March 18, 2024
Good Morning, Dearest Friends,
Sometimes when I’m driving to the new church site, I will turn right into Tullamore and meander through that neighborhood which connects to Summerhouse where Kentmere Lane eventually intersects with Highway 55, allowing me to look straight ahead at the beautiful new Imagine Church facility nearing completion.
I would not live in a place that did not have a church. I wonder if that same thought might have been in the minds of any of the folks moving into the new homes in those two neighborhoods, or in Paddlers Cove, or Timberlake, or in the multiple subdivisions down Lake Wylie Road. I wonder how many might have wondered, while they were moving into their new homes, would they have to drive into Charlotte or down to Rock Hill or York, to find a church that would welcome them, that would extend hospitality, to which they could belong?
Once a man, his wife and family were moving; his work had transferred him. His office had told him, “We’re promoting you.” They were moving to a new and unknown community; the family was all together in the SUV filled with lampshades, children’s toys, and dishes, a Saint Bernard, and a cat. The moving van would be there tonight, and they wanted to get there ahead of time, to air the place out and get ready.
As they approached the neighborhood that was soon to be their home, coming over the rise of a hill, the man pulled to the side of the road and stopped the car. He said, “I don’t know if we want to live here.” His wife said, “Why?” He said, “Look! I don’t see any churches! Look across the town — do you see any churches?”
She said, “What are you talking about?” He answered, “If there are no churches in that community, we’re not going to live there.” And she said, “Why are you on this big ‘church’ thing? Don’t you watch the news? Every week, some minister has been found to be guilty of fraud — has his own private plane, 12,000 square foot house on the lake, and begging from old people some money for Jesus. And they get caught. You’ve heard of all that; even our reverence for the Roman Catholic Church and what’s happened with some priests. You’re onto these churches, aren’t you? Some of them getting up in public and judging other elements of society? Why are you interested in ‘church’ all of a sudden?”
And he said, “Well, I just haven’t thought about it before. But it’s the only place I know where, if you knock on the door, somebody will say, ‘Come in! You’re welcome here.'”
Isn’t that true? Is what I just said true of Imagine Church?
Surely. Surely.
May the stranger always feel the embrace of our hospitality and the warmth of our fellowship,
Bruce Jones
Bruce Jones,
Pastor Imagine Church
