What If…

I am a dreamer…always have been. It tripped me out a few years ago when I was going through some old boxes and found some report cards that my dad had kept from when I was in elementary school. There was a “comments” section of the back of those cards where the teacher would write things such as, “You child is such a pleasure to teach.” (Actually—I heard that they wrote that—but I never saw it!)

I noticed on the comments section that there was a common thread all throughout my elementary school years, “Perry daydreams in class.”

It wasn’t my fault—HONESTLY—I blame it on Star Wars! When school would get boring I would simply imagine me being in an X wing fighter and doing battle against the forces of the dark side! (AND…I wanted a Jawa…you know, just to have around…I always thought that would have been cool—I would have named him Fred…and appropriate name for a Jawa I think!)

I am a dreamer…I have always looked at things and said, “What can we do differently—what can we improve—how can we do it better?”

I used to think this was some sort of mental disorder until I discovered that God is actually responsible for wiring me this way. He has given me the ability to dream big—which is an asset in leading a church because the book of Proverbs said that where there is no vision the people will perish.

It breaks my heart that people have big dreams about tons of things—their children, their IRA, their business—whatever; however, when it comes to God’s work—when it comes to the church getting radical and reaching people—we think small.

Maybe it’s just me—but I don’t really think that Jesus died on a cross so that a group of people could get together and swap casserole recipes! I think there was more of an intentional purpose—Jesus died, rose again, and then commissioned us to go and tell as many people as possible—NOT to sit in a room and have a business meeting to discuss whether or not it is God’s will to paint the restrooms a different color!

What if we dreamed big?

What if we all believed that God is as big as the Bible says He is and is capable of doing more than we could have ever asked for or imagined?

What if we wanted our churches to be a place where people came in and the only thing that offended them was the cross and not the people wearing one?

What if we believed that people were one breath away from eternity and that motivated us to get as many people in the doors as possible to hear about Jesus?

What if we actually worshipped God with our money instead of worshipping ourselves?

What if we were never satisfied—don’t get me wrong—there is a difference between thankful and satisfied…but what if we continually thanked God—but continually asked Him to do more?

What if we were a church who was more concerned with who we were reaching than who we are keeping?

What if we were willing to pray bold prayers and take HUGE risks?

I think God would be honored in all of this if we followed through on the “what if’s!” I can say that pastoring NewSpring is a privilege because the people in the church believe that God is BIG and that this is just the beginning of all that He wants to do.

It breaks my heart when I hear that at least 80% of our nations churches are in a state of decline. FOLKS—80%...that should not be!!!

Let’s dream big—let’s ask God for huge things—let’s believe He is able and capable of reaching those far from Christ…and let’s take the necessary risks in order to impact this community in an incredible way!

This posts comes out of my quiet time—this passage and this passage rocked my world over the past week—God is getting ready to do something off the charts here!!!

On a side not—check out this post by Mark Driscoll—he hit a home run!!! (But please do not get the idea that I am going to wear a suit next Easter!)