and you all are like living stones...

This past weekend I had the wonderful privilege of traveling up to Sacramento to be part of a building dedication at the church I was raised in. It was a quick trip, but it was definitely worth it! The congregation began thinking, praying, and talking about building a new fellowship hall/ multipurpose facility years ago--between 8 and 10 years ago when we first started talking about it. I remember getting to serve on the "vision committee" when I was a senior in high school, where we got to talk about where we saw this congregation going in the next several years, and one of the things we talked a lot about was the need for a new facility where the whole congregation could gather together for fellowship, meals, sports, meetings, bible classes etc. After many years of fundraising, planning, and then finally tearing down our old building and beginning construction almost two years ago, the beautiful new congregational life center is finally finished! It was a pretty incredible project for a congregation of our size to take on, but people stayed faithful in their support and are now going to have a wonderful place to gather for years to come.

The guest pastor who preached at the dedication service Sunday afternoon talked about how we are living stones, how a building is not just made up of boards and nails, but that each of us is a living stone, gathered together to be the body of Christ and to love those around us. It reminded me of the many times in the Old Testament where the Israelites are commanded to collect 12 stones and build an altar to Yahweh in remembrance of something Yahweh has done for them. We find Yahweh telling Moses to have the people build an altar in Exodus, and perhaps the most well known of the altar passages in Joshua 4 where they are instructed to take 12 stones from the Jordan in remembrance of Yahweh drying up the river for the people to cross over. This theme of remembrance carries through the entire Old Testament as the people are called to remember over and over again all that Yahweh has done. Then in 1 Peter 2, Peter writes to the exiles that THEY are now the LIVING stones. Jesus was the ultimate living stone, and through Him the rest of us are stones gathered together built into "a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood..." I was thinking about that a lot this weekend and realized that so many of the people that were there to celebrate are very much the living stones that have helped build up my life in Christ. It was as a part of this community that I first learned how much I was loved, how much God loved me, and how to worship Him. In my family ministry class I took a few years ago, the professor said that kids walk away from the church when they are old enough to do so because no where in their lives were they ever deeply and authentically connected to the larger community of faith. Instead they might have a relationship with one or two youth workers or volunteers, but once they graduate and are out on their own they don't have those larger community connections to keep them grounded in the family of faith beyond the youth room. I praise God over and over again that I never went to a church that sent the kids out during the service, that told the teenagers to go down the hall to the other wing of the building, or that held "family events" but really meant only the "normal nuclear families" were invited, as is the case at so many churches today. Rather I was raised in a congregation where from the time I was born, I stood alongside people so much older than I was in worship, I grew up going forward to receive a blessing at the communion table until I was old enough to partake of the sacrament myself, and I still remember how excited I was when at the age of 4 I had finally figured out all the words to the Lord's Prayer and could stand and pray along with the rest of the community -- sure I didn't understand all the words but even then I knew that I was participating in something far larger and more important than I could ever comprehend. As I've spent the last several years critiquing ways ministry is done, worship is structured, and programs are run, I find myself more and more grateful for where I was raised. Sure, there were things that bugged me, and still do about the church, but I grew up knowing that I belonged, that I was cared for by people who had no relation to me, and how now, at the age of 26, I can still walk back into a fellowship hall full of the same people who have been there longer than I have been alive, and know that I can be at home. And that is infinitely more important than being raised in a place with the best music, coolest programs, and highest youth group attendance.

And what would a posting by me be with out a few photos? :)

I flew in Saturday night and stayed with our good family friends, Toni and Ron. They hosted a dinner for my parents (who flew in from Mn for the weekend), and for Hilary and Phyllis, life long friends of the family. Here are Hilary and I hanging out. and my mom, Phyllis and Toni--friends for the last 22 years!Sunday afternoon waiting outside the doors of the new building for the formal dedication--Pastor Russ, the acolytes and the cross-bearerThe school kids did a great job of keeping their feet off the newly hydro-seeded lawn!the executive director of our congregation, Chad, about to open the doorsYay! Time to show off the years of hard work to everyone!Before the hoards of people came in

the word BUILD is stenciled along one wall--it's an acroynm for the church's focus/mission statementOne of the two changing rooms/locker rooms located on either side of the stagethe little kids room complete with their own puppet theaterDad's opening remarks (he was asked to be the MC for the night)dinner time! Volunteers made a wonderful meal of steaks, potatoes, salad, peach cobbler, and apple crisp.The standing ovation everyone gave Arnold Meyer, the chair of the building committe for the last several years who endured more stress and heart ache and pressure than anyone and who stuck with it (despite having written his resignation letter 3 times throughout the whole process) and saw the building through to the end. Arnold's remarksthe clean up--collecting the center pieces on the stagewell it would be a cute photo of mom and dad if it didn't end up blurry