I rarely ever remember my dreams.
I wake up often times with a vivid picture of the dream but by morning it’s gone. I suppose if I were to really remember them I would need to keep a note pad next to my bed and write them down in the middle of the night. But if I woke up Katie every night I would be in the dog house (literally), so I’ll settle for forgetting most of my dreams. Most.....
What I do know for sure is that for the past three years I have carried with me a new dream. I rarely ever remember my dreams. But this new dream is memorable. At first, I didn’t know what to call it or do about it. But in sharing this dream with about 15 other people 3 years ago, together, we began to figure it out. We now call this dream Lightshine Church and I am just beginning to understand what to do about it.
Carrying this dream
I am not an church planting expert (I just know enough to be dangerous). I am not a super star Pastor with all the answers. I am just a guy who loves Jesus and believes in His Church despite the challenges that the Church faces in the 21st century. I am a guy who is willing to carry this dream that I was given and give it my all to see it come true. To me, the mission that God has entrusted to the likes of us is worth what my church planting coach and good friend, Nick Warnes, calls “shrewd risk taking”.
No risk, no reward
Shrewd risk taking is one of the core values of a church planting group that I am a part of called “Cyclical LA”. This core value really has got me thinking. What great things can be accomplished in life without some risk taking? No risk, no reward. Isn’t that what they say?
Leaving a wonderful 20 year youth ministry career was a risk.
Planting Lightshine Church was a risk, not only for me, but for my family.
Starting a blog is a risk as I don’t really even know what a blog is and only God knows the outcome of any of these endeavors.
But the mission of God, this dream that God has placed on my heart is worth the risk.
So as a natural born risk avoider, I am learning that risking for something big, maybe even great, is worth it. Without the risk, we will never accomplish the dream. And when we risk together to achieve the dream, Lightshine Church has a shot of becoming a transformative place, a transformative people on mission. Maybe we can be used by God to offer the Kingdom that Jesus ushered in to those around us who know nothing about it and to provide a real home and authentic community centered around Jesus for all those who join with us in working for this dream.
Lightshine is constantly in forefront of my mind. Lightshine’s mission and it’s people have become so important me; indispensable really. It’s a dream that has become so powerful and so transformative that maybe I simply want to share it with others who might also share the same dream so that we can pull together in order to achieve it. Maybe writing about it is simply a therapeutic way to deal with all the ideas I have about small, missional, start up churches, which I strongly believe are a bright spot in a darkening church landscape. Whatever the reason, I am going to commit to giving this new thing an honest try.
Pulling Together. Risking together
I recently made the decision to start a blog. As a guy who has always had a love hate relationship with technology and social media I really have no idea why I made this decision.
My goal is to a short post every other week on some aspect of the importance of start up missional churches like Lightshine. They will each try to deal with one simple aspect of life together in a missional church. They won’t read like a technical manual; they will just be my personal musings on church that I hope will be found beneficial and encouraging to others who share the dream. They will be posts from the heart. I’m sure they will be far from perfect and they certainly won’t solve all the issues that we face as a small start up missional church.
This blog will be a space where all of Lightshine Church’s long form content will live. You will be able to find everything from updates on missional endeavors to introductions of new sermon series. Every post will be archived at lightshinechurch.org/blog and posted to facebook.com/lightshinechurch, twitter.com/lightshine2013, and twitter.com/robdouglaslc.
My hope is that these posts will serve to get us all in the same boat together, pulling together, risking together, to take the dream that God has graciously given us and share it, inviting others to join with us. I believe that the dream is worth the risk and I hope that you do too!
Robert Douglas
Organizing Pastor
Lightshine Church
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