Glencoe Union Church

A Brief Profile of Glencoe Union 

Our Mission Statement: Loving God, Loving One Another, and Loving the World  

Founded as a Congregational Church in 1872, we are an inter-denominational, mainline protestant congregation. In 1910, the church voted to become a “Union” church—that is a congregation centered in the Protestant tradition but not confined to one denominational identity; our polity/governance is similar to that of a UCC congregation. Our membership is around 300 with an average worship attendance, both live and online, of 130. We are located in the Village of Glencoe (population 9,000), just north of Chicago on the shore of Lake Michigan and while rooted there, take joy in serving the broader community. Our church upends all assumptions that liberal-oriented church life in suburbia is waning!  

We are a growing congregation with a vital practice of worship, strong relational connections with one another, a thriving youth and children’s ministry, and a wide range of outreach initiatives that we support through funding and shared service. We place significant emphasis on being a community of generous welcome and enduring friendship.  We are congregation with a healthy intellectual curiosity and strive to be a place where concerns of the intellect and soul intersect.   

Our recent area of growth has been young families eager to recover a connection to a community of faith for themselves and their children. Many who join our church have either been absent from church life since youth or have never been meaningfully connected to a faith community. Those who come to us with a church background represent a range of Catholic and Protestant communities. As our make-up would suggest, we are centered in the Christian tradition in a way that does not demand doctrinal conformity—but instead remains faithful to the center, encourages devotional practice, intellectual inquiry, and spiritual exploration.  

We place a high value on connecting the life of faith to contemporary life. That value expresses itself in our worship, our educational programs, and our broader engagement with the community beyond GUC. 

In our life as a congregation, we seek to express the inclusiveness that is intrinsic to the Gospel, one which inspires us to be welcoming to all—regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or life situation. The make-up of our membership reflects our fundamental commitment to inclusiveness.  

We are deeply committed to the practice of collaborative leadership. That commitment is evident in how our professional and lay leadership work in tandem to guide our life together. We place a high value on process that is rooted in trust, truthfulness and, in all things, love.  

Our financial situation is strong. We are debt free and have an annual pledge income in excess of $600,000 and, with the additional funds generated by our endowment, our Annual Budget is around $800,000.