Today is Shelby Crossings' 21st "birthday." For some, turning 21 officially signifies a coming of age, a rite of passage into adulthood. You are officially grown up. For others, it means you can legally buy alcohol, tobacco and firearms, and gamble in a casino. I think we might want to just skip all of those.

Actually, today is the anniversary of the first official worship service of The Church at Shelby Crossings. The church had gathered during the fall of 2000 to organize and build its core group, and even to have a few "practice" worship gatherings to prepare for the grand opening in the new year. But it was Sunday morning, January 7, 2001 when the church first gathered publicly to worship at Valley Intermediate School in Pelham. We had planned to have a big celebration last year on the 20th anniversary of that first service, but we had to postpone the big gathering because of Covid. 

Much has transpired in the life of this community of faith since that first service. Like any child or adolescent growing up, there have been growth spurts, as well as some times when we were just trying to find our way. Often we have acted like children, both in our childlike faith, and in our childish behavior. That's part of growing up. We have weathered some tough times, and I believe through that the Lord has been growing us up into maturity.

I have been here for more than 17 of those 21 years, first as a member of the congregation for almost five years, and then as pastor for these last dozen years, There has been some rough times, no doubt, including a couple of crazy years of pandemic, and a time in which we were "shutdown" from public worship gatherings. Still the Lord has been gracious to us through it all. He has pruned up, healed us, changed us, grown us and used us in our community and around the world, and for that I am grateful.

The reality is, there are not a lot of folks left among us who were there for that first worship service in 2001, but for those faithful few who have hung in there for the whole 21 years, we say...thank you. And, even as we celebrate God's work in His church so far, we hold to the words of the apostle Paul, who wrote of "forgetting what lies behind, and reaching forward to what lies ahead, we press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 3:13)

We may live in a time that seems to be getting darker by the moment, but there are bright days ahead for the Lord's church, and for this local body that we call Shelby Crossings. We continue to seek to be a "diverse community of believers committed to developing passionate followers of Christ to impact the world." I hope you'll commit to investing your lives into the Kingdom work He is doing in and through this faith family, as we seek to walk with Him and share His gospel faithfully with our community in 2022. 

In light of our church officially becoming "grown-up," this Sunday we will be starting a short series of messages on Jesus' will for His church, entitled "I Will Build My Church," from His words in Matthew 16. I hope you can plan to be with us for each week of this important series in the life of our church.

For now, let me close with more words from Paul's letter to the church at Philippi, which speak to us today at the church at Shelby Crossings: "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." (Phil. 1:6, NAS) 

I am thankful for you, and I look forward to seeing you Sunday. 

--Pastor Ken