We are now landowners, Imagine Church. On Monday, November 4, we closed on a 16-acre tract of beautiful pasture land that will one day be home to this young, growing church family. As for me, I’m excited about the idea, because I wouldn’t want to live in a place that did not have a church.
A man and his family are moving; his work has transferred him; his office said, “We’re moving you up!” They relocated him to some remote place; his family was all together in the SUV, fitted with lampshades, children’s toys, dishes, a Saint Bernard or two, and a cat. The moving van will pull in tonight, but they wanted to arrive ahead of time, so they could air out the place and get ready.
Just approaching the town that is soon to be home, coming over the rise of the hill, the man stops the car. He says, “I don’t know if we want to live here.” His 
wife says, “Why?” And he answers, “Look! I don’t see any churches! I don’t see any steeples, any buildings with those sloped, pointed roofs. Look across the town — do you see any churches?”
His wife says, “Why are you so big on this church thing? Don’t you watch the news? Every night on the news, some priest has abused a child, or some minister has been found guilty of fraud; some TV preacher has his own private jet, a 10,000 square foot house on the lake, and begging from old people some money for Jesus. And he gets caught. You’ve heard all of that; even our reverence for the Roman Catholic Church. Some of them are quick to judge other elements of society; why are you so interested in church all of a sudden?”
And he says, “Well, I just haven’t thought about it before. But the church is the only place I know where, if you knock on the door, somebody will say, ‘Come in! You’re welcome here.'”
