Many books have been written in the past several years on what it is that makes churches grow. The key factor seems to be this: Growing churches dream great dreams. They feel that it is better to attempt something great and fail than to seek to achieve nothing and succeed.
It says in the book of Joel, "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions" (3:28). That passage is almost always exclusively used on Pentecost Sunday, which was last week. That might be the only time we ever hear it. I chose not to use it last week, but today instead. In fact, I think it is very appropriate to use anytime besides the day of Pentecost, for it is not meant to be a passage for that day only. We need to constantly ask ourselves if we have been dreaming dreams and seeing great visions.
Today I want continue with our series of “faith” sermons by offering a challenge. The challenge is for all of us to dare to dream. Dream that God has great things in store for your life. Dare to dream that God has great things in store for our church. Dare to believe that God is alive and at work, and that his presence adds power to our lives today.
Dare to dream! I am not suggesting in any way that dreams should replace one’s faith. However, our lives are shaped by the dreams we have, and what we want to accomplish. There’s a story about a boy and his father walking in the snow. One day, after a freshly fallen snow, his father asked him to go for a walk with him. When they got outside his father pointed to a tree at the far end of a big field and said to his son, "Let's see who can walk the straightest path to the tree." The boy decided to be very diligent, and very carefully put one foot in front of the other until he arrived at the tree. At the same time, his father walked very casually in a normal manner until he also arrived at the tree. Then they both looked back at their tracks in the snow. The father's tracks were straight as an arrow, whereas the son's tracks zigzagged back and forth all the way to the tree. The father then explained to his son that the reason his tracks were so straight was that, as he walked, he never took his eye off of his objective, which was the tree. He did not worry about trying to walk straight by looking at his feet like the son did. And by keeping his eye on his objective, he was able to keep his footsteps going in a straight path. The boy, on the other hand, was so concerned with the job of putting one foot ahead of the other that he lost sight of the objective and created a zigzagged path to the tree.
Now that is a simple illustration, but the truth of it should be clear. Jesus once said, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." (Luke 9:62). It also reminds me of the words from Paul we read last week. “So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize which is God’s call through Christ Jesus to the life above” (Phil. 3:14). The early church after Pentecost had a rather simple but clear-cut sense of their objective. They were to call men and women to faith in Jesus Christ. Because of their own faith they were very successful at it. They moved forward, always focused on their goal. I believe dreams and faith go hand in hand. We dream. . .we have an objective, and then we must have faith to see it through. We, like the people of the early church, need a dream for our lives and for our church; one on which we can keep our eyes fixed. In addition we need faith to carry us through.
There is a great power in having a dream. Did you know that: Leo Gerstenzang thought of "Q-Tips" when he saw his wife trying to clean their baby's ears with toothpicks and cotton.
Otto Diffenbach came up with the cellophane drinking straw when he twisted the wrapper from a cigarette pack and saw he had created a tube.
King C. Gillette had been looking for a throw-away product ever since having a conversation with the inventor of pop bottle caps. When he found his razor dull, he thought of the safety razor with disposable blades.
Ole Evinrude got angry when the ice cream in his rowboat melted before he got to his island picnic spot -- so he invented the outboard motor.
Ralph Schneider decided to form Diners Club one night after he lost his wallet.
Charles Strite was fuming at the burnt toast in the factory lunchroom where he worked -- and thought up the automatic toaster.
This applies obviously to business, but what are the dreams in our church that we could address in a new and better way. (Karl Vesper, New Venture Strategies)
Dreams, or objectives, motivate us to reach beyond ourselves. When the church was still in its infancy, there were many questions. “How can we initiate growth. What are the best ways to spread the gospel. How do we deal with those who want to be part of us, and yet keep their own religion. How do we deal with those who want to preach things that are not in accordance with God’s word . . .how do we deal with false teachers.” It was with these questions that the early church began. Serious questions they were, almost enough to make them want to throw up their arms and say, “O what’s the use. We’ll never get anywhere. It’s just too hard.” Then people like Paul, and Peter came along and what do they do? They say something like, “Follow your impossible dream. Don’t give up. God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.” He has given us everything we need! How ? Through our knowledge of him who called us to share in his own glory and goodness. This means that whatever dream or objective we have, our faith in him whose glory we share, namely Jesus Christ, will help us carry out our dream. Imagine if the early church had lost sight of their dream, where would we be today?
It's all too easy for a negative spirit to take root in a church. There are various reason for this. I came across something that illustrates one such reason. We often hear of cars being recalled for various reasons. Well, several million members of the church are to be recalled because they are not performing properly. Symptoms include frequent missing, lack of power and poor adaptation to rough roads. Regular maintenance should have prevented most of the difficulties. Sadly, many only come for maintenance when a major breakdown has occurred and, therefore, it is difficult for service personnel to attempt to correct the basic problems at these times. So the recall is under way. Church leaders say that Service Managers are being trained to deal with the problems. One member who came in for a trial recall a year or so ago was pleased with the results. "It's amazing," she said, "I'm getting much better mileage now. I don't notice the rough spots so much, and I find I have enough power to give others a helping push now and then." Spokespersons said retraining is possible. Service personnel are available around the clock and shops are open seven days a week. (Grace Current, Grace Brethren Church, Winchester, VA, Jan 1996, p. 2). It is so easy for negativism to creep into a church, and people stop coming. Yet it's so much more exciting to be part of a fellowship where people dream great dreams and believe that they are called to do a great work.
Did you know that God made 7,000 promises in the Bible. Someone once said, “the Bible is not based on a premise but on a promise.” That is why the Church can have a positive attitude. We are God's people. Should we not believe we can achieve great things in His name? No, not because of who we are, but because of whose we are.
I want to emphasize that this positive attitude is more than just blind optimism. It is a positive faith in the goodness of God. Such faith can work miracles. If there are any people in the world who ought to be positive thinking, miracle making, dream inspired people, it ought to be the followers of Jesus Christ, not through our strength, but by the power of the Holy Spirit working through us. Peter writes about qualifications that we need. If we have these they will make us active and effective in all that we do, because we have the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to Peter, if we do not have this, we are so shortsighted that we cannot see. Said in a different way, we will have lost our vision, our ability to dream. I know of a church which actually disbanded their vision committee because they no longer had a vision. That church soon became stagnant, and many problems set in. They had lost their ability to dream. Perhaps they had even lost some of their faith.
To have dreams is great, but it is even better to see a dream fulfilled. An architect will take hours to draw up plans for a building project. Those plans are like dreams, but they remain only that if they do not move from the drawing board to the building site. Dreams are like a garden that can be cultivated to produce the harvest that we desire. Dreams are like a workshop where the important decisions of life and eternity are made. Dreams are like an armory where we forge the weapons for our victory. Or like a battlefield where all the decisive battles of life are won. Clearly then, dreams without faith never go anywhere. Dreams without action never go anywhere. That is why Peter writes “So then try even harder to make God’s call and his choice your permanent experience; if you do so you will never abandon your faith.’ (Vs 10) The key words here are “God’s call, and his choice.” If our dreams, our ambitions are not based on the truth of God’s word, and the basics of Christian faith they will simply fizzle into oblivion. Allow me to illustrate.
Some years ago a full-page picture appeared in LIFE magazine of the devastation wrought by a mid-western tornado. In the center of the picture was a telephone pole with a straw driven through it. It was incredible! How could a flimsy, insubstantial thing like a straw be thrust through a rugged, seasoned telephone pole? Here's the answer: the straw was utterly surrendered to the tornado and its awesome power. (Stephen F. Olford, GOING PLACES WITH GOD, (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1983). So too, must we surrender ourselves to the Spirit of God, the will of God. With that kind of faith, we dare to dream impossible dreams, for when we surrender our dreams, our ambitions, and our energies to God, He can use them in ways we never dreamed possible. Dare to dream, but never without faith.
