Urban Evangelism and Mixed Reception in Corinth

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A reading from the Acts of the Apostles.

This is Acts chapter 18, verse 1.

Acts 18:1

After this, Paul left Athens and went to Corinth.

There he met a Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla,

because Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome.

Paul went to see them, and because he was a tentmaker as they were, he stayed and worked with them.

Every Sabbath, he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade Jews and Greeks.

When Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia, Paul devoted himself exclusively to preaching, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Messiah.

But when they opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them,

Your blood be on your own heads.

I am innocent of it.

From now on, I will go to the Gentiles.

Then Paul left the synagogue and went next door to the house of Titius Justice, a worshiper of God.

Crispus, the synagogue leader, and his entire household believed in the Lord,

and many of the Corinthians who heard Paul believed and were baptized.

One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision,

Do not be afraid.

Keep on speaking.

Do not be silent.

For I am with you.

And no one is going to attack you and harm you.

Because I have many people in this city.

So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.

While Galio was proconsul of Achaia,

the Jews of Corinth made a united attack on Paul and brought him to the place of judgment.

This man, they charged, is persuading the people to worship God in ways contrary to the law.

Just as Paul was about to speak, Galio said to them,

If you Jews were making a complaint about some misdemeanor or serious crime,

it would be reasonable for me to listen to you.

But since it involves questions about words and names and your own law,

settle the matter yourselves.

I will not judge of such things.

So he drove them off.

Then the crowd there turned on Sosthenes, the synagogue leader,

and beat him in front of the proconsul.

And Galio showed no concern whatever.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Will you join me in prayer?

Christchurch, you can take your seats.

Lord, we want to hear from you.

We want to see your vision for the church that you would have us be.

Christchurch East Bay.

A church that is adoring you in worship.

A church that is fellowshipping together in deep and intimate community.

And a church that is outward facing, seeking to serve this city,

seeking to bear witness to the good news of Jesus Christ,

the Lamb who was slain for the sins of the world,

and has risen for resurrection life,

to bring about new creation in this world,

this new creation that we so, so long for.

Make us that kind of a church that lives up, in, and out before you,

we pray in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Well, Christchurch, we are continuing our series in the book of Acts, all right?

And as we've been going through this series in the book of Acts,

we've been doing so very sensitive to, you know,

all the disruption that our church has faced in the past two years.

So going through Acts, we've been really trying to cast a vision for,

you know, an aspiring and encouraging, exciting vision

for what the Spirit wants to do amongst faithful witnesses of Christ.

But even as this book of Acts is meant to inspire us and encourage us,

it's important to remember that it's also a realistic account.

It's realistic about the pain and the hardship and the grind of being the church,

of being Christ's witnesses to the ends of the earth.

And I think this is especially evident here in Acts chapter 18

Acts 18 · chapter mention

and Paul's experience in Corinth.

It wasn't all rainbows and butterflies.

The movement was often slow and painful and discouraging

and met with opposition and filled with disruption.

And yet, God was no less in control.

The Spirit was no less at work.

And this means that we, the church, are no less called,

no less challenged, no less responsible

to go about the work of bearing witness to Christ,

even if it is slow and even if it is painful.

So from Acts chapter 18 this morning,

Acts 18 · chapter mention

I want us to see how the Spirit unites a disparate community

of weary witnesses, even in and through their disruptions,

and how the Spirit gathers them into a growing family of sacrificial service.

And my prayer is that God, the Spirit, does the same here at Christ Church, all right?

So let's start with verse 1.

Look with me at verse 1.

In verse 1, we're reminded that the very occasion

for Paul's presence in Corinth

is because Paul was chased out of three other cities.

And then in Athens, a city that really would have been an incredible place

to win for Jesus, very little response there.

But look what God does out of Paul's disruptions,

out of Paul's disappointments.

He starts to gather a family of witnesses in Corinth

as a result of the disruptions in Paul's life.

And not only as a result of the disruption in Paul's life,

but also as a result of the disruptions in Priscilla and Aquila's lives.

Look at verse 2.

See, Priscilla and Aquila, they had to leave their home.

They had to leave their business in Rome because the Roman Emperor Claudius,

you can look this up in history books,

he banished all the Jewish people.

And this would include many Christians who are considered as a sect within the Jewish faith.

All the Jewish people were banished out of Rome.

And so you have Italian Priscilla and her Jewish husband Aquila,

this ethnically mixed couple with probably tons of disruption in their own backstory

because of, you know, the different family and religious backgrounds.

You have them forced to find a new home and restart a new business in Corinth.

And yet it is here in Corinth where this ethnically mixed couple with an unconventional backstory

and the Apostle Paul, this discouraged missionary,

it's where they all, the three of them, happen to connect

and where God begins to gather a gospel-centered family.

But again, it's not immediate.

It's slow going.

They have to pay the bills.

They have to work with their hands six days a week.

This great theologian and missionary Apostle Paul,

he works with leather and cow hides and he puts together tents

and maybe he even goes to the Corinthian marketplace and gives sales pitches.

But none of it's in vain.

None of it's in vain.

He does it all with a purpose and he does it all in community with Priscilla and Aquila

who share his purpose and who share his passion about not just making tents and selling them,

but bearing witness to Christ.

And verse 3 says that they lived together and they worked together

and they became a tight-knit family in Christ with an intentional rhythm.

Verse 4 says that every Sabbath, Paul would go out and try to grow this family.

Finally, reasoning in the synagogue, trying to persuade people of the true Messiah

for who knows how long, maybe weeks, maybe months.

But like in Athens, not much seems to happen in Corinth.

Until verse 5.

Until verse 5, this family of three in Corinth, they suddenly become a family,

sorry, this family of three in Corinth, they suddenly become a family of five

as Paul's missionary teammates join them.

You have Silas, he's a Jewish brother from Jerusalem,

and then you have Timothy who's half Jewish and half Greek.

He's a convert from Lystra and they become a family of five.

And most commentators believe that Silas and Timothy coming to Paul,

they were bringing financial gifts from other churches that Paul had helped,

other parts of the family abroad.

They brought gifts to help Paul, as it says in verse 5,

to devote himself exclusively to preaching Jesus the Messiah.

And this, this is where things take off.

Paul returns to full-time ministry and more people come to know Jesus

and the family grows even despite resistance.

So though Paul's rejected in verse 6 by, you know, Jewish opposition in the synagogue,

a Gentile there, Titius Justice, he joins the family.

And he opens up his house right next door to be the new synagogue, right?

The new house church in Corinth.

And so the family grows to a family of six and now two households.

And then verse 8 says that Crispus, the synagogue leader himself,

though the rest of the Jewish Corinthians opposed Paul,

he and his family acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah they were waiting for

and they joined the family too at great cost to themselves, right?

This honored leader of the synagogue now shamefully kicked out

as an alleged heretic of his own synagogue.

And he's now in a new place of worship next door with his family,

estranged from their formerly beloved community.

And yet it says in verse 8 that in addition to Crispus,

many believed and were baptized.

And the family grew to more than nine, more than three households,

women, men, children from backgrounds that were quite diverse

from all different kinds of occupations,

Jewish people, half-blooded and whole-blooded,

Romans and others from, you know, Lystra and Pontus in modern-day Turkey,

all because this is what the Spirit does.

This is what the Spirit does.

He gathers a disparate community of disrupted people

into a sacrificial family of witnesses in Christ.

So the question for us today, Christ Church, is why not also here?

Why not also here?

I know many of us, all of us, in so many ways that I don't even know about,

have felt so disrupted over the past two years by all that's happened in the world

and in our church, right?

So many of us have lost friends and family to COVID

or to people just moving away out of the bay

or maybe just out of our church for various reasons.

You know, I especially feel for our Oakland community,

our people who once worshipped in the Oakland location,

never got to say goodbye to their sacred place of worship,

never got to say goodbye to the people they most loved.

And now you're here, and it's like, I don't know anyone here.

Church used to be family, and now it's strangers again.

And I don't want to take that lightly at all,

like just get over it, move on, no.

I want to encourage us to gather and to grieve together

and to find some closure and to look for hope together.

But also with sensitivity to all the disruption

that so many of us have faced in the past years,

can I remind us of the God that we worship?

A God who made much out of Paul's disruption,

out of Priscilla and Aquila and Crispus' disruptions,

out of massive disruptions,

a church in Corinth was born and grew.

And some of Paul's longest letters and instructions,

letters to the Corinthians,

which we now call the Scriptures,

they were written to this diverse and wealthy church

in this important city of international commerce,

where many came to know Christ

as a result of disruption.

Christ Church, could it be that as painful

as these disruptions have been for our church family,

could it be that God is building

another wonderful family of witnesses amongst us

here in the East Bay?

Maybe one that we didn't expect,

maybe one that we wouldn't have chosen,

but nonetheless a wonderful one.

And would it not be worth our time and our presence?

You know, in my experience,

God has a beautiful way of orchestrating

unexpected relationships and surprising synergies

and coincidence that he loves to use for his purposes.

You know, it was no accident that Paul was alone in Corinth,

and then came Priscilla and Aquila,

banished out of Rome.

That wasn't an accident.

And so I really want to challenge us to lean into community

in this season of our church

and to consider the power of the ministry of time

and presence because Christ Church,

we need each other.

We so need each other.

Earlier this year, I finished a book

by the U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy

titled, Together,

The Healing Power of Human Connection

in a Sometimes Lonely World.

And in it, he writes about how

when he was first appointed as the U.S. Surgeon General,

he, you know, he did a tour of the nation

because he wanted to discern

all the biggest public health issues.

And he said that going in,

he expected to find, you know, diabetes, obesity,

anxiety and depression, the opioid crisis.

And he did find all these things.

But the one thing that he didn't expect to find,

the one strand that wove actually

all these public health issues together, he argued,

was the problem of loneliness.

The problem of loneliness.

And you know, I found this too as a pastor.

As a pastor, the number one question

that I like to ask people

to make them feel known and seen is,

are you lonely?

Are you lonely?

And people just open up

and they feel so known and seen

just by being asked that question.

Because see, we were made for relationship.

We were made for connection and belonging and community.

But again, what does this take?

It takes time.

And it takes presence.

And it takes investment.

You know, there's something that ordinary,

unstructured time and presence do

that knits people together.

Sure, Paul and Priscilla and Aquila,

they probably studied the Bible together

and prayed and, you know, did stuff like that.

They went to the synagogue together.

But I think what really glued them together

was that they just were together.

They just were together.

They did life together.

They were eating and laughing and working

and doing household chores together.

See, God made us to have up, in, and out shaped lives.

And when our upward adoration of God

and our outward service unto God

are shared in a family of people

that we truly believe that we are in with,

that we truly believe we belong to,

the sense of belonging and support there

are incredibly powerful.

And that's why you're all still invited

to the Ong household, all right?

Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays work best for us.

Some of you have taken us up on this.

The offer is legit, I promise.

Or sign up for Dinners for Eight.

Today's the last day to sign up for that.

I'm gonna start socially engineering that tomorrow.

But sign up today.

Dinners for Eight.

Get to know people in our church.

Or come to the retreat.

Come to the retreat.

Just hang out with us.

Climb a wall with someone.

Go on a walk with someone.

Go for a hike.

Go to Santa Cruz Beach.

Shh, you know, we're even willing to help with scholarships

if you need help to come to the retreat

because that's how much we value this sense of family

that we need as a church.

It's not just wasteful time hanging out.

It's the ministry of time and presence

that builds a family.

So let's be in each other's lives.

Let's be in each other's spaces.

Let's hold each other's babies.

Let's help each other with each other's yards

and home projects.

And let's consider sticking around.

What if we saw the Bay Area

not as just a place to go and get,

but as a place to go and give?

Not as a place to simply pursue our careers,

but to settle in and work out our vocations.

In Corinth, this place where Paul met strong resistance

to the gospel and initially slow momentum,

Jesus told him, stay.

Still, just stay there.

And it says in verse 11,

he stayed a year and a half,

way longer than he had ever spent

at any of his other previous missionary destinations.

And we cannot underestimate the simple

but powerful ministry of time and presence.

And it's not just time and presence, though.

It's not just our time that's needed

to build this family of witnesses in Christ.

It's also our talent and our treasures.

Priscilla and Aquila were small business owners,

tent makers, it says.

But even as they excelled at their work,

they saw it not just as work,

but as vocation, right?

As a calling.

And they never lost sight of this calling

from God and for God.

Priscilla and Aquila were tent makers

unto the glory of God

for the sake of bearing witness to Christ.

You know, if you read through the New Testament

very carefully, you'll find Paul mentioning

Priscilla and Aquila in very many places

throughout, always faithful in the background.

Apparently, the bond between this gospel-gathered

family of three was so close

that Priscilla and Aquila, they traveled with Paul.

They picked up their business again out of Corinth,

and they moved it to Ephesus,

and they helped them plant another church there,

probably having to start another business there.

And in addition to their day jobs,

they mentored young preachers and evangelists

like Apollos, who would go and serve the church abroad.

And then eventually in the book of Romans,

we see that they also ended up back in Rome,

helping the church there.

This is what we are called to,

no matter if we are pastors or not.

We are called to a life of ministry,

a life to bearing witness to Christ.

Christ and Priscilla and Aquila are stellar examples

of this, stellar examples of serving Christ

and his church with our treasures

and our talents and our vocations.

And that's the key word right there, vocations.

Vocations, not jobs or simply careers, but vocations.

Something with a sense of calling from God

upon our whole lives to something bigger than ourselves,

something many of us as Americans have gotten away from.

I just finished another book called Habits of the Heart,

Individualism and Commitment in American Life.

Its lead author is the late Robert Bella.

He was a sociologist right here at Cal.

And one of the observations made in this book

was that the hyper-individualism of our American culture

has led to most of us not seeing our work anymore

as vocation.

Vocations where we commit to something we feel called to

and use our gifts in service of a community

or an organization we truly believe in.

Rather than seeing our jobs as vocations now,

most of us see work as what?

A career.

An individualistic pursuit

where we pursue our own advancement

and personal ambitions

unfettered by commitment to our organizations

or the society that we inhabit.

But the result of such individualism

and selfishness, they argue,

has led to loose commitments.

Very, very loose, frail commitments

and communities that aren't bound by solidarity

and commitment to grand and virtuous purposes,

but rather to a variety of what they call

lifestyle enclaves.

Lifestyle enclaves.

Communities that are loosely connected

by shared self-interests

and homogenous consumer preferences.

So for example,

when we consider switching jobs or moving homes,

we don't think so much anymore

about how this might affect our company

or our relationships in our community

or how it might affect our local church

and what God is doing there.

We just move on

to pursue more money,

more status,

more space,

inching closer and closer

to that idealized lifestyle

that we're going for.

Not for Christ,

not for His church,

but selfishly for our own simple comforts.

Christ Church,

what are we living for?

What are we giving ourselves to?

Who are we giving ourselves to?

And why not Christ?

And why not His church?

And I say this

kind of feeling a little bit awkward

because I'm a pastor, right?

So who benefits the most

from your investment of time,

talent, and treasure in the church?

After all,

if so many of you

weren't already so faithfully invested

in this church,

I wouldn't be here.

It'd be hard for me to feed my family.

And honestly,

I often feel weird about this relationship.

Like, oh man,

people are investing in the church.

It's almost like everyone here

is my boss,

so I better perform,

so I can keep my job

and feed my family.

But you know,

it's examples like this

in Acts chapter 18

Acts 18 · chapter mention

with Paul and Timothy and Silas

that snapped me out of that.

Where I see Silas and Timothy

bringing financial support to Paul

from church families

that loved Paul,

that weren't seeking

to get anything back,

but they really believed

in what he was doing

and they wanted him to be free

to devote himself exclusively

to preaching Christ.

What I see in Acts 18

is not a business.

The church is not a business.

Again, it's a family.

And families pitch in

and they support each other

and they, you know,

it's not transactional.

It's not transactional at all,

but it's in a way

that communicates their love

and their support

and their shared values

and goals and commitments.

Did you know that behind me

and my ministry here

at Christ Church

is an incredibly supportive,

Jesus-loving family in Christ?

For example,

in addition to the amazing nacho bar

that my mom and my sister

and my aunts help set up

for my ordination refreshments,

they do a lot here

to help me serve well.

When Chelsea used to work

on Saturdays,

I have a whole army of aunts

and in-laws and parents

and family friends

who have watched our girls

like more times

than I can count on Saturdays

so that I could finish my sermon

or hang out with some of you

who are more available

on the weekends.

And in my second year here

when I was fundraising

as a part of my internship

at Christ Church,

many of my family and friends

from across the Bay Area,

all different churches in the Bay,

they helped me raise

over $40,000

because they believed

in this ministry here

that I was taking part in.

They believed that we

want to be leading people

into deeper relationship

with Christ

and they wanted to see me

do that.

And you know,

as humbled as I felt

by the support

and as thankful as I am,

you know what I've never felt?

I've never felt in debt.

I've never felt obligated

to pay these people back.

Why?

Because they're family.

This is what family does,

especially families

united in Christ.

And that's what I believe

God wants to do here

at Christ Church.

Build a sacrificially invested

family in Christ.

And you might be looking around

saying,

I don't know,

I don't really like this community

as much as others,

as much as my basketball league

or my climbing gym

or the people I work with.

I get along so much better

with people who are like me.

Same profession,

same hobbies,

same ethnicities,

same class,

same lifestyles.

It's so much easier

with people who are like us,

right?

Oh yeah,

of course.

And we should leverage

our shared commonalities

to bear witness to Christ.

But our God is not

in the easy business

of simply forming

social clubs

and homogenous

shared interest groups.

Our God is in the business

of building His church,

a family that's rich

in all manner of diversity,

even building from the humblest

and the lowest amongst us.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians

in his first letter,

brothers and sisters,

think of what you were

when you were called.

Not many of you were wise

by human standards.

Not many were influential.

Not many were of noble birth.

But God chose

the foolish things

of the world

to shame the wise.

God chose the weak things

of the world

to shame the strong.

God chose the lowly things

of this world

and the despised things

and the things

that are not.

The family God built

in Corinth

wasn't your ideal

preferred cream

of the crop,

but it's who God

brought together

in His perfect wisdom

as a church family.

May God do that here,

Christ Church.

May God do that here

amongst us.

But let me say this,

it's not just family

for the sake of family,

it's not just community

for the sake of community.

We can get that anywhere.

But followers of Jesus

are called to live up,

in, and out.

We are in community

in order to serve our world,

to serve this city.

See, a loving community

is the way

that our Savior Jesus

intended for His people

to bear witness

about Him.

Jesus said in John 13,

a new commandment

I give to you,

that you love one another

just as I have loved you.

You also are to love

one another.

By this,

all people will know

that you are my disciples

if you have love

for one another.

See,

this family we build

is not an end

in itself,

but it's a witness

to the good news

about Jesus.

It's community

for the sake of,

in the service of,

the gospel.

I'm not just advocating

warm and fuzzy

friendships here.

I'm talking about

the gospel.

It's all about

the gospel.

It's all about

the good news

of what God

has done in Christ

to reconcile

people to Himself.

Do we truly grasp

that this is a life

and death matter

of eternal significance?

The gospel,

that which is

of first importance,

the power of God

unto salvation

for all who believe.

In verse 6,

you may have been

thrown off,

maybe made uncomfortable

by the words

that Paul speaks

here in verse 6.

When Paul says

to these Jewish people

who oppose him

in the synagogue,

he says,

your blood be

on your own heads.

And while I probably

wouldn't recommend

that you say that

to people who

you share Jesus with

and don't accept

your message,

Paul's words

actually reveal a lot

about how we are

to understand

his message

and our identity

and responsibility

as witnesses of Christ.

See,

Paul's harsh statement

actually says

far more

about how he views

and understands

his message

and responsibility

than whatever judgments

it seems like he's

rendering upon his opposition.

When Paul says,

your blood be

on your own heads

to people who reject

the gospel,

what's implied here

is that first,

this is a matter

of life and death.

Whether or not

we accept

the good news of Jesus,

there is only one way

to be restored to God,

only one way

to resurrection life

and it's through union

with Jesus Christ alone.

And secondly,

what's implied

by Paul's harsh words

is that before he shared

the news of Jesus

with these people,

their blood

was on his head.

It was on Paul's head.

He was responsible

and he knew that.

So Christchurch,

do we have

this sense of urgency?

Do we have

this sense of responsibility

about Jesus

and all the people

around us

who do not know him?

Do we understand

the stakes

of living in Christ

versus living

outside of Christ?

The gospel is everything.

The gospel is everything.

It isn't one idea

among many

to just mix and match

with whatever else

we deem interesting

and useful.

It's the power of God

unto salvation,

a salvation that is

sorely needed

because of the brokenness

of our world

and the curse of sin

and our complicit

estrangement

from this God.

Is it really not worth sharing?

Is it really not worth

sharing?

Is it really not worth

bearing witness to

even the atheist

Penn Jillette

of the magician duo

Penn and Teller,

even he thinks

as an atheist

that this gospel

is worth sharing.

In a story he told

years ago

about a Christian

who went to see him

and who went

to see his show

and then gave him

a Bible after the show,

Penn said this,

I don't respect people

who don't proselytize.

I don't respect that at all.

If you believe

that there's a heaven

and a hell

and that people

could be going to hell

or not getting eternal life

and you think

that it's not really

worth telling them this

because it would make it

socially awkward,

how much do you have

to hate somebody

to not proselytize?

How much do you have

to hate somebody

to believe

that everlasting life

is possible

and not tell them that?

Christchurch,

do we not have news

worth sharing?

In spite of our fears

of embarrassment

and rejection

and socially awkward moments,

of all people,

Paul,

Apostle Paul,

he had every reason

to be fearful

and to stop speaking

and to be silent.

He was stripped

and beaten with rods

and then flogged

and imprisoned

in Philippi

and then in the next city,

Thessalonica,

a mob

and a city riot

formed against him

and then in Athens,

he was sent

to the Areopagus

where he wondered

if he was going

to get executed

like Socrates.

No wonder Paul says

in his letter

to the Corinthians

that when he was among them,

he was there

with much fear

and trembling.

Yes, it is a scary thing

to bear witness to Christ

and we don't know

exact outcomes

for what will happen

when we do

but is the glory of Christ

and the eternal good

of our neighbors

not worth bearing witness

about amidst our fears?

FDR said,

courage is not

the absence of fear

but rather

the assessment

that something else

is more important

than fear.

Christ Church,

what is more important

than the gospel?

And couldn't it be

that just as Jesus said

to Paul in verses 9 and 10,

do not be afraid,

keep on speaking,

do not be silent

for I am with you

and no one is going

to attack and harm you

because I have many people

in this city.

Couldn't it be

that he's saying

the same to us today?

And look,

Jesus keeps his word

as we see in verses 12 to 17

that even when yet

another mob

attacked Paul,

brought him to be judged

by the proconsul in Corinth,

this pagan Gentile proconsul,

he sets an important

legal precedent

that Paul and the message

of Christianity

are actually not

a criminal offense

to be punished

and Paul was cleared to go.

Jesus kept his word to him

and more importantly,

Jesus kept his word to Paul

that he would be with Paul

and that he did have

many people in that city

and that's how the church

in Corinth was born

and built

and this is how I pray

that Christ's church

will be rebuilt

out of a peace

that Jesus is with us,

out of an excitement

that he has many people

in this city

yet to be revealed

who will join our family

in Christ

and know the joy

of our salvation.

I've already seen it happen

so many times.

I've only been here

at Christ Church

for three years

but I've seen so much

of what God is doing.

People from China

coming to know Jesus.

People from Iran

coming to know Jesus.

People with paths

of prostitution.

People with paths

in the occult.

People struggling

with diagnoses

of autism and bipolar.

Falling in love

with Jesus

and joining our eclectic family

and making a difference

already here

in this world

bearing witness

to the good news

of Jesus.

Christ Church,

God's not done with us here.

He's not done with us here.

He has people

that he wants

to be brought to him.

He has people

in this city

that he wants

to be brought to him.

Do we understand that?

Do we understand that?

That we cannot fail.

Jesus said,

my sheep

will hear

my voice.

We cannot fail.

Don't you want

to be a part of that?

Part of the joy

of bringing people

into the fold

of God,

into this loving community

that worships Jesus Christ.

Don't you want that?

Are we willing

to believe

that God can

and will

bear incredible fruit

and gather

a wonderful family

of witnesses

amongst us,

not in spite of,

but through

the disruptions

in our lives

and in our church?

Will we believe

this enough

to lean in

and give ourselves

to this family project

called Christ's Church?

Will you pray with me?

Lord,

this is what we want.

We believe

that you have people

in this city

yet to be revealed

and we want

to find them.

We love

that the sheep

will hear your voice.

So give us boldness

to speak

your word

so that they can hear

the voice

of their good shepherd,

the shepherd

who lays his life

down for his sheep.

What kind of shepherd

does that?

People out there,

Lord,

people who do not know you

are seeking shepherds

who will not lay

their lives down

for them.

But we have

the good shepherd.

Convince us

that he is good

and make us

a community

that's centered

around this good shepherd

because of family,

God,

a family

that is so invested

in the kingdom

of God

that so believes

the gospel

to be good news,

the best news,

that you do amazing

things in this place

in the East Bay

and we rejoice

every Sunday

seeing these things

unfold.

May it be so here,

Lord.

We love you.

We trust you.

And we want to give you

all praise

and glory

because of who you are

and what you've done

for us

in Christ.

In his name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.