Freeing people to enjoy God, hear His truth, grow in diverse community and engage the world with the renewed dignity that comes from Christ.

Christ Central Church seeks to be a culturally competent church community. We strive to be a church that is Biblically authentic and true in its worship of God. We desire to communicate and grow spiritually from the message of the gospel as it is read, preached, shared and taught faithfully, clearly and relevantly. We long to be a community filled with loving and encouraging relationships. We seek to spread the good news in word, thought and deed as a community of individuals and families that are faithful to serve, trust, share, grow and spread the redeeming love of Jesus everywhere, in everything and with all people.

Colossians 1:15-20 (Read in Unison)

The Preeminence of Christ

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Hebrews 12:1-3

Jesus, Founder and Perfecter of Our Faith

1Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Reader: “This is the Word of the Lord.”

Congregation: “Thanks be to God.”

PRAYER OF CONFESSION:

Gracious and Holy One, Creator of all things, We come to you full of much that clutters and distracts us, stifles and burdens us, and makes us a burden to others.

Empty Us now of gnawing dissatisfactions, of anxious imaginings, of fretful preoccupations, of nagging prejudices, of old scores to settle, and of the arrogance of being right.

Empty us now of the way we unthinkingly think of ourselves as powerless, or as victims, predetermined by sex, age, race—as being less than we are or as being other than yours.

Empty us of the disguises and lies in which we hide ourselves from other people and from our responsibility for our neighbors and the world.

Hollow out in us a space that you can fill with our transformed selves, peace, a whole heart, a forgiving spirit, holiness, and laughter. Fill us with yourself, we pray, for your sake, and the sake of the world.

ASSURANCE OF PARDON:

22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:22-23