Christ is the Cornerstone

Have you ever built a home from the ground up? My parents have – many years ago they acted as the general contractor for a home set among trees and rock on the side of a mountain in Virginia. However, the closest my nuclear family has come to building a home from scratch (so far) has been helping our good friends in Petaluma tear down their detached garage, and supporting them with various projects as they built a second adjoining building. Pavers? We know how to lay them. Retaining walls? We’ve helped haul rock and wood to create them. Painting and finishing a home? Done it multiple times. Just don’t ask us anything about electrical or HVAC!

What we do know is that building a home can be incredibly hard, yet extremely satisfying, not dissimilar to building a church, the body of Christ. When we build our community on the cornerstone that is Jesus, we grow together into becoming a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:20-22)

The order and connection of points that the apostle Paul makes in this letter to the Ephesian church is brilliant. After clearly stating why and how Christ is our cornerstone, he tells us to be rooted and grounded in love through faith. This allows God to do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think – which he follows by a clarion call to walk in unity building the body through the use of our spiritual gifts, becoming new men and women in Christ. When we allow Christ to renew our minds daily, we can walk in love, light, and wisdom as we navigate marriage, children, and working relationships. Finally the letter ends with advice in accessing God’s power – don the full armor of God, which allows us to speak boldly as ambassadors for Christ.

This entire faith building process starts with Christ as the cornerstone. Only with Him as our rock can we hope to share a living, dynamic faith with our children! Our kids are always watching and listening to how we act in life (even when it seems like they don’t), so we should support one another as we build our faith individually and collectively. You’ll be amazed to see the children follow suit and start to build their own faith. 

Within your individual family, I’d encourage you to read Ephesians out loud to your children, even in little bits at a time. Ignite their imaginations as you talk about the armor of God–maybe start with that passage, and then return to the beginning of the letter. The kids can even build “armor” from cardboard and household items. Whet their appetite for God’s Word!

‍Then collectively, lean into a small group of fellow parents who are unified in love and desire to build a community on Jesus as the cornerstone. Epic is a great place to find your people, and the Lord is building our community in ways we can’t even imagine! With our new physical building at 414 Brannan Street, we’ll be given new opportunities to be rooted in love, walk in unity, use spiritual gifts, renew our minds, and dress in God’s full armor. Home 2.0 is a worthy initiative for our entire community. Furthermore, while that physical space is being properly fitted, we have our work cut out for us. We need to do the incredibly hard, yet extremely satisfying labor of connecting with other families, showing up to lead the next generation of believers to a faith grounded in Jesus.‍

This work is worth prioritizing–much can be accomplished over the next year as we carefully prepare for the future. So I invite you to lean into the Epic community, join a team, give to Home 2.0, and get your hands involved in the soul-building of the body of Christ in San Francisco. That’s the most rewarding building project I can imagine!

Grace and peace,

Annikki

September Epic Kids Unit Verse:

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