Irving Bible Church in Irving, Texas has a dream:
We dream of a church where people are free to attempt great things for God; where people have nothing to prove and therefore nothing to lose; where creativity and innovation are honored, not feared; where all kinds of people serve God in all kinds of ways.
It’s part of a web site introducing visitors to their church, starting with their dreams, moving into some basics of faith and finishing with basics about visiting their church.
I like the idea (though the pop up window format is annoying), especially the emphasis on the church’s dreams. Too often I think the church simply doesn’t dream. We do what’s adequate and move on. We never dream big, think large, or imagine that just maybe God does want to do something incredible. Businesses dream and it takes them pretty far. Shouldn’t we—the people of God, who have reason to expect dreams to become reality—be dreaming? (link via Jason Reynolds, the Web Ministry Coordinator at Stonebriar Community Church)
Betsy
April 27, 2005
That is incredible. I think we need to do something like that for our church.
As much as people are looking for a “church”, they are looking for a community and a family to which to belong. Sharing the dream of the church, the purpose and vision, allows a visitor to discover that she is like-minded and can identify with the dream (or not) — and feel like she belongs (or not).
Stu's Musings
April 27, 2005
dreams and visions
I’ll be honest, i hate vision talk. ‘without a vision the people will perish…’ blah blah blah. it’s hack now. tell me about your dreams.
i stumled on this website from ‘church marketing sucks’. this kind of church explanation inspired me in the same w
Dana O
April 30, 2005
I checked out IBC’s site and happened upon their 2004 financial report. While I agree that it is good to have a goal and a dream, I do belive that those things should be accomplished within their means. It looks to me like IBC is in debt.
Serving God through creativity, innovation, and in other ways is great — but so is being a good steward of your money. What kind of message does that send if you can do one and not the other? Some might argue that it is sometimes necessary to go over budget when doing something really creative or innovative, but, in fact, the true test of creativity and innovation is when budgets are limiting. :)
Bob
May 6, 2005
Hmmm…I’ll take your word for it. My browser blocks the popup and the churchdreams link says it won’t work with Firefox. I didn’t see anything you referenced. I guess its only cool in Internet Exploder.
kevin
May 8, 2005
Bob, I use Firefox and was able to view the site fine. You might need to turn off your pop-up blocker momentarily, but you should still be able to view it.