This was the second Walt Disney quote I saw on a poster in Disney World.
There are two main concerns I carry in this building project. First, I am flooded with horror at the thought of us moving into our new church home and ministry centre only to discover within a year or so that we built too small. Having said that, I know that we are taking a massive step of faith in the size and cost of the project. The Lord will provide space and means if He brings too many people too quickly. Second, I have a recurring nightmare that we will treat the building of a new church home as a finish line rather than a starter’s pistol.
After 5 years of worshiping in a rented space and struggling with limited mid-week usage it would be human nature to move into our new, beautiful church home and collectively exhale. We expect to move into our new home in Alton Village sometime in late 2013 or early 2014. That moment will trigger a new season in the ministry of our 156 year-old congregation. But none of that can happen without people.
Here, “people” fall into at least two categories. In my last post I wrote of the importance of the people who are not yet in the pews. We must always hold outreach and serving the needs of our community as a highest value. At the same time, only confident, robust disciples of Jesus can truly serve the real needs of our new community. That is to say “people” includes YOU; the people who are in the pews.
Walt Disney says, “You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world … but it requires people to make the dream a reality.”
That’s you and me. Without our commitment to the dream we will simply build another brick and stone museum to commemorate the glory days gone by. Our dream is captured in the words of the angelic chorus in Luke 2 “Good news for all people.”
In 2005 I fleshed the dream out a bit in an article called I Dream of a Church.
Have you dreamed about our ministry in Alton Village? Have you prayed and imagined what that preferable future will look like? What that preferable future will require of you? Take a moment today, and every day for the next year, to pray about the dream. Pray and ask God to grip your heart with a passion to serve the community in Alton Village and to see the dream come true.
Without people like you, the dream will not be a reality.
