Why our church chose Aurora

Aurora is a city bursting at the seams with excitement, innovation, and diversity. It grew almost 40 percent between 2000 and 2013 and has taken major developmental strides with projects like the Two Brothers Roundhouse, River Edge Park, and the new library downtown, which have created safe spaces for residents and visitors to learn, explore, and celebrate.

When we as a church planting team were looking for where we might plant a church from Church of the Resurrection in Wheaton, we knew it had to be near downtown Aurora, which seems to be the best-kept secret in Chicagoland. Aurora has the all the dynamism and challenges of a large city. Poetically speaking, it shines with beauty and potential and bleeds with brokenness and need. It wears its heart on its sleeve without pretense. This excited us.

My husband, Trevor, and I, along with our two children, moved to the east side this summer. We are the lead pastors at City of Light Anglican Church, a church with a mission to love our city. We chose Aurora. Or rather, to be honest, it chose us. We were welcomed with open arms by other churches and city officials and we quickly fell in love. We loved the vibrant diversity. We loved the collaboration among churches, city officials, and law enforcement. As musicians, we loved the creative artistic community here. We loved the sweeping front porches. We loved the tacos.

Aurora has quickly captured our hearts, but we're still new to its beauty and challenges. We know we don't truly have the experience of those who have lived here much longer than us. For example the first week we moved in, we met a neighbor and her husband who have lived in our neighborhood for 50 years!

That's one thing we're slowly learning: People who live in Aurora love Aurora; and people who love Aurora choose to stay in Aurora. Sheli Massie, one of our team members who lives on the west side near Hill Elementary, where our church will be meeting on Sundays at 10 a.m. this fall, told me, "When you talk to neighbors who went to West Aurora High School, they are proud. They know they are part of a tradition of previous generations walking the halls, playing on the court and believing in Aurora's revival to greatness. People who live in this city stay. They believe that Aurora can be better. They believe in community, hard work, and family. They believe and feel welcome."

For this reason, we're so thankful to be leading City of Light Anglican Church alongside some longtime Aurora dwellers like the Massie family. Cory Whitehead, another one of our team members can be seen at almost every East Aurora football and basketball game. He says, "I love the underdog. Before I moved to Aurora, I lived in a place where everyone looked like me and seemed to look down on Aurora. I got tired of that quickly. I immediately fell in love with Aurora's diversity, the understated beauty, the drive of the people, the hope and persistence to make things better. I love how so many people get off the sidelines and get in the game to try to make the city become its best self."

And that's exactly why we chose to plant a church in Aurora. We believe in this city, and as a people of faith, we trust that God believes in and loves Aurora and wants us to plant and foster roots here for the betterment of our community.

"The local church is a force for good in our communities," says west side resident and City of Light member Hayley Meksi. "It's an organically connected group of people who have a common focus on bringing redemption to hard places."

Cory Whitehead puts this value like this, "One important component of a vibrant city is a strong faith community. For churches like ours, we're driven by our faith to truly know, love, and serve people - whether they are like us or not. We're compelled to contribute in a positive way to what's already happening in our city - seeing people experience hope and a more abundant life." And certainly hoping in something new, in a new dawn and a new day in the City of Lights and in our hearts and homes, is something we can all choose.

For more information about City of Light Anglican Church, visit cityoflightanglican.org. The community is invited to the weekly services, which will kick off Oct. 18 with a service at 10 a.m. and festival after the service at 11:30 a.m., including a taco truck, bounce house, free cupcakes, and a free professional photo for each family.