At this time last year, I was searching through our box of important papers for my passport and packing my bags for a wonderful adventure. The seminary had offered a class which included a trip to Turkey and Greece to see the sites of some of the ancient churches mentioned in Paul’s letters and in John’s Revelation, and I was eager to go. It was a two-week trip that took us around the rim of the Aegean sea visiting such places as Ephesus, Smyrna, Philadelphia, Athens, and Corinth. Seeing the sites where the early saints lived, worshipped, and worked was awe inspiring, and gave the books of the Bible addressed to or about these churches new life for me in my mind’s eye. If anyone has the chance to travel to these places, I recommend jumping on it!

It was amazing to stand in places where people had actually lived their faith thousands of years ago. It would be interesting to total up the number of generations that stand between the Christians of the first century and us, but that requires more math than I want to fool with. I think the term “a lot” is sufficient. Through the years each generation has built upon the foundations that the previous generation established. We are the beneficiaries of countless years of God’s action in and through faithful people through the ages.

It was, in part, the endurance of these faithful people that allowed the Church to grow and to survive in the midst of persecution. This persecution started with the neighbors who did not understand the faith of our spiritual ancestors, and was taken to an art form by the Roman Empire. It was, most importantly, the faithfulness of God that preserved the Church in spite of the fact that those “stones” with which it was built were saints, but also sinners.

We stand on the foundations built by our foremothers and fathers in the faith. Our generation is building a foundation now on which our children and our grandchildren in the faith will stand. Our North Wing project is part of that foundation. It will be a place in which Christians are formed and shaped by God’s Word and God’s Spirit. It will be a place that can be a blessing to many. We are called to be God’s co-workers in the building of this place of fellowship, learning, and worship. Lest we forget, the cornerstone on which the whole foundation of our faith is built is our Lord, Jesus Christ, who is the “author and perfector” of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). We look to him for strength and endurance to finish the race.

Vicar Patti