Big Scary Dreams

Often when I read the accounts of the earliest followers of Jesus I am struck by the enormity of the tasks they were called to, and by the fact that they did them! Imagine, your sitting around the fire with Jesus one day and He says to you and your friends, "Ok, so tomorrow I'm going to take a little sabbatical; you go out and proclaim the kingdom, heal the sick and cast out any demons your run across. Just do what I do." Simple, right? Just do what Jesus does. Or, imagine being Peter in the boat with the disciples watching Jesus  walk on water. Of course Jesus invites you to the easy things.... "Come on out here, big boy! It's just a little water." No problem, right?

So, I'm thinking, might Jesus still call us to the seemingly impossible? As I dream toward the new churches God is calling me to plant, I am praying for BIG SCARY DREAMS... visions that absolutely terrify me. I want to be like the disciples, who could never mistake the power of their ministry as being of themselves, who could never take credit for their successes and were able to rejoice in their apparent failures because they knew they were about God's business. I want to be out on the water where only Jesus can make us walk and where He alone is praised!

Might the CityWell churches be impossible communities formed in the name and power of Jesus? Communities that defy the cultural prescriptions of what the church can be? Communities where dividing walls of class and race are torn down? Communities where every follower of Jesus is radically empowered to do what He does? Communities where thousands and thousands of people discover the salvation won for them by Jesus? Communities born pregnant and passionate about birthing more churches? Now that is BIG SCARY DREAM because we can never do these things by ourselves! The good news is that we are not by ourselves, and nothing is impossible with our God!