{"id":43256,"date":"2019-08-07T06:00:31","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T10:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=43256"},"modified":"2019-08-07T08:55:18","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T12:55:18","slug":"god-hates-visionary-dreaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2019\/08\/god-hates-visionary-dreaming\/","title":{"rendered":"“God Hates Visionary Dreaming”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got to read Chase Replogle\u2019s article in Christianity Today<\/em> entitled Bonhoeffer Convinced Me to Abandon My Dream.<\/a>\u00a0 He tells about \u201cleadership\u201d classes in seminary, encouraging him to develop his \u201cvision\u201d for ministry.\u00a0 He came up with a vision for the ideal church that he wanted to build some day.\u00a0 But after his seminary, his attempts to fulfill that vision kept failing.<\/p>\n

His dream was to build a relevant, contextualized megachurch.\u00a0 \u201cWe would meet in some industrial space with lots of wood beams, single-origin coffee, and a massive rear projector at the back of the stage.\u201d But he ended up as the pastor of a tiny congregation that met in his basement.<\/p>\n

\n

Discouraged, he tried to find other options.\u00a0 \u201cI wanted to go somewhere adventurous. I wanted to build something great. I wanted to achieve something impactful for the kingdom. \u201d<\/p>\n

Then he happened upon Dietrich Bonhoeffer\u2019s book on Christian community, written on the occasion of the Nazis closing down his seminary.\u00a0 It\u2019s entitled\u00a0Life Together.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Whatever my reason for starting the book, I was entirely unprepared for four words on page 27: \u201cGod hates visionary dreaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonhoeffer continued,<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

It makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realized by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Bonhoeffer seems to be applying Luther\u2019s critique of the self-aggrandizing \u201ctheology of glory\u201d as opposed to the \u201ctheology of the cross.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>But what is the solution?\u00a0 Rev. Replogle kept reading:<\/p>\n

\u00a0Thankfully, Bonhoeffer offered a better way: gratitude. \u201cBecause God has already laid the only foundation of our fellowship \u2026 we enter into that common life not as demanders but as thankful recipients.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pastor\u2019s first call is not to envision a church but to receive one. We lead by discerning how Christ is forming a community and by being one of the first to accept that fellowship with gratitude. The pastor is not an entrepreneur. We are called to a project already underway. . . .<\/p>\n

The starkness of Bonhoeffer\u2019s warning opened my eyes to this new kind of pastoral vision. It forced me to finally see the congregation already in front of me. . . .<\/p>\n

Bonhoeffer convinced me to abandon dreaming. A church is never abstract. A congregation is never a demographic goal or an imaginary gathering. We are not called to a possibility, but to God\u2019s work at a specific moment, in this place, with these people.<\/p>\n

God is building his church; our gratitude comes from the joy of being in on it. The weight of forming and building a church is more than we can bear\u2014the stories of pastors crushed beneath the work they\u2019ve constructed are endless\u2014but being called to a work God has initiated is a wonderful grace. Pastoral ministry is a gift, not an achievement.<\/p>\n

[Read the whole article. . . ]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Furthermore, I would argue that this distinction between fulfilling one\u2019s dreams and gratefully receiving God\u2019s gift applies to all vocations!\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

How does this principle apply to marriage, parenting, work, and citizenship?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo:\u00a0 Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Wissen911 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-sa\/3.0)] via Wikimedia Commons<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve got to read Chase Replogle\u2019s article in Christianity Today entitled Bonhoeffer Convinced Me to Abandon My Dream.\u00a0 He tells about \u201cleadership\u201d classes in seminary, encouraging him to develop his \u201cvision\u201d for ministry.\u00a0 He came up with a vision for the ideal church that he wanted to build some day.\u00a0 But after his seminary, his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":43289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,47,48],"tags":[488,669,1268,1672,3387,4938],"class_list":["post-43256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church","category-theology","category-vocation","tag-church-growth","tag-dietrich-bonhoeffer","tag-leadership","tag-pastoral-ministry","tag-theology-of-glory","tag-trials-of-vocation"],"yoast_head":"\n"God Hates Visionary Dreaming"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A pastor tried to build his dream church until he read Bonhoeffer, who said, "God hates visionary dreaming." 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