Day 18: What are your dreams?

Today is a day that recognizes Martin Luther King, Jr.

He was a man with a dream.

Take two minutes right now and relive part of that dream by watching the video below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/Y4AItMg70kg 440 330]

Now, here is the cool part.

Forty-six years later, much of that dream has come true. Dr. King had a dream that “that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” This year, my son will start elementary school, on a red hill in Georgia, and will sit down next to boys of all skin colors to share an equal education and become friends. Those boys will be living, breathing, tangible testaments to a dream that was spoken and then unrelentingly worked out over many, many years. These boys’ lives are dramatically different because someone had a dream, shared it with others, created a movement, and then worked incredibly hard to make it come true.

Over these twenty-one days of fasting, we’ve been praying and thinking about our collective dreams as both individuals and as a church family. We’ve considered the movement that we want to create in Buckhead and beyond. We’ve dared each other to dream so big that it would be destined for failure if God wasn’t leading it. It is scary, exciting, daunting, and invigorating all at the same time.

In this process, I’ve become even more in touch that I have dreams, too… for both of us.

I have a dream that some day, many years from now, many people will look back and remember the day that someone invited them to Buckhead Church in 2010 for the very first time…and how that changed everything.

I have a dream that thousands and thousands of adults will one day walk this planet with a healthy, inspiring view of a God (and a church) that loves them because they grew up in our family ministry environments.

I have a dream that, many years from now, analysts and sociologists that study the demographics of Atlanta will be puzzled by what caused a dramatic upward trend in charitable giving, job satisfaction, faith, and volunteerism while simultaneously reducing poverty, depression, and divorce in our city. I have a dream that the reason will be Buckhead Church.

I have a dream that, this year, people date differently, serve each other more, find joy in trials, remain humble in success, refuse to quit, take ownership for their spiritual growth, and invite anyone and everyone that they know to do the same. I have a dream that they will find the community, teaching, and support at Buckhead Church to do all that.

I have a dream that countless numbers of people will fill heaven because our church (the people, not the place) reached them, loved them, led them, invited them, and walked beside them as they made decisions to place their faith in a God that loves them enough to die for them.

Those are a few of my dreams for you, Buckhead Church, and me.

What are your dreams?

Billy Phenix