth a national holiday presents a tragic irony because slavery is in no way dead. Debt continues to bind poor people to powerful institutions, wealth still depends upon exploitation, and non-white bodies are still etched in the American iconography as “workers.” (Oprah: look how hard she had to work! Bill Gates: look how smart he is!) The fact that black wealth and success is still seen as exceptional is proof enough that, if slavery is indeed dead, it “died” as a caterpillar dies to become a butterfly.
By all means, we need to work on these institutions that reinforce slave realities – the criminal justice system, the divorce of “Body” from “Spirit” (so the body can be exploited without losing one’s righteousness), the rejection of black ownership (from property to the right to vote) – and recognize that these among many other realities keep us enslaved to racism: free, but still captive.
But there’s an internal freedom that is threatened on an almost daily basis as well. These are your emotions, and we (all of us) have people that fuse to us emotionally, whether they say mean things, or simply want us to feel what they are feeling. They want to share their hurt, maybe because they think you hurt them, or because they don’t trust they can hold those emotions on their own. They know what to say to get you. The cliché is “misery loves company” but there’s wisdom there: some people want to hold you captive (because they are sociopaths) or need to hold you captive (because they are insecure). It is a common trait/tactic found in abusive relationships and I’ve experienced it personally (in case you’re wondering, yes, it is quite common/expected for pastors to be held responsible for people’s own emotional systems). So I’ve been a hostage before, and I’ve also been a captor in my own personal relationships.
Truly, frustratingly, I’ve been a slave to emotions and responses that were in no way healthy for me, and it had NOTHING to do with another person: I held it and nurtured it myself. I’ve had conversations in the shower with people that weren’t there, multiple strands of the same conversation (“if they say this, I will say this”). I’m not talking about debate prep here, folks: I’m talking about being an emotional hostage, giving my peace over to another person or situation.
Don’t laugh at me: freedom is a complicated reality.
But the truth is as easy to comprehend and difficult to realize as Juneteenth itself: YOU. ARE. FREE. Some people and situations have a special kind of access to your emotional/spiritual system, but you are free to feel what you need, to protect yourself, and to not be scolded for your feelings. You are free to ask, “What is going on with ME to create this response and do I want to live this way?”
Your body is free and belongs to you. You are free to ignore the trap being set for you, without hating the person setting it, or perhaps even finding compassion for them. Remember what Christ said when you feel a hostage situation approaching: “They know not what they do.” You are free.
As a liberation theologian I can’t emphasize this next point enough: I’m not saying if you feel violated that’s your fault, or that you should never share with those you feel violated by. Nor am I abdicating the responsibility of the traumatic experience. I am simply inviting you to share responsibility, as the writer of Proverbs 4 does (“Guard your heart; everything you do flows from it”), or Philippians 4 (“The Peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus”), or John 14 (“Do not let your hearts be troubled”), or Galatians 5 (the Fruits of the Spirit, which have no law against them and nothing to prevent them from existing deep within us)…
…or Howard Thurman, who described freedom as “the ability to deal with the realities of one’s own situation so as to not be overcome by them.” They are all sharing the same, difficult Gospel: in affliction, yet we remain FREE in spirit, held accountable by an all-loving God to protect our spiritual and emotional independence.
What may be triggered by outside is also nurtured within, and until we find the courage to seek help – therapy, abuse and violence resources, better boundaries – not to help THEM but to HELP OURSELVES AS FAITHFUL ACTION (!!!)…until then we will be freed slaves still going about the work of our masters. If you need help, or don’t feel safe, no more violence: reach out and let your church find you some resources to help. If you are reading this, you know we will do this.
Because you are free. God has made it so, and we are still finding out years later. I’m so grateful for today’s reminder. Happy Juneteenth.
PRAYER: God, thank you for making me free. Thank you for making me, beautifully and wonderfully, and for your Spirit reminding me that nothing has happened, or will happen, that can remove me from the freedom found in you. I don’t want to be enslaved by the past or even by people I love dearly; I want to live free in you. Amen.
Growing up, my mother used to always advise me, “Son, better a lesson taught than a lesson bought.” The meaning is plain: mistakes are expensive, and it’s better to learn from other people’s mistakes than to make your own. So growing up I learned the easy way from folks that learned the hard way – thru “run-ins”, addictions – I never judged, especially when I learned that some communities are designed by Evil to make these mistakes and pass them down for a guaranteed exploitable working class. No judgment: I just didn’t want to end up like that. Mistakes avoided: Lessons taught.
And then…I went to Morehouse.
You may not know what happens at Morehouse and I won’t tell you here, but the immediate confidence boost mixed with a deep and protracted insecurity in some strange ways. Almost immediately I started making mistakes of epic proportions: my first sermon I ever preached got me banned from preaching (and saved my life!); a relationship went sour, and got me blacklisted from Spelman for a year; plenty of moments where I grew leaps and bounds and paid for it dearly. Mistakes made: Lessons bought.
Pastoring is a little bit of both. There are many mistakes I don’t make because I learned from others that did (names that, if I told them to you, you’d know there are hundreds of years of wisdom and experience I’ve had poured into me). There are some mistakes that would be outright inexcusable for me to repeat; it would be an insult to my elders. So we’ve done well together, and that’s supposed to be the case when you’ve had lessons taught.
And as we’ve moved into new terrain as a faith community, I’ve sure bought some lessons as well…
Like the time one person dragged me behind the woodshed about all this “walking with God.”
Or the time another person warned that I used a phrase that wasn’t sensitive to folks wrestling with body dysmorphia.
Or recently, when in a celebration of women I too flatly turned it into a celebration of “mothers”, which brings its pain and, quite frankly, could be seen as me participating in patriarchy. Now the person bringing it to me knows damn well that’s not my intent, and was glad to hear the cultural reasons I use “mother” so broadly (almost every woman is a mother to me), but they were right: it’s something I have to be sensitive toward in a community that asks people to show up as their authentic selves.
Many, many other lessons bought that I won’t include here. Suffice it to say: 2018 grew me up a great deal, and I’m still healing from the heavy, heavy cost of mistakes made trying to love.
That hits home, doesn’t it? Mistakes made trying to love. Lessons learned trying to do the right thing…Learning that what we have learned – as a behavior – may not be appropriate within whatever particular context. If you use it right, community can be a place that grows you up with speed and grace.
I’m talking about “growing up” now in the Howard Thurman-via-Revelations sense, where “A crown is placed above our heads that for the rest of our lives we are trying to grow tall enough to wear.”
Or it can be a place that turns you more defensive. Or more bitter. Or confirms your assumptions about men, or black people, or white people, or rich/poor people, or power, or religion, or whatever thing you-know-that-you-know…
Because we don’t know anything, and a good community can show us how little we know, how inadequate our cultural upbringing was at teaching us everything (was it supposed to do that?), and how ready God is to teach us what it means to be disciples, how to live faithfully, and how to ground our being in curiosity and love.
This week, as Lent begins, think about how you can make room for God in your life to have judgment replaced with curiosity, have bitterness replaced with love, have busyness replaced with care for the self, have anxiety replaced with faithfulness.
Jesus looked at his disciples, after they could not heal in Luke 9 and said, “You faithless and perverse generation.” To his DISCIPLES he said this!!!
Indeed, Jesus. Indeed. Hopefully soon we will all be able to say…
