Holy God:
We thank you each week for the opportunity to gather in your house and to be with your people. We thank you that your presence is with us and that your spirit flows to us through each other.
Especially in this time when we reflect on our commitment to our church family and our call to support its ministries, we are grateful for all that it means to have a family in Christ and to know that we are not alone in our Christian journey. We are thankful for a people who help us to raise our children to know you, who stand by us and comfort us in the challenges of life, who grieve with us when we grieve. We thank you for a people who have shared life with us, who know our story, people with whom we have a history. We are thankful for friends in Christ with whom we can laugh. We are thankful for fellow soldiers in your army of redeeming love, who lock arms with us in our collective mission to reach our community and world with the grace of Jesus Christ.
We take these things for granted. We take each other for granted. So forgive us when we wander, when we lose our heart for your house and your people.
Teach us to give of ourselves to one another--to fulfill your command to love one another. Make this body of believers and living community of grace and redemption, a people who bind up each other’s wounds and teach each other by their example how to follow Christ. Teach us to truly be a body. And may your body rise up to fulfill your mission.
Amen.
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