We believe God our Father is calling us to recognize each other as more than members of differing church institutions. We are the family of God, brothers and sisters through Christ, and demonstrate Him, not only in a physical building or structure, but His people as a whole, the Church of Jesus Christ in Ravenswood.
In the early 2nd Century AD, St. Ignatius of Antioch, commending the church at Ephesus, wrote:
It is fitting that you should run together…for your justly renowned presbyters,… are fitted as strings are to the harp. Therefore, in your concord and harmonious love, Jesus Christ is sung. You should become a choir, so that being harmonious in love, and taking up the song of God in unison, you may with one voice sing to the Father through Jesus Christ, so that He may both hear you and perceive by your words that you are indeed the members of His Son. It is profitable, therefore, that you should live in blameless unity, so that you may always enjoy communion with God.[1]
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John 17:21
There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. Eph 4:4-6.
In His Grace,
Pastor Chris Skeens
The Church of Jesus Christ in Ravenswood
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