Building Gospel-Centered Communities

We call the season of Lent, we're taking more time than usual to reflect on all that God has called us to be and to do in our lives.

And the fact that we need Jesus and we need the power of the Holy Spirit to fulfill that calling.

So we're thinking about that as individuals and we're also thinking about that as a community.

And so we're taking time this season over these weeks to reflect as a church on those two questions.

Who are we and who is the Lord calling us to become in this neighborhood of Brooklyn in the city of Washington, D.C.?

And for those of you who have been a part of this church or other churches, you know that it's very important from time to time for us to come together as a church and to ask these questions, to reflect on those things.

If you're not a part of our church, if you're visiting, if you're not a Christian and this sounds maybe like it's not relevant for you,

I do want to say actually I think this is a great opportunity for you to get a sense of what we're about and what kind of community this is and what we care about.

And to decide whether or not this could be a community that would become your home.

And we really hope that it will.

But I want to put the statement up here.

This is the way that we would summarize who we are as a church and where we feel like God is calling us to go.

And this statement has come out of our leadership and a lot of prayer and reflection and conversations in our congregation.

So I'll just read it to you.

As a church, we seek the flourishing of Washington, D.C.

by building gospel-centered communities that practice generous hospitality, spiritual formation, and missionary faithfulness in every neighborhood.

So this is how we would answer those questions.

And we want to make sure that we have clarity on this so that we can move forward together in the coming years as a community, move as one.

And so we're breaking this down and looking at a different piece each week.

So two weeks ago, we looked at the first part, as a church, that's our identity.

And then last week, we looked at the second sort of grouping of words, we seek the flourishing of Washington, D.C.

That's our vision.

That's what we hope to one day see become a reality here.

As a part of our church's presence.

So tonight, or I'm sorry, this morning, we're going to be focusing on this next phrase.

Building gospel-centered communities.

And this is the phrase that we would really use to describe the mission of our church.

What's the core strategy or the core thing that we devote ourselves to?

Now, different churches define that differently.

And for us, this is how we would define the core strategy that we pursue in our life together.

And the first thing I want to say about this, before we get into Scripture, is that this is not a new idea.

That there's not a single thing that is innovative about this.

There's not a single thing that is creative about this.

This is in no way, shape, or form a creation of anything that we have come up with.

We articulate our mission this way because when we read Scripture, we see that this has been God's approach since the very beginning.

That from the very beginning, God's way of interacting with and ultimately saving and restoring His world has been through communities.

Taking a community of people, setting them apart as His covenant community.

And then using that community to bless the rest of the world.

That's the way that God does what He does in the world.

And we see in the Old Testament that happens through Israel.

But ultimately, they fall short in that role.

And so Jesus comes, and in the New Testament, we see that this work continues through the church.

So this is God's mission in the world, to build gospel-centered communities throughout the world.

And so our mission is to build gospel-centered communities throughout Washington, D.C.

And so we're going to look at Acts 2, verses 36 to 47.

Acts 2:36–47

David just read it a moment ago.

And we see here Scripture that helps us understand what gospel-centered communities actually are.

And so we're going to spend the most of our time looking at gospel-centered communities, what that actually means.

And then a few minutes at the end, we'll just talk a little bit about the specifics of how we actually go about doing that here as a church.

So Acts 2, verses 36 to 47.

Acts 2:36–47

Let's pray, and then we'll dive in.

Our Heavenly Father, as we look at these words, we acknowledge that anything that is built with human hands, human wisdom, is sure to fall apart, is sure to fall short, is sure to one day fail.

That, Lord, we're here because we believe that you're doing something in the world, that you are here, present, at work in the world that you've made.

Because you love it and because you want to restore it.

And, Lord, we want to be a part of that, a part of what you're doing.

So we ask that all that we do here this morning, including these words, would be a faithful reflection of what you're doing and of who you are.

That you would bind us together and bind us to yourself, that we would be a part of your great mission in the world.

We pray this in your Son's holy name. Amen.

So Acts chapter 2, verses 36 to 47.

Acts 2:36–47

What is a gospel-centered community?

I want to start by saying this.

All communities, all communities, are held together by at least two things.

You have to have some shared identity.

And then you have to have some kind of or set of shared practices.

Those are the things that define communities.

And this can be anything, right?

So you can have hobby-centered community, right?

You love to ride bikes, right?

You're a cyclist.

And you identify that way.

And you have friends who are cyclists.

And on the weekends, you go on long cycling trips out into Virginia.

So that may be one kind of community.

You have job-centered communities, right?

You work in international development.

And you have all these friends who also work in international development.

And you go and you do international development things together.

And so that's a kind of community, right?

You can have a community that's based on where you live, right?

A common kind of shared neighborhood.

These are all platforms for community.

You can also have a life-stage-centered community.

This may be one of the more common experiences we have, right?

You have a group of single people without kids who love going out.

And they have all of their – and they call everybody, let's go out.

It's 9 p.m., but let's go out.

And we're going to stay out super late.

And all the people that say yes tend to be people who don't have kids.

And you go out and you have fun and you stay out until 3 o'clock in the morning.

And it's great, right?

And then if you're married and you're thinking about, well, if I leave and I have to get a babysitter,

and that's $100 before I even think about parking or food or anything like that,

and then my kids are going to be screaming in my face at 6 a.m.,

and you're like, you know, I'm not going to go out.

99% of the time I don't want to go out.

I want to stay in and watch Netflix and be asleep by 10, right?

And so you have a natural segregating around these life stages.

That's a life stage centered community, right?

So communities are tied together by a common identity and then shared practices.

But here's the thing.

Things change, right?

Circumstances change.

You love cycling, but then you get an injury and you're out.

And your friends keep going on trips without you, and it's hard not to lose touch with them.

Or you get sick of the field that you're working in and you change jobs,

and you want to still keep going out with all the friends at your old job,

but you have less and less to talk about, less and less in common, right?

And this happens a whole lot.

You have people who they love going out, and they're single, and they don't have kids,

and they do it all the time, and then they get married, and then they have kids,

and then all of a sudden when everybody else is going out,

they're exhausted, and they don't want to go out, and it's expensive.

And so naturally, as much as they want to keep everybody together and keep hanging out,

naturally you begin to grow apart.

And it's not because people don't care about each other.

It's because the common platform of your community has shifted.

And so the principle that we see here is that the strength of any given community,

the strength of any given community depends on what it's centered around.

Is it an identity, and are there shared practices that remain,

or are those things changeable?

Do they change over time?

So when we talk about a gospel-centered community,

what we're saying is you have a community that while we may have common interests

and similar jobs and similar life stages and all of those things,

that the thing that actually ties our community together is none of those things.

The thing that ties our community together

is the gospel,

which means the good news of the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

which is an eternal, unchanging reality.

And that that is the center of our community.

And the gospel gives us a shared identity,

and it gives us shared practices.

And that's what we see in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

This is right after Pentecost when the Holy Spirit has come,

and Peter preaches this spirit-filled sermon,

and there's this mass conversion.

All of these people, their hearts are pierced,

and they come to Christ.

And this is the beginning of the New Testament church.

And we see this description of a gospel-centered community

through identity and shared practices.

And the first section really talks about a gospel-centered identity.

I'll just read it to you, these verses here, verses 36 through 38.

Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain

that God has made him both Lord and Christ,

this Jesus whom you crucified.

That's the end of the Apostle Peter's sermon.

Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart

and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles,

Brothers, what shall we do?

And Peter said to them,

Repent and be baptized, every one of you,

in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins.

So the first thing we see is that a gospel-centered community

is made up of people who share this gospel identity.

In other words, they are people who have had their hearts pierced by the gospel,

and they have repented,

and they have been baptized for the forgiveness of their sins.

And through that baptism, they've become a part of the church body.

And really, the focus here is on the word repent,

because the core of Jesus' teaching,

which is summarized in Mark 1.15, is this.

Jesus came and he preached.

This was the core, main idea of his sermons.

Repent and believe in me.

Repent and believe in me.

That's what Jesus preached.

And I think often we hear the word repent,

and we have lots of connotations.

And so the thing I want you to see is that repenting

is about a lot more than just being sorry

that you lost your temper or cussed or masturbated last night.

It's a much bigger phrase.

That the word repentance actually shows up outside of the Bible.

And one of the great examples of the use of this word

comes from the first century.

There were some Jews who were planning a revolt.

The Jews were under Roman occupation.

They hated it.

And so a group of Jews,

they were planning a violent military uprising, a revolution.

And there was a man named Josephus,

and Josephus knew, he just looked at this situation,

and he knew that this plan was hopeless,

that this approach to revolution

would only end in slaughter and death and failure.

And he had a different plan for revolution.

He agreed that there needed to be a revolution,

but he had a different plan for bringing it about.

So Josephus goes to the brigand,

the leader of this kind of planned revolt,

and he sits down with him,

and he tries to convince him,

abandon your strategy.

Abandon your plan for revolution.

It's not going to work.

It's going to fail.

There's no way that it will succeed.

And I want you to come,

and I want you to join my revolution

and what I'm doing.

And do you know the words that he literally uses?

Repent and believe in me.

The exact same words that Jesus uses.

And this helps us understand more

what Jesus actually means

when he preaches this message.

Because what he means is so much bigger

than what we normally think.

That the gospel is Jesus' plan for revolution.

The gospel is Jesus looking at the world,

seeing everything that's wrong with it,

sin and death and corruption and oppression

and poverty and disease and all of these things,

and realizing there needs to be a revolution.

But it's the revolution that he's bringing about

through his death and resurrection.

And so when Jesus says repent,

he's saying abandon your plan.

Abandon your whole life project

that you're doing apart from God.

However good you think you are,

whatever difference you think you're making,

ultimately you are doomed.

Ultimately this path leads to destruction.

It's a dead end.

He says so repent.

Leave all of that behind.

Which means don't just stop doing the bad stuff,

but stop thinking that by doing good apart from God,

you can somehow be saved

or somehow bring about everything

that this world needs.

He says abandon your plan for revolution.

Become a part of my plan for revolution.

So repenting means abandoning our whole life plan

and becoming a part of what Jesus is doing.

It means believing that his death pays for our sin.

It means that believing his righteousness

makes up for everything we lack in righteousness.

So this is telling us that our shared identity,

our shared identity,

is that we're sinners who have been saved by grace.

Our shared identity is that we are people

who looked at our plan

and looked at God's plan in Jesus

and we scrapped our plan

and we said I want to be a part of this.

And we've joined in through our baptism

to all that God is doing through Jesus.

And so because of this common identity,

our community looks very unique.

So if you come into a gospel-centered community

and you're actively committing sin,

envy or greed or slander or gossip

or sexual immorality

or any of the things that the Bible lists,

a gospel-centered community is going to say

that's not Jesus' way.

Abandon your life apart from God.

Repent and come and follow Jesus.

Right?

That's what we'll say

because that's our identity.

But also if you come into a gospel-centered community

and you're self-righteous

and you're virtue signaling on social media

and you're letting everybody know

how moral and upright you are

and how much you care

and uniquely understand these issues

more than anybody else

and because of that,

you're righteous.

Right?

A gospel-centered community is going to say,

no.

That's not Jesus' way.

Abandon your plan.

Repent and come and follow Jesus.

Right?

So a gospel-centered community

is going to constantly be pulling us

out of our own agendas,

out of our own plans,

out of our own strategies

and into what God is doing through Jesus.

That's what we're about.

Right?

So in a gospel-centered community,

that's incredibly liberating

because we no longer here have to pretend

like we do outside of this community.

You know, you go to your job,

you meet people at parties,

and you meet people up,

and you put the persona out there.

You know?

You put your best stuff out there,

and you try to convince people

that you're this amazing person.

And we just get to take that off here

because that's not our shared identity.

Our shared identity is that we're sinners

saved by grace.

So just by you being here

is an admission of guilt.

You didn't know that.

I assume the worst about people.

The absolute worst.

Because I know myself.

I know the truth about myself.

I know that you have no idea

how bad I am.

And so I assume the same is true of you.

So here's the gospel.

Most of the time,

you're a horrible person.

You're a horrible person.

But that's okay because I am too.

And here's the good news.

Jesus loves us more than we can possibly fathom.

And we love each other.

And you're horrible,

and I'm horrible,

but I'm crazy about you,

and we're in this together.

And this is what a gospel-centered community is like.

No lies, no personas.

Honesty.

It feels really good, right?

So this is our shared identity.

We're people who have abandoned our agendas

and our personas,

and we've joined the Jesus revolution.

And of course,

this means that we have common practices.

We have common things that we do together,

and those practices reinforce

this gospel-centered identity.

And you see those in the next section

of the book of Acts,

in verse 42 to 47.

It says this.

I'll just read this first line.

Verse 42,

And they devoted themselves

to the apostles' teaching

and the fellowship,

to the breaking of bread

and the prayers.

So you see this language tells us

that they're regularly coming together

to hear God's word,

to be in fellowship with one another,

to break bread through the Eucharist,

through celebrating the Lord's Supper,

and then to pray together, right?

And this is why we get together every week.

This is why we come together every week.

The church has been doing it

since the very first worship service

in Acts chapter 2.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

The church has been doing

what we're doing right now.

And a lot of the language

and the prayers that we use here

come from the first and second century.

So some of what they're doing there

is very literally what we're doing here.

Right?

So we gather together,

and of all the reasons that we gather,

the primary one is to worship God

and to glorify God.

But do you know what's also happening here?

We go out into the world

and we forget who we are.

You know, everybody tries to tell you

who you are.

You know, your friends try to tell you

who you are.

Your family, your parents

try to tell you who you are.

Right?

The people who work over you

try to tell you who you are.

The people who work under you

try to tell you who you are.

And everybody tries to tell you

who you are.

And only God can tell you who you are.

And God uses us to remind one another,

this is who you really are.

You're not that fake person out there.

This is who you really are.

This is who you are in Christ.

And when we come together every Sunday,

we are being reconstituted,

regrounded in that core identity.

Oh, this is who I am

in Jesus Christ.

So we're coming together as they did

for the apostles' teaching

and the fellowship

and the breaking of bread

and the prayers.

So we see gospel-centered worship

is a huge practice

that a gospel-centered community

engages in.

And then as we move on in the passage,

we see that a gospel-centered community

is generous.

You have gospel-centered generosity.

Starting in verse 34, it says,

And all who believed were together

and had all things in common.

And they were selling their possessions

and belongings

and distributing the proceeds to all

as any had need.

This is not some kind of Christian socialism.

This is example after example

after example of generosity.

And it's gospel-centered generosity.

How do we know?

Because the next line tells us,

And day by day,

attending the temple together

and breaking bread in their homes,

they received their food

with glad and generous hearts.

Gospel-centered generosity

is generosity that's motivated

not by guilt or shame or obligation.

It's motivated by gratitude.

Because the gospel is all about

God's generosity to us.

God looking at us,

looking at our hopelessness.

and His Son being willing

to give His life

to give us everything that we need.

Right?

It's generosity.

And so when you really begin

to understand the generosity

that we receive from God,

it inspires generosity.

Because it fills you with gratitude.

Thank you.

I did not deserve this.

Thank you so much.

And you begin to think about

how can I do the same

in other people's lives, right?

That's gospel-centered generosity.

And in fact, we see that

happens first and foremost

among the people in the church.

Right?

It's a generosity that's meant

for everybody.

But the example we're given here

is this is how generous

they were to one another.

So they're giving of everything

that they have to the community

for the sake of the whole.

They see themselves

as inextricably linked

to the welfare of the whole.

And so this is why,

as Christians,

we think about giving.

This is why we give to the church.

Right?

It's not like a non-profit

where it's just part

of our charitable contribution.

We do this because

it's a core aspect

of what it means

to be a recipient

of the generosity

of the gospel.

To see ourselves

as having a common identity.

Right?

We give as a way

of acknowledging

God has entrusted this to me.

I'm a steward of it.

And I'm meant to use it

in a way that blesses the whole,

not just myself.

Right?

And so Christians talk

about tithing.

And tithing is

as a kind of

an Old Testament principle.

You know,

giving 10%

of the first fruits

and it's an agricultural

principle primarily.

And we see that

as kind of a principle.

But really,

I encourage people

not to be legalistic

about tithing.

It's not about

a hard and fast 10%.

The principle

that we see here

and the underlying principle

is that we are recipients

of radical,

sacrificial generosity.

And so as a response

to that,

we practice

radical,

sacrificial generosity.

sacrificial generosity.

Right?

And so we,

a part of our membership covenant

is that members

make a covenant

to give sacrificially

to the church body.

We encourage

all of our regular attenders

and people who call

this church their home

to give sacrificially

to the church body,

to the needs

of the community.

Right?

And yet,

if you're not a Christian

or you're not a part

of this church,

we would say,

no,

please don't give.

Because the reason

that we give

is a direct response

to the generosity

of the gospel.

It flows out of that.

So if you don't believe

the gospel,

you don't have a reason

to give.

Right?

So we don't want you

to do that

because it's an outward

and empty gesture

that doesn't align

with something

that's inward

and real and true

in your heart.

So this is how we think

about gospel-centered

generosity.

Right?

And then the third thing

that we see beginning

in verse 47

is this community

is not just

worshiping together.

They're not just generous

and thankful,

but we see

gospel-centered evangelism.

verse 47

describes them

as, quote,

praising God

and having favor

with all the people.

And it says,

the Lord added

to their number

day by day

those who were

being saved.

It's interesting.

American evangelical

Christianity

has,

over the last

more than a century,

century and a half,

really come to focus

on individual faith

and individual evangelism.

I think about myself

going and talking

with my friend Bob

and saying,

I would like for you

to consider the claims

of Christ.

And that's okay.

There's a place for that.

But what we see here

is something kind of different.

We see actually

an evangelistic community.

Evangelistic simply,

basically meaning

a community

that sort of emanates

and embodies

the gospel

and invites people

in to experience it.

And that's what

we see here.

So this is an open,

welcoming community,

and as people

are coming into

this community,

they have a public,

visible presence

and people are,

who are those people?

They seem really

happy and nice

and I'm going to go

see what they're doing.

And they're really

doing a good job

of taking care

of each other

and they seem very real

and they're not

fake nice.

They're genuine

and they're authentic

and they seem to be

the kind of people

who can handle

my alcoholism

and my addiction

and the abuse

that I've experienced

and all of these things

that I don't feel

like I can talk about.

This seems like

the kind of place

where I can just

really be honest

about those things

and they're coming

into this community

and they're experiencing

life and wonder

and generosity

and they're being

embraced

and they're being

loved before people

even know their story.

They're being,

you know,

people that seem

glad to see them

and they say,

man,

what is this?

What's causing this?

the gospel is always best

as the answer

to a question.

What is the explanation

for this?

What I'm tasting

in this community?

That's the kind of evangelism

you see here.

People are coming

into this community,

they're having these experiences

and they're falling

head over heels in love.

So this is what we mean

when we talk about

gospel-centered communities.

Just to kind of

step out of the big picture,

we're talking about people

who share a common identity,

a gospel-centered identity

and that we have

these common practices

like worship,

like generosity,

like evangelism

as a community, right?

And that last piece,

evangelism,

really makes sense

because if you think about it,

when you love something,

when you see a great movie

or hear a great song,

you naturally want to share it

with other people.

When you experience

the gospel in community,

you naturally want to share that

with other people.

You've got to check this out.

This is incredible.

I've never seen anything like this.

It's amazing.

I've been longing for this.

That's how evangelism

is meant to happen.

Right?

So this is why we want to build

these kinds of communities

all through D.C.

We don't just want to build

one central big church.

We want to spread

these communities out.

We want every neighborhood

in D.C. to have an opportunity.

We want to take this

to people.

Not expecting people

to drive all the way

across town to come here.

We want to take this experience

and get it out

as far as we can

to maximize the chance

that people have a shot

at experiencing

the gospel in community.

That's what we're about.

So I just want to say

a couple of words

before we end

on how we go about

doing this as a church.

Kind of what are the nuts and bolts?

And the first thing is this.

In our own church,

Church of the Advent,

we gather together on Sundays.

And this is the first and foremost

where it all begins.

The goal of our gathering right now

is to experience

the gospel in community.

We hear it.

We see it.

We even eat it.

But then outside

of these gatherings,

we also have

what are called

core groups.

That's our fancy,

innovative word

for small groups.

And the reason

that we call them

core groups

is because we want

to remind people

again and again and again

that they are

a core community.

That the core

of your Christian life

is to have people

around you

who really know you.

So Jesus had the three,

and then he had the twelve,

and then he had

the multitudes,

the seventy.

And we think

in similar ways.

So we encourage people

outside of Sunday

have some community

that's a part of this church

of people who really know you,

of people who are really involved

and invested in your life.

A core group, right?

So that's what a core group is.

And so we encourage everybody

to be a part of

Sunday worship

and core groups.

The second thing we do,

as I've already alluded to,

is we plant churches.

Right?

So we see

we see a couple of things.

We see these precedents in Acts.

You know,

it says in verse 46,

day by day

attending the temple together

and breaking bread

in their homes.

And then it goes on.

And what we see there

is this rhythm of

they're getting all together

and then they're also meeting

in smaller groups

in their homes.

So,

church,

Sunday,

and then core groups.

But then if you look back

in Acts chapter 1,

Acts 1:8

verse 8,

Jesus says to them,

you will receive power

when the Holy Spirit

has come upon you

and you will be my witnesses

in Jerusalem

and in all Judea

and Samaria

and to the ends of the earth.

So what does that tell us?

It tells us

that it's not enough

for us to have

a really good church here

and to have our small groups

and to have that rhythm

and that's enough.

That we have been commissioned

by Jesus

to see this become a reality

everywhere.

To the ends of the earth.

And so that's exactly

what the apostles do.

They start in Jerusalem,

right?

And then Judea

and then Samaria

and then they keep going

and they keep going

and what are they doing?

The entire central thrust

of their mission

is church planting.

And so they begin

and the apostle Paul

goes on multiple missionary journeys

to plant churches, right?

He tells Titus

and others

appoint elders

over these churches,

organize them into churches

and they will then

plant other churches

and that's what we see.

So a core aspect

of our mission

is to plant churches, right?

To build gospel-centered churches

everywhere we can.

And so we've been a part

of a lot of church planting efforts

over the years.

We just recently sent

Brian and Casey Wandel

up to Buffalo

and we're supporting them

to plant a church in Buffalo.

You may not know

that right now

we are financially

and prayerfully supporting

missionaries

who are doing church planting work

in the Persian Gulf region.

And we're not able

to tell you more specifically

what city they're in

but I can tell you

they may be the only right now

active missionary presence

in the city.

That's very exciting, right?

We're right now

beginning to move

towards supporting

church planting in Crozet

outside of Charlottesville, Virginia.

But we want to see

more churches planted in D.C.

And so we're hoping

that in this coming season

of our life together

we will celebrate

more church plants, right?

And then lastly

that brings me to Brooklyn.

The greatest thing

I think that we have

right now to celebrate

is Brooklyn.

And with Brooklyn

we are exploring

and what we're seeing

is a really exciting opportunity

to approach church planting

in a way that's different

in some ways

from what we've done

in the past.

Because in the past

we've planted

stand-alone churches

but over the almost

nine or ten years

that we've been

a community here

we've recognized

that church planting

in D.C.

is incredibly expensive.

Frankly, it just costs

a lot of money.

And space is incredibly

hard to find.

Advent Columbia Heights

has in eight years

been in four different

worship spaces.

We've just been forced

to move that many times, right?

And there's never

really any guarantee

of how long

we're going to be

in a given place, right?

And so from the very beginning

because of the cost

and the instability

we've wanted to find

ways to collaborate.

How can we be

more collaborative?

How can we be

better stewards

of the resources

that God has given us?

And so when we saw

this opportunity

in Brooklyn

you have these two

neighborhoods

Columbia Heights

and Brooklyn

that are less than

three miles apart.

You have a large

community between

those neighborhoods

of people who really

know each other

and really love each other.

And then you have

this kind of

high population density

in a highly populated area.

We said, hey,

this is a real opportunity

to explore a long-term

connection between

two church communities

where they can really

find ways to maximize

their stewardship

and make the best use

of their resources.

And so our vision

for Brooklyn

is that it functions

as a church

in many ways

what we would call

a parish community.

And the word parish

is an Anglican word

but we love this word

because parish conveys

the idea that a church

takes spiritual responsibility

for its neighborhood.

And we think

that's a beautiful idea.

And so we want to

build that into

our sense of identity

as a community.

We want Brooklyn here.

We're celebrating Brooklyn

but we really

the challenge in Brooklyn

is to take spiritual

responsibility

over these neighborhoods

that are represented

by this church.

Right?

That we want to

think of ourselves

as being here

for the sake

of these neighborhoods.

To become deeply

invested.

To develop ways

of serving

and meeting needs

in this neighborhood.

Right?

To be a home

for any who want

to be a part

of what God

is doing here.

And then we want

to see the same reality

continue to happen

in Columbia Heights.

And we want to see

what it's like

to function

as one church

with two distinct

different unique

parish communities

that share key resources

and staff

and finances

in ways that more

enable us to focus

on mission

rather than reinventing

the wheel

again and again

and again.

And we're excited

about all of the things

that this allows us

to do in terms

of leadership development

and raising up

future pastors

and creating a kind

of launch pad

for future church plants.

And so I think

that it's going

to be exciting

to see what happens.

But in all of these ways

what I want to come back to

is that all of this

gospel centered

community talk

is so important to us

and here's the thing

that I kind of

want to leave you with.

Because the gospel

is meant to be

experienced in community.

It only makes sense

in the context

of community.

Not as an abstract idea.

Not as an answer

to a theology question.

Not as a Sunday school

discussion topic.

But when it's actually

lived out.

So here's the challenge

for everybody here.

If you're here

and you're not a Christian

and you're just

kind of checking this out

or a friend

condoled you into coming

we're so glad

that you're here.

And I just want

to invite you

to taste and see.

Hang around.

Check out a small group.

Keep coming here.

Get a sense

of what life is like

in a community.

Not a perfect community.

Right?

Remember we're sinners.

But we're sinners

who are saved by grace

who seek to experience

the truth of that

together.

So come and taste

and see if there isn't

something here

that you've been longing for.

And if you are a Christian

and I know I've said

this before

if Advent is your home

then I invite you

to pour yourself in.

To invest fully

in this community.

It will change your life.

Give yourself

to what God

is doing here.

Allow God

to use you

to meet needs

and to hold hands

that only you can hold.

We need you.

We want you to be a part

of what we're doing.

And we do all this

with a hopeful expectation

that God is going to do

far more

than we can ever ask

or imagine.

It's in his name

that we say these words

and now we pray.

Father we do ask

that you would make this

a true living reality

for us Lord.

That your gospel

is you entering in

forming a community

and then using

that community

through the power

and the presence

of your son Jesus

and the Holy Spirit

to bless the world.

We pray that that

would be true of us.

That one day

we would look back

and see all that you

have done

through us Lord.

We thank you for that.

We thank you for your

presence here.

And we pray your blessing

as we move forward together.

In your son's name.

Amen.