11/10/2025
Good Morning, Dearest Friends,
Next Sunday, November 16, we will culminate a short, to-the-point commitment emphasis at Imagine Church which will ensure the church operating budget for 2026. Unlike most churches, we set our budget solely upon the commitments we make each November indicating our intended giving for the ensuing year. Building rental income is the only additional item we add. We don’t estimate or guess; we act on faith that our households will honor their commitments — and they always have.
Many people have expressed their amazement that we never speak about money at Imagine Church. We haven’t had to. The morale is so high and the momentum so strong, people have been led to give as they want to be part of what God is doing in our midst. We are seeing lives changed, hope found again by hopeless people, and young people lifting their eyes to a life of Christian service. Who wouldn’t want to be part of that?
Of course, money is important; without it, the work of the church stops. Years ago, I was disturbed to find that there were those who wanted the church to be attractive and in good repair, warm, lighted, clean and ready to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth on practically nothing. I’ve known people who wanted the church to be responsive to every need, available at every moment to educate, to rehabilitate, to care for orphans and the aged, to assist the needy, to fight evil and bring peace, and yet do those things on pocket change, or at least to do them on money provided by someone else. While this is not true of every church, it is true enough to be troublesome.
However, I am grateful that Imagine Church understands that the needs of the church are part of the equation, but we’ve also learned the other part which cannot be ignored: the need of the giver to give. We’ve discovered that God is ultimately the source of all we have. The farmer does not create bread for our tables; he plants the seed and cultivates the wheat out of which the baker bakes the bread. The doctor does not heal us. She applies the proper techniques and skills, but God does the healing. There is something profound in that old quotation: Without man, God will do nothing. Without God, man can do nothing.
I wonder if there is not some mysterious principle at work in the universe. I wonder if God, somewhere looking down on us, seeing us grasping and panting trying to make ends meet, trying to find satisfaction for the necessities of our lives, doesn’t think, “Foolish children, you are always trying to get by keeping. If you could only learn to give something away.” The key for us at Imagine Church is that everyone gives. I pray that each household will make a commitment this coming Sunday. So many wonderful things will happen as a result — more than I can fully explain. I know that giving can change your life. No one ever really gives anything away. It always comes back in a thousand wonderful ways.
Giving always precedes receiving,
Bruce Jones, Pastor
Imagine Church
