Have you ever heard the name Roger Bannister? What is he known for? Many of you will remember that Roger Bannister was the first person to run a mile in under four minutes. People had been trying to accomplish that since the time
of the ancient Greeks, and many assumed that it was impossible.
But the interesting thing is this: in the year after Bannister accomplished his feat in 1954 and ran a four-minute mile, seven other runners did the same thing. The next year, over 300 runners did a mile in under four minutes. Today, it is not uncommon for every single runner in a race to finish the distance in less than four minutes. Roger Bannister blazed the trail that many others would follow.
I like to think that’s what we’re doing these days at Imagine Church. The Christian Church in America grew every single year until the late 1960s when most major denominations started to decline. I’ve never been able to accept that; I couldn’t believe that a declining, shrinking church was in any way bringing glory and honor to God. I had long held to a dream, a theory, of what church could be, and four years ago, a group of people came together with Tyra and me and said, “God, if this is what you’re calling us to do, then we’re 
going to put this theory into practice, and we’re going to live it out, right here, right now.”
We accepted the challenge of being as relevant as we could be, and to make Jesus real in the lives of men and women, young people, boys and girls in this growing community and region around us. How can we organize, and budget, and place ourselves strategically in such a way that we actually do the thing that God established the church to do? That’s the challenge!
I can tell you this about your pastor and Leadership Team: we are committed to working with you, and helping you, and listening to you, so that we never become just normal, ordinary church — but that we would continue to be people on a mission, and the mission is simple: make disciples. More people following Jesus, more people placing their faith in Jesus Christ. We will do whatever we need to do, to transform the people of this culture, based on what Jesus said and did, those many years ago.
