As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious,  you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2:4-5 ESV

Living Stones Fellowship isn’t a name of a church, but instead it’s an identity of a group of people who love and follow Jesus.

Jesus is the rock, the foundation, the cornerstone of our faith and lives. He is the Living Stone who has remade us in His image to be living stones. Just as an architect will use stones to create buildings , Jesus uses each one of us, a living stone, to build His church. We are His craftsmanship, we are His temple. A Living Stone seems to be contradictory, there is nothing more void of life than a rock. When Peter pens this in His first letter, he is drawing from His declaration of the gospel where Jesus gives him a new name.

In Matthew 16 Jesus is asking His disciples who they believe Him to be. Peter, known then as Simon, declares that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Here Jesus tells him that this declaration, Jesus’ identity, is the foundation in which His church will be build on. Jesus is the rock, the foundation, the Living Stone . Jesus then gives Simon a new name, that identifies him with Jesus as the rock . Jesus gives Simon the name Peter which means “little rock.”

This is the context when Peter calls Jesus the Living Stone. He is the firm foundation in which our faith is built upon. He is also not dead, but He is alive as the first fruit of the resurrection. As those who are in Jesus, we have been remade into the image of the son. We now are living stones, the church of Jesus, firm as our foundation, and made alive through His Spirit. Resolved and galvanized in the Word of God, and led by the Holy Spirit.

Living Stones Fellowship isn’t a name of a church, its an identity of a group of people who are remade into the image of their Savior, their King, . Jesus.