Hello, Church Family and Friends,
For the Imagine Church family, yesterday represented an unforgettable experience as moving into a brand-new church facility is a one-time-only event. We are making history these days, and each of us can sense that. It was truly a glorious, praise-filled, memorable day.
When the great Riverside Church in New York City celebrated its 50th anniversary back in the 1930s, the pastor, Harry Emerson Fosdick, preached a sermon on the text, “How lovely are thy dwelling places, O Lord of Hosts” (Psalm 84:1). He reminded his congregation that to the psalmist the church was the most exciting place on earth.
I guess not everyone shares that conviction today. We are mostly sympathetic with the little boy who went to a circus and then went home and said to his grandmother, “Grandma, if you ever went to the circus one time, you’d never go to prayer meeting again.” A lot of people feel that way. If you’re looking for action, you don’t hang around the church. You have to get out there in the world, where the hunger for thrills and excitement can be satisfied.
What we don’t understand is that the deep hungers that trouble us most are not physical, but spiritual. Last year in the United States there were more than a quarter of a million attempted suicides among teenagers. Now, remember this is the generation that has more to satisfy its physical needs than any generation in history.
One psychologist described this circumstance as the work of despair. Life for these young people held no promise. They had tried every thrill and found themselves jaded and burned out. Their own little worlds were empty and meaningless. And out there in the wider world with its wars, pollution, starvation, racial strife and international tension, things seem so confused that life wasn’t worth the effort. They became people without hope.
If you read only what you can see out there such a conclusion is warranted. But I shall be forever indebted to the church and its people who, time and again, have helped me to see behind the scenes and to discern a divine hand which governs in the affairs of human beings. The church has helped me to understand that the kingdoms of this world belong to God and not to us.
As I watch the news each evening and observe the whole of humankind move from crisis to crisis, I can hear a voice of assurance whispering across the ages: “Therefore, I tell you, do not be anxious about your life. God cares for the birds of the air, the flowers of the field. He will also care for you” (Matthew 6:26-27).
Yesterday, in the first service of worship in our new facility, I saw so many people whose lives have undergone a process of renewal because of the ministry of Imagine Church. My higher hope is that what has happened in their lives could permeate the life of this entire community and region. If we can rededicate ourselves to the mission to which we have been called, if we can bring some light into a world of darkness, then we need never fear the future. God has established Imagine Church, and your labors will never be in vain.
May you be enfolded today by God’s love and grace,
Bruce Jones, Pastor
Imagine Church
