and your old men will dream dreams
Young men dream of battles won and kingdoms grown for good. If old men dream, they dream of dying.
That was at least the case for the men who served as deacons at Northridge Baptist Church. They were weary. Hearing their story was incredibly humbling. Three of them had served their church longer than I have known what church is. They did everything - teaching classes, building buildings, painting, cutting grass, cooking for fellowships, evangelism and outreach, served on committees, hired, fired… they had done it all.
They had seen the church in its glory days - reaching the community, baptizing, changing lives. They had raised their children there. And now their church, the church they had loved was dying. The weight of it all was visible from the very first meeting. They were uncertain, hurting, confused and filled with sorrow and maybe some regret.
When we met with them to talk about where they were in the life of the church and what options we saw for them, they were dreaming of death - how do we sell our facilities, pay off the debts and move on? Some of the men admitted that they no longer wanted to come to church; it was more a burden and pain than it was a joy. They admitted they had already begun thinking about where they might visit and what church they might call home.
Please don’t think poorly of these men, they had fought hard for the church and served well - they were weary and wandering. They had seen a lot and been through a lot. They had dealt with some incredibly difficult days and some even more difficult people.
“And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.”
Joel’s prophecy, in the book of Joel, was in part, meant to be a call to repentance for God’s people. He was reminding them that if they would return to Him, love and follow Him, He would again be with them. He tells them in chapter 2, He would pour out His blessings, protecting them and providing for them if they would return to Him. He would even pour out His Spirit!
Filled again with His Spirit, Joel says, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
The Lord has been doing an incredible work through the closing of Northridge Baptist Church and the birth of New City East Side. This past Sunday, January 10 New City East Side was officially launched. Leading up to the launch Sunday, the New City Macon elders and New City East Side deacons got together to celebrate and pray. I cannot tell you what a joy that was. I cannot put in words the difference in these men. There is no comparison, really to that first meeting we had together.
Before we prayed, we shared the good things we had seen God doing over the last 10 months. There has been plenty of difficulties, we all acknowledged that! But the joys!
The men shared thanks to New City for our investment. They celebrated the new spirit that exists at East Side. They talked about the various people they were inviting to church, sharing that at one time they were too embarrassed to invite people and now it is a regular occurrence. They shared the joy that they have in being a part of Missional Communities and doing life with young families and children. They rejoiced in the unity that they now see in a leadership pursuing Jesus and HIs mission…
And they dreamed!
They are dreaming now of a not just a church filled, but a church filled with multiple services! And not just filled with multiple services, but dreaming of maybe multiple church congregations sharing their facilities! They shared their dreams of seeing Missional Communities planted all over Jones County and in Gray, all over Bibb County, Macon and Milledgeville. They shared their dream of other churches joining the New City Family and working together to see all of Middle Georgia and beyond transformed by the gospel. The shared their dreams of being involved next in helping another dying church to live again.
I am honestly in tears thinking about the night, thinking about the faithfulness of God.
There has been a lot of repenting, hard conversations, work and changes over the past months but none of it has done what only God could do - revive hearts that were dreaming of death and cause them to dream His new dreams!
This is what we signed up for when we talked about church replanting.
This is church replanting - not just a name change, not an attempt to grow our own kingdom, not a way to spread our own fame or gain some sort of power - revival, a pouring out of HIs Spirit, dreaming new dreams.
I cannot wait to dream more dreams with these brothers and sisters!
I cannot wait to see what more God will do!
