Our Approach to Ministry.
Our leadership team has adopted a set of practices and postures which are becoming our way of proceeding. We acknowledge that we are a work in progress and the following are both lived and aspirational. It’s our desire to live this deeper still.
Our Pillars
Unity & Diversity
In Christ, the walls we’ve constructed of hostility, judgment and division are torn down by love. The world often uses difference as a means of separation and power - race, class, gender, sexuality and all the markers we’ve invented to divide ourselves. We believe our call as the church is to break these norms and embrace diversity, where difference is not only acknowledged but celebrated - seeing each person as a beloved child of God. Unity in Christ is not a call for uniformity—it’s a call for authentic connection, for intimacy and vulnerability, even in the midst of our differences. In Christ, we are woven together as one body, each one with their own role, each one contributing to the whole.
Flourishing Community
We desire to witness the transformative power of Christ’s love and the presence of the Church woven into every dimension of life in Chicago.
We seek to engage with the spiritual, social, economical, emotional, political, cultural, moral, and familial fabric of our community, nurturing environments where flourishing can take root and thrive in our neighborhoods and spaces.
Christ at the Center
We hold a Christ-centered, Trinitarian view of faith, understanding that Christianity is a big tent and a vast, inclusive journey.
All are welcome to Jesus’s table as we move together towards deeper connection with God and with one another.
Epiphany
When we chose the name Epiphany Church, it wasn’t just a title—it was a vision. Epiphany speaks to the sacred moments when we awaken to God’s presence, to each other, and to our purpose in the world. It's a word rooted in the Christian tradition, yet it resonates with the universal human longing for what is good, true, and beautiful.
As Leonard Cohen said, “There’s a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” Epiphany Church is a place for those cracks, for real questions and real lives, where we catch glimpses of light that change us and send us back into the world with purpose and love.
We believe the Church should be a place where the light of God breaks into the darkness of the world—a community shaped by the cross, rooted in love, justice, and nonviolence. Epiphany isn’t about perfection; it’s about presence. It's in the silence, the laughter, the ordinary moments where God often reveals Himself.
We see ourselves as midwives of hope—pushing, waiting, holding space for the birth of something new in people’s lives. Like the voice Jesus hears at his baptism—“You are my beloved”—we want people to have the “aha” moment where they believe they are deeply loved and part of God’s great renewal project.
Our Values
Compassion
We see others with non-judgment.
Pure at heart
We keep it real.
Peacemaking
We reach past differences.
Sacrificial Love
God’s Table is wide and open to all.
Trust
When we feel we are not enough.
Lament
We address the mess.
Humility
We will learn from anyone.
Justice
We ache for change.