“By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
These words from the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 3 served as the theme for our groundbreaking ceremony on Sunday. North Richland Hills Mayor Oscar Trevino and Birdville Schools Associate Superintendent Dr. Jay Thompson, among other civic leaders, joined over 500 of us for the festivities under clear skies and lots of sunshine. We’re building a 1,500 seat worship center along with a youth and benevolence facility that should all be ready by late Spring next year. It’s been in the works for over five years. And now, finally, it’s about to become a reality.
My thoughts on Paul’s writings were that we’re all building on the foundations of those who go before us. Yes, certainly, Jesus Christ is the ultimate foundation on which everything we do and plan is built. But look at Paul’s words in the context of his day. It took literally dozens of years for construction to be completed on the elaborate buildings of the first century. Herod’s temple in Jerusalem took over 50 years to build. And some of the more spectacular edifices would take two or three generations to complete. The idea of constructing a 1,500 seat auditorium in less than a year didn’t even exist to Paul and his readers. Construction workers of his day would begin a project only to see their children finish it. Or, in some cases, one would work a lifetime on a building and never see it completed. It may be finished eventually by that man’s great-great grandchildren who weren’t even born yet when the project began.
Christ is the foundation. But we’re all building on what was passed down. We’re standing on the shoulders of those who go before us. And those who come after us will continue the project until Jesus returns to ultimately complete God’s work of salvation and take us home. That puts a responsibility on us to intentionally understand, articulate, and pass on the Christian faith to our children and grandchildren.
And as hard as I tried to communicate that message during the groundbreaking on Sunday,
I didn’t come close to summing it up as well as the pictures from that ceremony do. One can’t help but think about the legacy of Legacy when looking at pictures of Kent Robinson, who’s been a giant in the faith at Pipeline/Legacy since the very beginning, and pictures of all the little two and three year old children. There’s Kent, leaning against the building with his shovel, keeping one eye on the proceedings and another on the lookout for our coyote (that’s another story). And then there are dozens of young children, mine included, who’ve only been around a short time, struggling with shovels twice as big as they are, grinning excitedly as they dig into the ground where our new worship center will be.
What a beautiful picture of passing on the faith and building on the foundations laid by those who go before us. May our God bless us and use us to his glory as we love and serve each other in the Kingdom.
Peace,
Allan
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