The mission of the church is multi-dimensional and one of those dimensions is that the church ought to be a dream factory. We don’t just want to develop leaders. We want to develop dreamers. Obviously, I’m talking about kingdom dreams that are conceived by the Holy Spirit. No one dreamed a bigger dream than Jesus: make disciples of all nations. We call it the Great Commission. I like to think of it as the Great Dream. To follow in the footsteps of Jesus is to dare to dream God-ordained and God-sized dreams.

Now let me make an important distinction because I think dreaming is two-dimensional.
When someone becomes part of NCC they become a shareholder in our corporate vision. They become part of something that is bigger than they are. They become a subplot in the story God is writing through National Community Church. But it’s a two-way street. Too many churches are all about the corporate vision and fail to realize that we are also shareholders in the personal vision of each person who is part of our community. We become part of the story God is writing through them. Healthy churches are all about both corporate vision and personal vision.

I think our free market system of small groups is a great example of how you do both. If we’re going to reach 10,000 people we need 1000 small groups. That is part of our long-term corporate vision. But the way you achieve corporate vision is by helping people achieve their personal vision. Our free market system allows our leaders to get a vision from God and go for it.

Bottom line: NCC is called to be a dream factory. We want to help people discover their God-ordained dreams. And we want to help them go after them with relentless faith. And as those personal visions become reality so will our corporate vision.