Becoming an Accountable Community

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This is a reading from the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 18, verses 12 to 20.

Matthew 18:12–20

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

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

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.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

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.

Matthew 18 · chapter mention

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.

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.