Dream alotta dream

"A dream is a complete moment in the life of a client. Important experiences that tempt the client to commit substantial resources. The essence of the desires of the consumer. The opportunity to help clients become what they want to be."

-Gian Luigi Longinotti-Buitoni, former CEO of Ferrari North America

"Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”

-Langston Hughes

“Always dream and shoot higher that you know you can do. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”

-William Faulkner

The other night I dreamed that I was jogging along the road and a car pulled up with a bunch of guys that I went to high school with (and I'm not facebook friends with). In the dream we talked about what's been going on over the last 27 years. How funny it was the way things turned out. We talked about what we do and our families and then the subject came up of what we were going to be doing next year. "I'll be going on some mission trips and planning some activities and events and organizing and planning and putting stuff together, and you know." And then from the backseat of the car, the kid who always had a twinkle in his eye and was quick to smirk and give a knowing look asked: "Yeah, but what are you going to do that's really cool?"

What are you going to do that's what you really want to do, that'll entice you to commit time and resources that you don't really have and that will get you out of bed earlier and make you feel alive and like you're soaring? What will you engage in that has the best chance of helping you move closer to your true self or as Faulkner put it, be better than yourself?

It is no doubt an important exercise to do. But once we do that, might it also be a good idea to ask our leaders of ministry these types of questions?

What does you committee chair see as the coolest thing she might be able to do? Is it in the budget for next year somewhere? What event are you not yet doing that will have a better chance of causing a member of your ministry team to choose it over a t-ball game? Maybe it's loading up and going to a t-ball game? What activity will have enough value to enough people to cause you to go to the folding chairs? What's the next step after "that was nice"?

The answer probably isn't with you. Or at least not just you. It resides in the hearts, minds, and relationships of your leaders.

So ask them:

What are you, or we, going to do that's really cool?