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 be a pastor. I deeply desired to make a difference, but was unsure of was exactly how to do that!

My first assignment was to a small church on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. This church had gone through 15 years of decline followed by a leadership implosion that nearly destroyed them.

When I arrived the church had about 35 people, 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 a healthy church conference where we learned about the systems and tools that are needed to grow the church and keep it healthy.

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

Here's our D.R.E.A.M.

D

DESIGN experiences that unchurched people love to attend.

We know that every weekend is someone's first and we want them to keep coming back. We do this by wowing our guests with hospitality, using music as a cultural bridge, and teaching the Bible with real life application. Because of this, we have baptized over 2,700 people!

R

REACH the hurting and love 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 hurting families as our primary target, investing heavily in world-class children's and youth ministries, and offering support 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 has forever changed our church.

E

ENGAGE 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 classes and then equip them to practice these habits in community.

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 95% of our weekend attenders into a small group!

A

ACTIVATE every member into a meaningful ministry.

Now, more than ever, people are looking for a way to make a difference. They want to use their time, talents, and treasure to change the world.

In most churches, 20% of the people do 80% of the work.

At Oak Ridge, hundreds of volunteers serve on a DREAM team every week using their God-given SHAPE in a weekly ministry that matters.

M

MOBILIZE 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 13,000 people impacting their community, county, country and the entire world through intentional partnerships and we're just getting started!

(Here's a recent message I did that fully explains our missions model)

https://vimeo.com/1165174749

At Oak Ridge, 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 equip 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.

If you're ready to see God do great things in your church, JOIN US at this year's: