If You Could Lead the Church of Your DREAMS, What Would It Look Like?

In 1999, when I graduated from seminary and prepared to take my first pastorate, there was far more that I didn’t know than I did.

All I really knew at the time was that God had called me to lead a church. And I deeply desired to make a difference. What I was unsure of was exactly how to do that!

I was asked to pastor a small church on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. This church had gone through 15 years of a plateau. Followed by a leadership implosion that put them through a near-death experience. At that time, the church had about 35 people, no pastor, no visitors, and almost no children.

After being there for just a few months, I attended two powerful conferences that totally changed the direction of our church.

The first was a pastors conference where the speaker challenged us to dream God’s dream for our church. He said, “If you could lead the church of your dreams, what would it look like?”

I left that conference with my heart pounding and my head spinning. On the airplane ride home I pulled out a piece of paper and began feverishly writing down several, “I dream of a church…” statements.

The second conference was Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Church conference. He provided the systems and practical tools that we have used for over 20 years to turn our dream into reality.

Combining the dream God gave me for a healthy new testament church with the practical systems of Purpose Driven, I crafted our “DREAM” into an acronym of five statements that sum up our values and strategies.

Here’s our D.R.E.A.M.

DDESIGN weekend services that the unchurched love to attend.

We know that every weekend is someone’s first and we want them to keep coming back. We do this by focusing on wowing our guests with friendliness, teaching the Bible with application, and using music as a cultural bridge. Because of this, we have baptized over 2,000 people since the dream began!

RREACH the hurting and add them into the Family

We believe that the average American family is facing incredible challenges as never before. Churches need to focus on creative ways to bring hope and healing to hearts and homes. We do this by defining broken families as our primary target, investing heavily in world-class children’s and youth ministries, and offering supportive ministries for every member of the family. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Real ministries aimed at bringing real healing to real lives have forever changed our church.

EENGAGE people in spiritual growth

Our motto is, “God wants you to grow up before you go up!” We help people grow by teaching spiritual habits in our Growth Track and then encourage them to practice these habits in small groups. People aren’t looking for a friendly church, they’re looking for friends. Small groups are the most powerful tool for fellowship and discipleship hands down. The Christian life isn’t just about believing, it’s also about belonging. Using simple on-ramps we have been able to connect over 90% of our weekend attenders into a small group!

AACTIVATE every member into a meaningful ministry

Now, more than ever, people are looking for a way to give back. They want to use their time, talents, and treasure to make a real difference. In most churches, 20% of the people do 80% of the work. At Oak Ridge, over 50% of our members give their lives away using their God-given SHAPE in a weekly ministry that matters.

MMOBILIZE the whole church to change the whole world

Churches, not charities, are called to be on the front lines engaging people in the most important mission on planet earth – bringing the gospel to every human being on the planet. We believe the best way to do this is to partner with other churches across the globe and then help them accomplish the Great Commission in their community. Using the PEACE Plan as a model for missions, we have mobilized over 6,000 people to impact their community, country and the entire world through intentional partnerships and we’re just getting started!

We DREAM of 10,000 lives changed by the love of Jesus Christ and we are crazy enough to believe that the God who raised this church from the dead, and performed miracles in our midst, can and will do it for His glory through any church that begins to DREAM God-sized dreams!

Our passion is to assist other churches to discover God’s dream for their church.  That’s why we host an annual two-day DREAM Church Conference where we share practical ways to grow a healthy vibrant church.

That’s our DREAM.

So, what’s your dream for your church?