DREAMING GREAT DREAMS!
ACCOMPLISHING GREAT TASKS! 

The first Wednesday night of each month at 6:30 PM in the prayer chapel, we are viewing sessions from the 2006 Willow Creek Leadership Summit.  In one particularly forceful session that we recently viewed, Bill Hybels made an impassioned plea for the power of clarity.  Among the points he made were: Get the message clear, Get the message out, and Take risks, Experiment, and Fail.

That last point was very interesting, because among other things, I am hearing more and more leaders making the same call.  Dr. Peter Nanfelt, past president of the Christian and Missionary Alliance said on one occasion: “I would like to see a certain amount of failure on the resume of every pastor, because that means that they are taking risks.” 

I recently talked with a pastor who was lamenting the fact that his church board was insisting on setting the budget for the New Year at 3% below the income for the past year.  That was to insure that there would be no shortfall for the upcoming year.  No room for faith!  No room for vision!  No room for risk!  The danger that many churches face today is that they fall contentedly into certain parameters, build up their walls and hide safely behind them waiting for the rapture.

Speaking to this issue Rick Warren made the following statement: “Everybody needs a dream. Whenever you first got involved in ministry, you probably started with a big dream. Unfortunately, as you get into that ministry, your dreams shrink to the size of the situation. Probably the very first time you got involved in ministry you could foresee great things. Yet as we go on, circumstances tend to shrink our dreams.  If you’re going to be involved in ministry, you’ve got to be a dreamer. You’ve got to have faith in what God can do through your ministry. The Bible says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Heb. 11:6 NIV) Faith begins with catching a dream, a vision.  Every person, every ministry, and every church needs a dream. If you’re not dreaming, you’re dying. I don’t believe there’s any such thing as a great person. I believe there are only ordinary people committed to great dreams. When an ordinary person is committed to a great dream, it makes that person a great person. If you want to be healthy, you’ve got to have a dream to live for.”

Rick then gives eight steps for finding God’s dream and I would like to share them with you because I think they are crucial to the vision of our church.

1. Open your mind to God.  The idea he is getting across here is that many times we are in such a rush with our everyday lives that we don’t slow down enough, and quiet down enough to allow God to speak to us.
2. Do some research.  His point is well made that when the dream comes we don’t just jump, but we make sure we know what we are involved in.
3. Start asking for advice.  This goes along with point two and as Rick says: “Remember, it’s better to admit your ignorance than to prove it by your experience. You’re going to appear foolish anyway if you don’t get the right advice. So go ahead and ask. Humble yourself. Be teachable. Leaders are learners.”
4. Establish some priorities.  Obviously we can’t do everything.  It would be great for us to have a nursing home, a Christian school, a home for wayward teens and all the rest but there is only so much we can do so we need to prioritize and focus on the right thing for the right time.
5. Evaluate the cost.  It was Nehemiah who recommended: “If a man would build a wall, let him sit down first and calculate the cost.”  There are three key questions here: Is it necessary?  What will it cost? Is it worth it?
6. Plan for problems.  Our plan needs to account for problems. Things are going to go wrong. Are we ready when they do? Proverbs 22:3 says, “A sensible man watches for problems ahead and prepares to meet them. The simpleton never looks and suffers the consequences.” (TLB)
7. Be willing to take risks.  Face your fears.  “We hate to admit it when we are afraid, but fear is not a sign of weakness it’s a sign of humanity.”  As Rick also said, “The secret to stepping beyond our fears, is knowing who gave us the dream.”  Proverbs 14:26 says, “Those who fear the Lord are secure.”  (NLT)
8. Do it now.  There comes a point where we have to stop talking and start acting.  Once we are convinced that this is the dream God had given us and that he wants us to carry it out, sink or swim we need to go for it!  

It has been said that: “Today’s impossibilities are tomorrow’s miracles.”  Pioneer missionary William Carey put it this way: “Expect great things from God – Attempt great things for God.”
It is my hope that we as the body of Christ, led by the Spirit, and having calculated the cost, will dream great dreams and attempt great things for this church and the surrounding community, dreams and actions that will transform our world.  As Paul said in I Thess. 5:24 “God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.”   May it ever be so!