Are you helping people discover God's dreams? - Following the Spirit in God's Mission at Grapevine

[James Nored]

Whenever I do Missional Outreach Seminars, I divide the participants in smaller discussion groups to have them share what hopes and dreams that God has laid on their hearts to reach out to the community. I do a similar thing when I sit down and help people discover their Spiritual gifts through the Spiritual gifts Inventory.

 

In our Wednesday night class at the Grapevine Church of Christ, one of our members, Brandon, divided the class into groups of three and had everyone write down the big dream that God had laid on their hearts and some small step that we could take to realize this dream. Brandon has a great, intuitive grasp of how to reach out and help others to do so as well.

 

I couldn't wait to hear the hope and dreams that God had given to this group. And as always, I was not disappointed. Here are some of the hope and dreams that God had laid on the hearts of this group at Grapevine:

• Bill - Teach others how to effectively share their faith through classes and mentoring
• George - Write novels with a Christian theme to be sold at all kinds of stores to help people begin to want to know more about Christ
• Brandon & Randi - start a teen/rec center to give teens a place to go after school to play basketball/sports and get support on school.  it would be a place to provide home cooked, family style meals to share with each other daily.  also a place to help give kids help in getting into college and learning job skills.
• Pam - raise 3 daughters to love Christ and serve others
• Kimberly - provide classes and activities for families with special needs children
• Sharon - work with families with special needs children
• Sam - start a community garden at the church building and start an inner-city garden to provide fresh sustainable food for local people in need.
• Ed - start a community garden
• Hollee - work with women in the sex industry and immigrants/refugees
• Amber - work with teens to provide mentoring and help with college skills and readiness
• Charlotte - work with the community garden and help others in need
• Myra - open up the preschool to all people regardless of finances and make a place open to all
• Renee - become a stay-at-home mom to better connect with her children and raise them in a Christian home
• Jennifer - Work with children to help them learn scripture and reach out to all kinds of kids

In order for these dreams to be realized, they do need to be written down, shared, prayed over, and encouraged. Our next step is help people realize these dreams. What resources do they need? How can we help get the message out so that others who share in this dream can know about it? Who can help all of us make sure that we take those next steps and are obedient to God's call?

I can't wait to see how God uses this to reach people for Christ!

What people has God laid on your heart and that of your church's heart to serve and share Christ with?