Faithful presence means recognizing God's presence in the world and allowing God to work through communities committed to faithfully embodying God's presence. While God's grace cannot be earned, spiritual disciplines help shape individuals and churches to receive and experience God's grace as it forms the character of Jesus within them. Reconciliation involves openly addressing disagreements or wrongs in a spirit of forgiveness, peace, and justice, which expresses God's kingdom. The church should model this reconciliation by rightly handling disputes between members according to Jesus' teachings.

2. “Faithful presence names the reality
that God is present in the world
and that (God) uses a people
faithful to (God’s) presence to make
(God) concrete and real amid
the world’s struggles and pain…
(But) it doesn’t just happen.
We need practices that shape us to be
a community of faithful presence.”
DAVID FITCH

3. Tangible exercises we engage in,
not to earn the grace of God,
but to put ourselves in the position
to receive and experience the grace of God
as the Spirit works through them
to form the character of Jesus in us,
both individually AND as a church family
SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES

5. ROMANS 5:10-11
For if while we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God
through the death of his Son,
much more surely, having been reconciled,
will we be saved by his life.
But more than that, we even boast in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have
now received reconciliation.

6. The restoration of friendly relations;
reuniting; bringing together;
fence-mending
RECONCILIATION

7. 2 CORINTHIANS 5:17-19
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation:
everything old has passed away;
see, everything has become new!
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself
through Christ, and has given us
the ministry of reconciliation;
that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world
to himself, not counting their trespasses against them,
and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.

8. { Matthew 18 }
{ PRACTITIONERS }

9. MATTHEW 18:15-17
“If another member of the church sins against you,
go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone.
If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.
But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along
with you, so that every word may be confirmed by
the evidence of two or three witnesses.
If the member refuses to listen to them,
tell it to the church; and if the offender
refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one
be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.

10. { Matthew 18 }
{ PRACTITIONERS }
{ 1 Cor. 5 & 6 }
{ MODELERS }

11. 1 CORINTHIANS 5:9-13b
I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually
immoral persons— not at all meaning the immoral of this
world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since you
would then need to go out of the world. But now I am
writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the
name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy,
or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat
with such a one. For what have I to do with judging
those outside? Is it not those who are inside that
you are to judge? God will judge those outside.

12. 1 CORINTHIANS 6:4-6
If you have ordinary cases, then, do you appoint
as judges those who have no standing in the church?
I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is
no one among you wise enough to decide between
one believer (lit: “brother) and another,
but a believer (“ “) goes to court against a believer (“ “)
—and before unbelievers at that?

13. { Matthew 18 }
{ PRACTITIONERS }
{ 1 Cor. 5 & 6 } { 2 Cor. 5 }
{ MODELERS } { AMBASSADORS }

14. 2 CORINTHIANS 5:20
So we are ambassadors for Christ,
since God is making his appeal through us;
we entreat you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.

15. Reconciliation does not - and cannot –
consist of ignoring or denying that a wrong
has taken place, or that a disagreement exists,
but of naming the wrong/disagreement,
choosing to face it head-on - together - towards
the goal of forgiveness/peace/justice,
which is always a tangible expression of
God's kingdom and presence among us.
DEACON GODSEY

16. { MODELERS } { AMBASSADORS }{ PRACTITIONERS }
MaintenanceMode–“HunkerInTheBunker”
ExhaustionMode–“WeHavetoSaveTheWorld”

18. BENEDICTION (Mark 12)
One of the scribes…asked him,
“Which commandment is the first of all?”
Jesus answered, “The first is:
‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one;
you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul,
and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’
The second is this:
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
There is no other commandment greater than these.”