What is your hope for the church?

This morning I got an email from a friend at Christianity Today.  He wanted to let me (and others) know about an interesting question the recently re-branded “media ministry” is asking its reader: What is your hope for the church? Despite how often I think about this sort of question, it took me a few minutes to land on an answer.  Here’s what I wrote on the website:

My hope for the church in the USA is that we would demonstrate the ministry of reconciliation committed to us by God in Jesus: “that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.” (2 Corinthians 5) I hope especially that our reconciliation to God would prove greater than every earthly division that currently separates the body of Christ. In a deeply divided world, our unity across race, ethnicity, class, immigration status, etc. will exhibit a unity that powerfully witnesses to the Gospel. (John 17:20-21)

This is a magazine I’ve appreciated for many years and to which I’ve occasionally contributed. It sometimes feels directed primarily to white, suburban Christians, but there seems to be a conscious desire to represent more widely the great diversity of evangelically-minded Christians.

The first 1,000 people who contribute a response to this question will receive a free subscription to Christianity Today magazine, so get on it!  And be sure to leave a comment here with a link to your answer.