Light in Darkness

This coming January, we are planning to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Church at Shelby Crossings. It was Sunday morning, January 7, 2001 when the church gathered for its first "official" worship service at Valley Intermediate School in Pelham. We had hoped to do something for our 20th anniversary, but that was during the height of Covid, so we decided to wait till our Golden Anniversary in 2026. 

In actuality, the first worship gathering of what would become Shelby Crossings was 25 years ago this week--on September 10, 2000. On that Sunday evening, 147 adults gathered at the Pelham Civic Center to worship and discuss the vision for a new church, and at the end of that night 25 families committed to be a part of the new church. There would be a couple more unofficial gatherings of worship over the next few months, before the church officially kicked off that January.

Much has transpired in the life of this community of faith since that day, and there are many things God has done worthy of celebration. I can say I have been here for right at 21 of those years, first as a member of the congregation for almost five years, and then as pastor for these last sixteen years (as of tomorrow). There has been some rough times, no doubt, but 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 only a few families left among us who were there for that first service in 2001, and fewer still who were there for that first gathering in 2000. To those faithful few who have hung in there for the whole 25 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." (Philippians 3:13)

I don't know if anyone was thinking 25 years ahead when this church was first envisioned, or what kind of world we expected to be ministering in and to at this point in history. But it's not hard to see that we live in difficult times. When we see things like Charlie Kirk's assassination this week--and really, what it represents in an increasingly anti-Christian world-it sure seems to be getting darker by the day. But as I remember hearing someone say many years ago, the darker the world gets, the brighter our light can shine.

And in that light--no pun intended--I am convinced that there are bright days ahead for the Lord's church, and for this local body that we call Shelby Crossings. We are committed to living by the truth of His word, and the good news of the gospel, to share the "Light of this world" with a lost and confused culture. (John 8:12) Along the way, we seek to “let our light shine” so that the world may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

I know many are still trying to process the events of this week, and let me encourage you to focus more on your walk with God, in His word, than on social media. And be sure to seek the Lord in prayer, for yourself, your family, our church, and our nation. Let me also encourage you to come and invest your lives into the Kingdom work He in doing in and through this faith family, as we seek to walk with Him and share His gospel faithfully with our community.  

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." (Philippians 1:6) 

--Pastor Ken