I had a dream

Just before I woke up this morning I had a dream. Like many dreams it was slightly surreal and odd – but it left me with the most powerful feeling. Let me tell you about it.

I was at my Mum’s church up in Liverpool, the church I went along to when I was a kid. (It’s a Methodist Church with some lovely people, but not a great deal of spiritual oomph – the only thing increasing there seems to be the average age of the congregation.) Anyway, on the site of this church, there’s the main church building and also a tumbledown hall (more corrugated iron than bricks and mortar) which the scouts and others use – the “top hall” it’s generally called.

Okay, so much for the background, now for what happened. There I was (don’t we often find ourselves in scenes from the past in our dreams?) and somehow found out that a very rich multi-millionaire had promised to turn the top hall into a purpose-built, state-of-the-art Christian youth centre. No limits – we could plan whatever we wanted and he would pay. I found myself on the committee that were planning what would happen.

As the dream went on, the whole thing grew more and more expansive (and expensive!) It was a multi-storey, huge place with big conference style rooms for worship, music suite, action rooms – even a swimming pool with water chutes! The point was that it became increasingly evident that there really were no limits – this geezer was going to pay for whatever we asked for! We dreamed on and the building started and we were thinking bigger and bigger and bigger.

What’s more, the Methodist Church started to have a new lease of (spiritual) life. An old worthy who I remember from my childhood (in fact, he’s still at that church now) got involved and became passionate for the vision of young people finding faith. The whole thing galvanised the church into action. They started to plan a huge underground car-park for all the people who were going to be coming from miles around. This little church had become a honey pot that young people swarmed to.

I woke up totally excited. Vision! The sky’s the limit! We needn’t stint!

Immediately, I thought, “God’s our benefactor; and He is generous.” I don’t know what this dream might mean for the Methodist Church up north-west, but I found myself filled with a new faith in God’s generosity for us in the Jesus Army - and for the Church as a whole in the UK.

“Ask and it will be given” – that was what this dream was all about! And there’s so many things we dream of: Jesus Centres across the country, full-on Christian communities that are vibrant and compellingly attractive, young people being awakened to God in droves...

I suppose I’d got rather into the humdrum daily grind of “living for Christ” (yawn) and “being a leader” (snore). But God has reminded me – the sky’s the limit! He’s generous and wants to give more "than all that we ask or think”. He's calling us to faith.

What do you want? Ask the benefactor. Dream your dreams. See them come to pass.

(I've already shared this dream with a few friends this morning - here's one friend's reflections on it: God's generous expansive heart.)