Recently I've been reading several books that have challenged my thinking. Amazing Faith, which is a biography of Bill Bright's life and Exponential written by Dave and Jon Ferguson. I have 5 major prayers for 2011... one of which is, "God give me bold faith." Here is a little paragraph from the book Exponential that really challenged me,
"A person who has pushed me to dream big is Lyle Schaller. He is one of the most prolific writers on church life... Over and over again he will rib me by looking me in the eye and saying, 'Dave, your biggest problem is that I have a bigger vision for your church than you do!' And strangely enough, every time he says that, my dream gets bigger!
Right now I'm thinking about what it will take for us at Community to be a church of two hundred sites in Chicago with one hundred thousand "3C" Christ followers. And when Jon (Dave's brother) and I get together to talk about our vision to be a catalyst for a movement of reproducing churches, we try to dream big! We start these dreaming conversations strategizing about how to reach one billion people." (p. 46)
He goes on to say that BIG DREAMS change your questions, the bigger the dream the more profound questions you will ask. Not only do BIG DREAMS change your questions, they change your prayers. God has so much in store for our lives that we can't even fathom. My thinking is way too small. I hope that as I align myself more with God in 2011, He will inspire in me God sized dreams that only He can accomplish.
Questions to ponder:
* How big is your God? Go back through the bible and start researching His character.
* When is the last time you asked God to give you a "God sized dream" that only He could accomplish?
* What fears need to be faced in your life in order to start attempting the dreams that God placed in your heart?
* With God's help... where can you put your skills, talents, personality to work to make a significant impact?
