dreams are good. at least i think so. tapestry began as a dream that pam and i had concerning being a part of a church that we thought 6 people whom we love would feel comfortable in. for a couple of years pam and i talked and prayed about such a church. one that was strong in it’s beliefs and yet open and loving enough that these friends of ours would be glad it existed (even if they disagreed with the church’s beliefs). eventually we became convinced that we had fallen into JESUS’s dream. tapestry isn’t there yet but it is definitely heading that way.
so once again i’ll say it – dreams are a good thing. therefore, i thought i would record a few of the more outlandish dreams i have for tapestry in hopes that maybe one day i will discover that they are the LORD’s dream too and therefore will be accomplished.
- i dream that tapestry will have or have access to a building in downtown point that we can use as a “safe place” for people who have done a little too much pub crawling. there are 14 bars in a three block region of downtown stevens point. wisconsin also has the highest rate of dui’s in the nation. obviously abusing alcohol is a common thing around here. unfortunately such abuse often leads to poor and sometimes very dangerous choices. i would like to be able to set up a place where people can “detox” a little when they have overdone it, get some coffee, get a ride home, etc. and know that they are doing it in a safe place and experiencing GOD’s love. i saw something like this via sank*tuary and i think it is an amazing idea.
- i dream that by the end of the year tapestry would grow to point that we need to begin planning to divide. the mindset of tapestry is that we want to grow to then split and form new churches. this means bringing new people into the kingdom of GOD but not having as our prime directive the increase our church’s size or power. organizations have a tendency to move from their original purpose to the motive of organizational survival and power. that’s not what we want to do. in ’09 i would love to reach the point where we can put all of our talk into action and start forming a new church that would reach people that tapestry has never even thought of.
- i dream that tapestry could do 3 truly different worship gatherings during ’09. i mean radically different times that people would respond with “i never knew church could be like that.” when you get down to it most church services are the same in their structure. there are stylistic differences like music and speaking style but at their core structure they are the same. we say hello to each other, we sing a little, we listen to someone speak, we do announcements, and then we leave. if creativity is from GOD (and i believe it is) then every now and then a church gathering ought to be something truly new. i think this is harder than it seems. therefore, my dream is just three different gatherings. when i say different i mean a gathering that is not just different stylistically but is different in the manner in which we worship GOD (though not different in the WHO we worship). JESUS did things differently and therefore i would like to do the same every now and then.
- i dream that tapestry would be a group of people that are so challenged by GOD’s word that sacrificial changes would take place within our lives. i don’t mean typical safe church changes. rather i hope that we have a couple of changes take place this year that are so sacrificial that we begin to think “maybe we’ve gone too far.” the type of sacrifice that requires GOD to show up or we’re in trouble. my dream is to see a couple of such dramatic sacrificial changes during ’09.
of course, there are a lot of other things that have to and will take place within and through tapestry (like being incorporated, working out finances, etc). yet the things above are dreams that i think would push us quite a bit to accomplish. those are the fun type of dreams.
