Biking to Worship and Making Faith-based Transportation Choices

When I moved to Chicago last summer, one of my priorities was finding a church with a foundation of values that I could enthusiastically practice. I checked out Urban Village Church (www.newchicagochurch.com) and 11 months, later, I found myself on Chicago’s Lakefront Trail, participating in Urban Villages Bike to Worship Sunday yesterday. Riding through a Chicago breeze with the lake to my left and the beautiful city to my right, I felt like I had jump-started my worship experience for the morning. I saw the sparkle of the water, felt the breeze, smelled the flowering trees and heard the birds of creation all around me. It was an incredibly relevant, faith-based choice to actively participate in better stewardship of creation while on my way to church.
Urban Village’s bicycling pastors, Trey Hall and Chris Coon, gave the Active Trans Bike To Work Week Team Captain shirt to the person in the congregation who had biked the furthest to worship that morning. Participants in the congregation gathered for some pictures after the service. We were all smiles and helmets.

While Bike To Worship Sunday was a meaningful way for me to kick-off Bike To Work Week, the real take-away for me is this: in all faiths, taking care of and being good stewards of the earth is an instruction from God. As a person of faith, I find that we are all called to make more appropriate choices every day about how we live, including how we impact the earth in our transportation, eating and shopping choices. Urban Village’s Bike To Worship Sunday left me craving more jump-start-worship Sundays, and I am challenging myself to make that bold and relevant choice every Sunday for the rest of the summer. Care to join me?