Every audio sermon week across the years we have — a filled cell is a week with an upload, darker blue means richer topics. A steady weekly cadence shows as a solid band across years.
LessMore·no upload·known, not transcribed
Each cell is one week · darker blue = richer topics (clean, sermon-only audio scores higher) · pale = thin, faint = no upload · gold outline = known, not yet transcribed · red outline = broken/failed file · uploaded in 30 of 35 weeks across the span (86%).
How this church compares
Against other ucc and against every sermon on the site. Signals are approximate and grow more reliable as more of the archive is scored.
●this church┃peer average┃site average
Emotional rangenoticeably narrower
Its sermons travel noticeably narrower in feeling than a typical peer congregation, and noticeably narrower than the site overall.
site avg 0.12
narrowerpeer avgwider
Emotional intensitysomewhat lower
The peaks run somewhat lower than peers, somewhat lower than the site.
site avg 0.64
lowerpeer avghigher
Among ucc churches with enough scored sermons, it ranks #54 of 67 for emotional range.
On the words themselves, it reads as characteristically ucc.
“Luke tells the story by saying that their eyes were kept from recognizing Jesus, and then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and then h…”
“And not just, of course, on the dramatic scale of the destruction of Sodom, even on the vanishingly small scale of making eye contact on the L, well,…”
“Eve versus the serpent, Jacob wrestling the angel, Moses against Pharaoh, and in between we prayed and sang and like tried to keep things under contr…”
Found on this church’s websiteOther UCC churchesAll churches
The percentage is how many UCC churches’ websites state that value; the bar turns orange where this church’s website states it too.
of UCC sites
This church
LGBTQ+ affirming
57%
✓
Economic justice & mutual aid
35%
✓
Peace & nonviolence
17%
Radical hospitality & accessibility
17%
✓
Anti-racism / racial justice
11%
Creation care / climate
9%
✓
Open to people of all faiths
7%
Immigrant & refugee welcoming
6%
✓
Disability justice
3%
✓
Children & youth
68%
✓
Online worship
49%
✓
Small groups
36%
✓
Child safety policy
11%
Financial & governance transparency
10%
Languages / interpretation
2%
Website & sermons online
This church: audio only — like 2% of UCC churches.
Audio + videoAudio onlyVideo onlySite, no sermonsJS-only siteBlocked / timeoutDead or hijackedNo website
Website completeness, all churches: a rough score of how complete and easy-to-navigate the church’s own website is.
Among the 3,012 churches with a readable, rated website (scores of 0 and 100 left out), this one is at the top of the scale.
Values stated, within UCC churches: how many of the 29 values we track each church’s website states. This one states 9 — ahead of 91% of UCC churches (the typical one states 4).
What their website says
Justice & social positions
✓
LGBTQ+ affirmingsourceOpen and Affirming Bethany is an Open and Affirming congregation that welcomes the full participation of all LGBTQ+ persons, friends, and members at every level of life and leadership.
✓
Immigrant & refugee welcomingsourceWe sponsor refugee families through RefugeeOne , helping them make home in a new place.
✓
Radical hospitality & accessibilitysourceOpen-minded, wholehearted, hands-on faith Disability Justice disability justice ACCESS IS JUST THE BEGINNING Elevator & restroom Bethany has an accessible entrance on the Cullom side of our building.
✓
Creation care / climatesourceOur Green Team educates, inspires, and drives us to action for environmental justice, from contacting legislators to sewing cloth bags for use at farmers’ markets, from securing a grant to replace all our light bulbs with LEDs to beginning to compost at the church.
✓
Economic justice & mutual aidsource(First opened in 2011, The Crib has become a model for youth shelters in Chicago and is recognized for its LGBTQ-competent services.) Every Advent, we stuff stockings with items meant to ease life lived on the street for TNM to distribute to unhoused clients.
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Not found on the pages we checked: Anti-racism / racial justice, Open to people of all faiths
Belonging & practical
✓
Children & youthsourceIf you want to learn more about what we talked about in Sunday School, check out the “This Week in Sunday School” flier outside the Fellowship Hall!
✓
Online worshipsourceOPEN-MINDED, WHOLEHEARTED, HANDS-ON FAITH During the school year, we worship in Bethany’s sanctuary or on Zoom on Sundays at 10:30 am.
✓
Small groupssourceWe host sew-ins during the Spring and Fall to make reusable bags for use at Farmer’s markets and Christmas gifts wrapping, we have held bird watching small groups during Spring migration, and we often center creation in our scriptures and worship series.
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Not found on the pages we checked: Languages / interpretation
No video feed found
We haven’t found a video feed on your website for this church. If you post services on YouTube or livestream them, let us know and we’ll index those weeks too.
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Denomination off, name wrong, or this isn’t actually a house of worship? Tell us — it helps keep the archive honest, and flags the page for a re-check.
Invite your members to build their own personal theology on Divining — and see, over time, which of your past sermons resonate most.
Most-saved moments
Coming soon. Once listeners begin saving sermons and passages, the moments your congregation returns to most will appear here.