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It’s really an honor to be celebrating our 20th Anniversary as a church this month. It’s been quite a journey and God has done some amazing things, and continues to do so. We’ve learned a lot over the years. And one of the key things is that God wants his church to be built to last. He wants us to stay relevant, connected and ministering in the community. Yet, most of the top ten churches of the 1980’s no longer exist. Why? More often than not, it’s because they weren’t built on the right foundation – things like the personality of the pastor or popular teaching rather than solid biblical truth. You see, the foundation upon which a church (or anything else for that matter) is built is crucial to its ability to endure the test of time.

Early on in the history of building this church, God began to show us some key foundation stones, or principles, without which the church would crumble. And we worked diligently to put these in place. And, just as these principles must be in place to build a lasting church, the same is also true if we want the kind of life that lasts.

Foundational Stone # 1: Principle of First – Who is going to be first in this church and in our lives. A lot of people want themselves to be first, rather than God. If we cater to people first, it may make them feel good, but it will never change them, never challenge them or make them go deeper with God. Is God first in everything that we do – in our time, relationships, activities, finances, etc.? Biblically, this is one of the key principles from the very beginning of time that God implemented in his children.

The principle of first operates in every facet of our lives. Our hearts fashion after what we worship first.  As soon as I put God first, over and above dating, finding my wife, etc, along came Colleen. We have to put EVERYTHING in line after God first. As long as we put God first, it doesn’t matter what’s wrong with the economy, God will take care of us. If God isn’t first in our lives, we’ve got a weak foundation. It doesn’t take much to rock us. Let’s put God first this year!

Foundational Stone # 2: Principle of Others – From the very beginning of our church, we realized that there’s a purpose that every church has beyond itself, beyond the group of people who make up that church body. “Others” means a whole lot more than just the others in our close circle of family and friends. If we don’t get this vision, we’ll get all religious and inward focused and miss out on the wonderful things God wants to do through you in this world.

Do you love people of other cultures and races as much as you love yourself? This is not an easy thing to do. Most of us aren’t raised to love like that. Most of us don’t “hang” with people who aren’t just like us. But, if we do love others the way God wants us to, it will show in who we hang out with in our private life. Years ago, Colleen and I were told that incorporating mixed cultures in our church would kill our church, but we believed that there is a culture that supersedes human culture – kingdom culture. We have committed to loving other people and God has blessed us.

We’ve got to break this “me” mentality that is so prevalent in our culture and replace it with an “others” mentality – serving one another. What would life be like if we all began living land doing church like it wasn’t all about us, but about others?

I want to build a lasting life and be a part of a lasting church, don’t you? If so, we’ve got to start by putting God first in everything and loving others as much as ourselves. As we go forward in this year, let’s renew our commitment to these things and watch as God does amazing things both in and through us during the next twenty years because of it!

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