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This is a reading from the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 18, verses 12 to 20.
What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away,
will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go look for the one that wandered off?
And if he finds it, truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off.
In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should perish.
If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their faults, just between the two of you.
If they listen to you, you have won them over.
But if they will not listen, take one or two others along,
so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church.
And if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector.
Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven,
and whatever you lose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Again, truly I tell you, that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for,
it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
For where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them.
This is the gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
Well, thank you for that scripture reading, John.
Good morning, everyone.
My name is Andrew, one of the pastors here.
I feel a little weird because I feel like every time Jonathan preaches,
the turnout the next week is a lot bigger.
And then I notice when I preach, the next week it's a lot smaller.
So I think that's what's happened today.
Jonathan preached last week, and I get to preach to a bigger crowd today.
We're super glad you're here.
Sorry about that, Jonathan.
I'll try hard to make people come back next week.
But I don't want to cut Jonathan too much slack because what happened last week was
Jonathan actually intended to preach this text that was just read to us all the way through verse 20.
He intended to preach that last week.
And he realized, though, last week that he wasn't going to be able to squeeze it all into his sermon,
so he asked me to pick up the rest starting in verse 15 today.
And, you know, I'm a team player, so I typed back to him on Slack.
I said, you got it, boss.
Anything you need.
But then when I realized the passage that he left for me to preach, I was like, yo, of course Jonathan was going to leave me with this passage.
All right?
I mean, the nice title of the sermon today is Becoming an Accountable Community.
Right?
But honestly, you could also title a sermon on this passage, you know,
Four Steps for Removing Someone from Church Membership.
Right?
Or maybe Excommunication According to Jesus.
All right?
So thanks a lot, Jonathan St. Clair.
And here we go.
The sermon, I'm sure that this is why people are flocking here today, a sermon on church discipline.
Something you're all itching to hear about today when you got out of bed, right?
Now, I imagine that this text probably brings up a good amount of discomfort and tons of questions for a number of us.
And I hope to address them throughout this sermon this morning.
But first, I just want to explain Jesus' teaching here on church discipline in case this is a new concept to us.
Look down here.
We're going to go straight into it.
Look down at verses 15 to 17.
It's actually pretty straightforward.
But basically, Jesus is saying in verses 15 to 17, if someone sins, that is, if someone goes against the ways of God,
Jesus says that there is a three-step, four-step process.
Step one, go and call them out on it.
Go and personally, privately seek their repentance.
Seek to get them to turn back to God.
All right?
So that's step number one.
And if they do repent and return back, great.
Mission accomplished.
All right?
But then there's step number two.
If they don't repent, step number two, will then take two or three witnesses and confront them again.
All right?
And if they still refuse to turn back, step three, bring this issue before the church.
And if they still refuse to change their mind and to change their ways, then step four is, Jesus says,
to treat them as a pagan and a tax collector.
Basically, treat them as someone who is now an outsider to your church family.
And this process is what we call the steps of church discipline.
And the final step is excommunication.
Now, if you're wondering what that might look like in real life,
because we are a church that does practice church membership and church discipline here at Christ Church,
let me just share with you what this might look like.
Basically, if Jonathan St. Clair went out and he stole my car, okay?
Let's say Jonathan went out and stole my car.
Jesus is saying that it's actually my personal responsibility as his brother in Christ to confront him about it privately,
before I go off and get the whole church to get behind me and get my car back, all right?
To go to him privately to confront him and seek his restoration.
That's step one when someone in our church commits a blatant sin,
personal and private confrontation with the goal of restoration.
Now, I want to add a big caveat here,
because these are Jesus' instructions for how to conduct ourselves in the church,
in the context of the church.
But the scriptures also talk about how we are to conduct ourselves,
also in the context of civil society.
And, you know, just because Jesus tells me to confront Jonathan privately for stealing my car,
it doesn't mean that I can't also, you know, go contact the police.
And, you know, it's sad that I have to say this,
but far too many churches have tried to, you know, be their own judge and jury,
trying to deal with all kinds of things.
Sexual abuse, domestic abuse, other sins punishable by the law.
And the churches have often tried to do it on their own,
without notifying the proper, you know, law-enforcing authority.
So I just have to say that.
I want to assure you that that's not what Jesus is saying here, okay?
He's talking about personal relationships in the context of the church.
All right, so that's step one.
Step one for dealing with sin in the context of the church family is personal,
private confrontation with the hope of repentance and winning that person back to the family.
But if step one doesn't lead to repentance, if Jonathan won't give me my car back,
won't even admit that he's wrong, then according to Jesus,
I should get two or three witnesses to come alongside me to confront him.
And what I would do is I'd probably get Catherine St. Clair and Constance from our church
to go with me to confront Jonathan and be like,
Dad, give Pastor Andrew his car back.
All right?
I'm hoping that that would be more convicting for Pastor Jonathan.
But if Jonathan still refused to give me back my sweet ride, right,
if he continued in his ways of grand theft auto,
what the next step would be, step three, would be to tell it to the church.
Tell the church.
And this is kind of a scary part, right?
Now, I have a friend, actually, who unfortunately went through this process of church discipline.
She ended up in a romantic relationship with a man who was married to someone else in her workplace.
And she was at a Baptist church.
And a Baptist church typically has more of a congregationalist way of governing.
So they actually had her stand before the whole church in a members meeting.
And they reported her sin to the whole membership, essentially trying to shame her back to God.
And I don't at all condone what she did.
But I want you to know that here at Christ Church, that's not exactly how it works,
according to our book of order, according to our denomination.
Step three of taking it to the church is a lot more discreet than that.
And what step three would look like if Jonathan still did not give me my car back,
step three would mean taking it to the elders of the church.
It would be me going to Tonya and Karen and Wes and Bill and Jocelyn and to our whole presbytery,
our regional presbytery, who keeps me and Jonathan accountable,
and having all of them, this church, confront Jonathan about his stealing of my car.
But then, if Jonathan still refused to repent, after step three,
after the whole church came to him and asked him to turn back to God,
the final step would be to treat him as an outsider to the family of faith.
And no, this wouldn't mean posting bouncers outside of the church,
not allowing him to come into the sanctuary,
but it would mean exclusion from this table right here.
Exclusion from this sacrament of intimate communion with Christ and his people.
Jonathan's refusal to repent, even after these first three steps of church discipline,
would mean that all the members of Christ's church here should take a different view
about our fundamental relationship to him.
No longer seeing him as a brother in Christ, but as someone outside the household of God.
It wouldn't mean that we would love him any less,
but it would mean that in our eyes,
there would now be a huge distinction between who he was and who we are.
A huge distinction between who he belonged to and who we belong to.
And this isn't just some mind game that we try to play,
but church discipline is backed, it says here in verses 18 to 20,
by the very authority of Christ.
Look down with me at verses 18 through 20.
When Jesus uses this language here of loosing and binding,
it's the same language he used early in Matthew chapter 16
when he gives Peter the keys to unlock and to lock the kingdom of heaven.
Basically what Jesus is saying when he says,
whatever you bind or loose on earth will also be bound or loosened in heaven.
And what he's doing is he's giving the institution of the local church
the authority and the role of practicing church membership.
The role of declaring who is in the kingdom and who is not in the kingdom of heaven.
And like, I know a lot of times we cite this passage in our prayer meetings like,
you know, where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am with them.
But you need to know that the direct context for that passage
is actually Jesus' teaching here on church discipline.
He's saying that wherever there is a local church gathering of his people,
even if the church is but two or three people,
there he is with them, standing behind them
in their practice of church membership and church discipline.
Now in case you're wondering,
Jesus is not saying that the church is infallible or an ultimate authority.
As one commentator puts it,
this doesn't mean that God is bound to add his divine sanction
to just whatever the church does.
But when the church does faithfully live up to her calling,
when we practice church membership and church discipline rightly,
we are exercising the very authority
and the very presence of Christ in this world.
So church discipline, this is serious stuff commanded to us,
commended to us by Christ.
It's not just an organizational policy or an artificial construct.
Church discipline is the process that God himself in Christ has given us
to be the body of Christ in this world in a distinctive way.
And so there you go.
That's my best shot at explaining the process
and the purpose of church membership and church discipline
according to Jesus' teaching here in Matthew chapter 18.
We can close in prayer now, all right?
Of course not.
And I imagine, again, that this teaching is quite uncomfortable for a lot of us.
Probably raises a bunch of questions, right?
Like maybe you see Jesus' teaching here,
these four steps leading to the removal of someone from church membership,
and you're wondering,
how can Jesus teach his church to be so exclusive
and so methodically exclusive, right?
I mean, for our modern Western Bay Area sensibilities,
this doesn't exactly fit with our value of radical inclusion, does it?
Jesus, what's up with these boundaries?
What's up with these lines?
What's up with these distinctions,
this distinction between insiders and outsiders?
Jesus, are you really suggesting that we label other people,
that we other certain people who believe and who live differently than us?
And this teaching is not just hard to stomach as inclusive Bay Area progresses,
but even for those of us who don't necessarily, you know,
uphold the secular orthodoxy of the Bay Area,
even for those of us whose primary allegiance is to Jesus,
this teaching on church discipline can still seem hard to square, right?
With the Jesus we thought we knew.
I mean, just last week,
just a few verses prior here in chapter 18,
Jesus was just talking about welcoming children and the least and the lowly
into his kingdom of heaven.
This is the guy who preached the Sermon on the Mount, right?
Love your enemies, turn the other cheek,
judge not lest you be judged.
But here he's saying that there is a point
where we should actually treat certain people as outsiders to his kingdom.
Even like idolatrous pagans and turncoat tax collectors.
So like, what are we to make of Jesus' teaching on church membership
and on church discipline when they seem so much intention
with the inclusivity and the open-hearted love that we all value
and even that we recognize in Jesus himself and his other teachings?
And that's what the rest of this sermon is going to be about,
considering whether Jesus' teaching on church discipline
is actually opposed to his teaching on inclusion and love.
All right?
Are they truly opposed?
Is church discipline truly outside of the way of Jesus?
Or is there something more nuanced, more profound
for us to see in God's word this morning?
Now the first thing that I want to say is,
hey, we've got to be honest though.
Every institution, even the most inclusive by its very nature
as an institution, it's got to be exclusive at least to some degree, right?
Every institution has to have some standard for inclusion and exclusion,
whether it's an Islamic mosque or a Jewish synagogue or a church like ours
or even like a sports team, a club, a gym,
a big global publicly traded business like Google.
I don't think we could name a single institution,
even the most woke, progressive, radically inclusive institution
that doesn't have some criteria for inclusion and exclusion.
It's absolutely just unavoidable if we're going to be honest.
So if we're going to be intellectually honest,
it's not so much a matter of being or not being exclusive or inclusive.
But the more important question is,
what is the criteria?
What is the criteria for inclusion and exclusion?
See, in Jesus' teaching right here,
he's keeping it real about the criteria of the kingdom.
And it's really simple.
It's simple, it's just, it's fair,
and it's truly an equalizing criteria
that doesn't specifically discriminate
against any particular kind of people or people group.
In his kingdom, sin and waywardness from God
constitute the grounds for exclusion.
And repentance and faith in Christ
constitute the grounds for inclusion.
And that's it.
The same standard for everyone.
A standard that neither advantages nor disadvantages
any kinds of people.
Jesus isn't trying to be any more exclusive than anyone else.
He's just trying to be clear and real
about his fair criteria for inclusion and exclusion.
And besides, let's also not forget
where exclusion originally came from in the first place, right?
Who was the first person to draw lines
and boundaries and distinctions?
It was us.
It was humankind when we drew the first line,
when we chose a different way than God's way.
And when we ran away from God and hid from him
and each other,
from that point on,
there were two different ways to live.
Two different teams.
God's and ours.
God's original intention was never to exclude,
but exclusion was born out of our sin.
And you know what?
The rest of the story of history is actually Jesus.
According to Jesus, the rest of the story,
according to his prophets, according to his apostles,
is God's plan to actually include those
who excluded themselves from him.
And not with some kind of compromised
or relativistic inclusivity
that just accepts everyone no matter what
and without cost,
but with a principled, inclusive love
that costs the exclusion of his own son.
On the cross, Christ was excluded
so that we might be included.
On Good Friday, Christ became an outsider
so that we might become insiders.
The son became the scapegoat
sent outside the camp,
crucified outside the city walls
so that we might become citizens
in the new Jerusalem,
members of God's household.
This is the free gift of God's inclusive grace
that's offered to anyone and everyone.
So you see, even with the real exclusivity
that exists and characterizes
the kingdom of Christ,
there is no other kingdom in history, actually.
No other institution that has actually been more inclusive
than the church of Jesus Christ.
That the household of God
that's united in him and in him alone.
It is the most inclusive
precisely because of the way that it is exclusive.
See, Jesus is an equal opportunity offender here.
He excludes all people
according to the same single standard of sin.
But at the same time,
literally anyone,
any kind of person can enter
into the kingdom of heaven
according to the same single standard of faith
and repentance.
And so a second and related thing
I might add to this
is that, you know,
the very notion of radical inclusion
that we so often celebrate
and so often use to condemn Christianity
and the church,
honestly, apart from historic
and orthodox Christianity,
honestly, we wouldn't even be able
to celebrate radical inclusion
like we do today in the secular West.
This notion of radical inclusion
that the secular West so often uses
to bash the church,
it got this from the church
in the first place.
If you're interested in reading more about this,
I suggest Rodney Stark.
He did his PhD here at Cal.
He taught at UW and Baylor.
Or there's Tom Holland.
He's an alumnus of Cambridge.
He's another historian.
Jerry Sitzer or Larry Hurtado.
I recommend all these people
who've done a lot of work on this.
And, you know, even with this,
even with the history of the church,
the history of its oppression,
even after all the times
the church has failed to live up
to our own standards,
Christ's standards,
and Christ's purposes for us,
still, I think you can make
a strong argument
that there's never been
a more diverse,
more inclusive institution
than the Christian church.
As the great African theologian,
St. Augustine,
observed in the 5th century,
all are astonished to see
the entire human race
converging on the crucified one
from emperors down to beggars
in their rags.
And, you know,
the growth of world Christianity
and the, you know,
truly global complexion
of the church
has only continued to today.
Like, did you know
that Christianity
is the most evenly dispersed religion
across the continents?
As of 2010,
according to Pew Research,
25% of Christians
were in Europe,
24% were in Africa,
24% were in South America,
12% in North America,
and 13% in Asia.
So to say that Christ
and His church
are not inclusive
is simply just contrary
to the facts.
But now the third thing
that I want to say
in regard to this alleged
exclusivity of Jesus' teaching
on church discipline,
you know,
is this.
What I want to say is,
what if Jesus' teaching here
on church discipline
is actually way more inclusive
than we originally realized?
I want to show you
that it's actually
way more inclusive
than we actually realized.
Now look down with me here
at verses 12 through 14.
Because it's really important
to see these verses
as the context
for what follows
in verses 15 through 20
when Jesus talks
about church discipline.
Because, like,
Jesus doesn't just,
you know,
out of the blue
launch into giving instructions
for how to kick people
out of church.
That's not what He's doing here
in Matthew chapter 18.
If we look at verses 12 through 14,
we see that Jesus' instructions
for removing people
from the church membership,
it actually flows
out of His exhortation
to the church
to be a pursuing people of God.
In verse 12,
Jesus says,
He says this first,
What do you think?
If a man owns a hundred sheep
and one of them wanders away,
will he not leave
the 99 on the hills
and go to look for the one
that wandered off?
And if he finds it,
truly I tell you,
he is happier
about that one sheep
than about the 99
that did not wander off
in the same way
your Father in heaven
is not willing
that any of these little ones
should perish.
And to just,
to give some context
for Jesus' original hearers
in the ancient Near East,
this would have been
absolutely ludicrous,
alright?
Like what wise,
what responsible shepherd
would leave 99 of his sheep
on a hill,
put 99% of his wealth
at risk
to go after
one wayward sheep,
to preserve
that tiny 1%
of his wealth
that is a particular
headache to him,
prone to wander
again and again and again,
and that might not
even return with him.
The original hearers
of Jesus' teaching
probably would have
thought to themselves,
maybe just leave that one
to the wolves.
99% is still pretty good.
But see,
what Jesus is saying here
is that no matter
how small,
no matter how insignificant,
and no matter
how full his sheep fold,
even at 99% capacity,
God's heart
is to pursue
the one
who is lost
and far from home.
And Jesus is saying
that this should be
the heart of God's people
as well,
the church.
Like,
we must never be
so preoccupied
with the faithful 99
that we neglect
to pursue
the wayward one.
And it is out of this context
that we come
to verse 15
and Jesus' instructions
not on just
how to get someone
out of the church,
but really,
these are Jesus' instructions
for how to win someone back
into the fold.
That's what church discipline
is about.
Look at verse 15.
If your brother or sister,
if someone in your church family,
he's saying,
if someone who you are
personally bound to
and responsible for
in your covenant community,
if they sin,
go, Jesus says.
Be that pursuing people of God
that you're supposed to be
to that one person.
Go in the name
of your good shepherd
after that straying sheep
and point out their fault.
And not to shame them publicly,
but out of love
and out of compassion
and in privacy
just between the two of you,
Jesus says.
And I love this part.
If they listen to you,
this is the goal.
You have won them over.
Like, pay attention to that.
This is, you know,
this supposedly super exclusive
teaching of Jesus
is not primarily
about excluding people.
It's about winning them.
Winning them back
by the means
of church discipline.
Even when they've sinned
and turned their backs
on the family
and the community
and wandered far from God,
Jesus says,
don't forget about them.
Don't just focus
on the easy remaining 99.
No, you go
and you have the hard
and often awkward conversation
of pointing out
that person's sin.
And you call them
to repentance.
And you fight.
You fight the costly fight
for their inclusion
back into the fold.
And see, this,
this is the heart
of Jesus' teaching
on church discipline.
It's actually
for the sake
of inclusion.
Its goal
is to win people
and that no one
be left behind.
So my question,
my question is,
are you down for this?
Christ Church,
are we down for this?
To practice
church membership
and church discipline
with intentionality
in the way of Jesus.
Are we down
to hold others accountable?
To pursue them?
To confront them
in their sin?
And even if you are down,
do you even have
a close enough relationship
with people in this church
to do that?
To know what people
are struggling with?
To know how you might
call others out
and back into relationship
with Christ?
To engage in the hard
and messy
and complicated
but truly loving work
of church discipline
together
as a family in Christ.
You know,
earlier this week,
I got a really
discouraging text
from a member
in our church
who's been away
for almost six months.
I've been reaching out
to this person
every few weeks
and they texted me
back this week
and told me that
apart from my texts,
they've been really
disappointed
that no one's really
reached out
and no one's really
pursued them.
And I don't say that
to make anyone here
guilty,
but it did break my heart.
It broke my heart.
And sure,
this person has
their own responsibility
in their connection
to this church,
but it broke my heart
to read that text.
And I so pray
for such a revival
in this church
that we would be
a people who love
and pursue one another,
that we would be
a church that is
discontent
to let people
wander far away
from a deeper
relationship with Christ
and His church.
You know,
I don't just pray
for us to be
a pursuing church,
but to be a truly
communing,
life-on-life church.
This week,
I had coffee
with a new couple
who's visiting
Christ Church.
They're deciding
between our church
and another church
and they asked me
straight up,
how deep is the
community here
at Christ Church?
They said,
is this the kind
of church where
people are really
invested in each
other's lives,
in the thick
of each other's
messes?
Is this the kind
of church where
people are confessing
sins to each other
regularly and holding
each other accountable?
You know,
I don't say this
at all,
again,
to make us feel
guilty,
but my honest
answer and my
honest assessment
was that that was
more the exception
than the norm here.
And I told them
that I see glimmers,
I see pockets,
I see a slowly
emerging culture
of real discipleship
and accountability,
but ultimately I told
them that we are
far, far from where
we ought to be
as a church.
And so my question
for us,
Christ Church,
is will we be
a pursuing people
of God?
Will we be a family
that takes spiritual
responsibility?
And I think that's
the key word of the
year for our church.
Will we be a people
that takes spiritual
responsibility for
one another?
And if so,
then who are the
two or three people
that God might be
calling you to,
to pursue and to
invest in,
in this church
this year?
Who are the two
or three people
in this church
who you think
might pursue you
and invest in you?
Are you even down
to be vulnerable
and held accountable
in this church?
Like maybe your next
step is simply
becoming a member.
Sure, maybe you've
been a faithful
attender for a long
time, but are you
ready to let the
church be the church
in your life?
To officially keep
you accountable?
The scriptures say
that the Lord
disciplines those
he loves.
And it's the same
way with the church.
The church,
we discipline
those whom we
love.
But we cannot
love you fully
as your church
unless you're an
accountable member
here.
That's subject to
the discipline of
the church.
And I know that
sounds crazy, right?
So countercultural,
so counterintuitive,
like why would
anyone put themselves
in a situation
to be disciplined
by the church?
And I fully
acknowledge the
countless cases
of spiritual abuse
that the church
has inflicted.
The crusades
were real.
The inquisition
was real.
Colonization
was real.
Story after story
of abusive
authoritarian shepherds
who used their
rods not to
comfort and protect
their flock but to
threaten and punish.
I know that's real.
But friends, I'm not
ultimately asking you
to trust the church.
I'm asking you to
trust Christ and the
process that he has
given to us, the
process that he has
instituted in the
church for our good
and for his glory
and for our witness
to the world.
And I get it.
Binding oneself as a
member of a church
to be held accountable
by a community of
fallible people
seems so
counterintuitive.
I get it.
But what if church
membership was like,
what if it was like
Odysseus, right?
Odysseus tying himself
to the mast of the
ship, knowing that
he would be enticed
by the ultimately
destructive siren
songs.
And what if
membership was like
his shipmates with
beeswax in their
ears, rowing hard to
get him away from
danger, ignoring his
pleas for freedom,
freedom to jump and
swim toward his doom,
even as he tore his
own flesh trying to
break free from the
mast.
As the psalmist says,
let a righteous person
strike me, it is
kindness.
Let him rebuke me, it
is oil for my head.
Let my head not
refuse it.
Christchurch, we must
not choose niceness
over holiness.
We must not confuse
niceness for love.
In his classic book,
Life Together,
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
wrote this,
nothing can be more
cruel than the
leniency which
abandons others to
their sin.
And nothing can be
more compassionate
than the severe
reprimand which
calls another
Christian in one's
community back from
the path of sin.
So again, this is not
about kicking people
out of the church.
Or even about the
preservation of our
self-righteous purity
in this church.
What church membership,
what church discipline
is about?
It's about displaying
the good news of
God's love.
And not just his
bare love like any
other kind of love,
but his holy love.
Church discipline is
how the church displays
God's costly love to
the world.
By practicing church
membership, the
exclusivity of church
membership, not
tolerating sin, but
holding people
accountable and
demanding faith and
repentance for entrance
into our community,
we bear witness to
what is ultimately
and rightly
exclusive, the
holiness of God.
God's holy
incompatibility with
God's holy presence.
And at the same time,
by practicing church
discipline and pursuing
people just like our
good shepherd pursued us,
inviting back anyone who
is willing to turn to
him, even when it's hard
and costly and
inconvenient and awkward,
we pursue them and we
get them to come home.
The stray sheep.
When we lovingly practice
church discipline and
pursue our brothers and
sisters in Christ, we
bear witness not just to
the exclusivity of church
membership, but the
inclusivity, the ultimate
inclusivity of our
exclusively holy God,
who paid the greatest
cost to win us back
into the family of God.
Church discipline is our
illustration to the
world of the Son of God
who is treated like a
pagan and a tax
collector in order that
we might be treated as
sons and daughters in the
family of our Father in
heaven.
That's what I want to
commend to us this
morning.
Nothing that Jesus has
not asked us to do, but
to enter into this
church with a heart for
this church membership and
church discipline,
manifesting not just the
exclusivity of the
church, but God's
radical inclusivity in
Christ.
Will you pray with me?
Lord, our understandings of
freedom and inclusion and
exclusion and bondage and
oppression can be so
distorted.
So Holy Spirit, would you
open our eyes to the
liberty of being slaves to
Christ, to the liberty of
being covenanted, committed
to the church, even as
fallible as we are.
Help us, O God, to be the
church that you want us to
be.
And we thank you that you
promised that you would
build your church, that the
gates of Hades would not
prevail against it.
We want to be that.
We want to see that.
We want to experience that,
O God.
So fill us with your spirit
and fix our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of
our faith, the rock, our
cornerstone, O God.
Thank you for hearing us
and thank you for what
you're doing here at
Christ Church.
Lord, would you multiply it
a thousandfold, we pray,
in Jesus' name.
Amen.