The death of dreams

I write another blog for small business owners that address leadership and business challenges they face.  You can find that blog here.  While writing a recent post I drifted over to talking about church leaders who have stopped dreaming.  They have become content to do through the motions and often provide solid pastoral care for their congregations, but they stopped dreaming and leading their churches forward to seize the new ministry opportunities that exist for them.  The question is why does that happen and how does one begin to dream again?

The why answer can be any number of reasons.  Most people go into ministry with dreams of changing the world or at least one of impacting the people in the communities in which they serve.  But, something begins to happen to those dreams.  Often, their dreams are shot down too often by small-minded people with big pocketbooks.  They finally get to the point that it's easier to stop dreaming than it is to see those dreams denied by the power brokers in the church.  The fear of failure is also a major deterrent to dreams.  I used to tell my congregation that if we don't try we've already failed, but that doesn't mean that I enjoy failure because I surely don't.  I have to admit there have been times in ministry that I've listened to the voices in my head telling me what a major failure this will be if it doesn't work, and there have been more than once I've felt like a failure myself because one of my plans didn't work.  Believe it or not, some people are not afraid of failure; they are afraid of success.  They know what is expected of them in the status quo; they don't know what might be expected of them if this thing works, and they fear not being able to live up to those higher expectations.

When we stop dreaming we stop leading, and that describes too many of the ministers I know today.  They have forfeited their roles as prophets and leaders and accepted the role of chaplain.  In some cases they have become hospice chaplains of the churches they serve.  One of the problems with that is that their churches are not always terminal but will be if they continue to provide hospice chaplain ministry.

So how does one begin to dream again?  How do we move beyond the status quo and once again begin doing ministry that matters?  We need to change the way we think and learn once again to dream big and take risks.  One resource that can help you with that is Jon Acuff's book Start: Punch Fear in the Face, Escape Average and Do Work that Matters.  Although it was not written specifically for ministers the recommendations he makes will certainly apply to ministers.  What I like about it is that it provides practical, real-world solutions for the fears that often hold us back.  What's more, the book identifies five stages of life that people who live awesome lives goes through, and he describes what each of these stages looks like and how to maneuver through them for maximum impact.  The five stages are learning, editing, mastering, harvesting, and guiding.

There will come a time in every life when we realize there were dreams we had that will never be accomplished.  Maybe they were dreams that were never meant for us to achieve.  Like many young boys I grew up dreaming of being a major league baseball player, but I didn't have the skills that could make that a reality.  That's OK.  What's not OK is reach a place in our lives when we recognize that some of the dreams that should have been realities in our lives were never realized because we simply never followed through on them.  We allowed fear or some other obstacle keep us from living up to our potential.  That damages not only our ministries but also that of the churches we serve.  If this is something you are struggling with right now in your life and/or ministry I would recommend you read Acuff's book.