now - dream to go 24

What if this is it?

What if this is as good as it gets?
The "good old days" we'll look back on.

Live now.
Embrace now.
This is the only moment that truly exists.

If I lived with the awareness of Now and of God here now, life would transform.

Now counts.
Milk now... no mug it!
Trip it up, grab it by the throat and forcefully pursuade it to give up its treasures... "the kingdom of God belongs to forceful people..."

Stop excusing now.
Stop delegating it and postponing it.

Perhaps one of the biggest dangers in life is to spend my time, energy and money seeking out endless ways to distract myself from now. Maybe the kingdom if heaven is here, but I am elsewhere.

The only battles I need to fight are the ones I face right now.

Now is really happening! It's not a role-play or a practise for the real thing.
Now is the real thing.

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. (Matthew 6:34 the message)

Jesus never spoke to prostitues - dream to go 23

I’m a Reverend you know. It says so on my credit card, and also on a bit of paper a bishop once gave me. Most of the time I avoid the title – I mean it doesn’t really suit my rugged good looks and street cred lifestyle. But sometimes I quite enjoy it. Like on those days when I’m feeling insignificant and overlooked.

Only problem is, Jesus abolished ‘status’. Seriously, he scrapped it. He even arranged an ancient powerpoint illustration as the curtain in the temple that separated the professional holy people from the others ripped apart when he died.

Jesus started a new community where there are no VIPs. Where children, the homeless and the elderly get as much status as doctors, directors, and archbishops. In the early days they took it really seriously. They even made the rich people sit in the worst seats as a reminder.

But soon the rot began to creep back in. Those who were leaders (Jesus had called them 'servants' – the cleaners and cooks for the community) reinvented priesthood – or gave it new names like 'senior pastor'. Those who were followers happily colluded, welcoming the chance to confirm their nobody-ness and escape the responsibilities of “ministry”.

Of course we need different gifts and roles. And of course there are tools for the job. But does the size of the house, office or car reflect a valid need? Or is it just one more attempt to keep the wretched system going and keep the radical words of Jesus at bay?

Someone said that Jesus never spoke to prostitutes* – because he didn’t see them that way. He saw them as precious women made in God’s image. He saw them as sisters, and the daughters of his father. That's status!

(*I stole this wonderful line from a wonderful book called the irresistible revolution)

dream to go 22 - do it badly

If a thing’s worth doing, it’s worth doing badly (G K Chesterton)

Don’t wait to start. Don’t wait to be perfect. Don’t wait to be good at it. Don’t even wait to be average. Pretty well everything that is really and deeply important in life is worth doing, even if the best you can do is to do it badly.

Get stuck in. Get your hands dirty. Get your nose bloody.
Do it with all your heart and strength even if that is only good enough to do it badly.

Jesus told us to do lots of things. I am bad at almost all of them. But I’m going to do them, even if I make a fool of myself in the process. I’m going to love God and you and other people. I’m going to pray. I’m going to give lots away. I’m going to give up destructive living. I’m going to resist evil.

It will really help me to keep doing those things, if you are willing to have a go to, and to do them even if badly, rather than wait until you are somehow good.

Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? (1 Corinthians 1:26)

dream to go 21 - Give us your money!

Honestly, we want your money…. so hand it over.


Why on earth would I give my hard earned money away?
We’re really into “spiritual disciplines” in Dream. They’re ancient practises that flow from the teachings of Jesus. They help to change us from the inside as we learn to align our lives with God. We talk about some of them a lot – like silence, time out, prayer and meditation. We haven’t talked about giving money a lot because it’s a bit taboo in our culture, but we should because Jesus talked about it more than all the other ones! He said it was a key to our hearts and to really learning to trust God.

How much should I give away?
Down the ages lots of followers of Christian spirituality have given 10% of their income away as a basic guide. Others said that was just a silly old fashioned rule and God deserved a lot more than that! As a principle give a proportion regularly rather than just on a whim. As a spiritual discipline it seems to work most powerfully when we give until it hurts a bit and then give some more until it stops hurting and we start enjoying it.

Should I give it all to Dream?
No! We don’t deserve it and we aren’t the most important cause out there… there are people dying of hunger for goodness sake! Give lots to them. Also for loads of people involved, their main spiritual home is their local church, so that deserves the lion’s share of their giving. Maybe you could just pray and ask God to help you decide what proportion of your giving, if any should go to dream.

What will Dream spend it on?
Tea lights! Not really because the materials and running costs of each individual group are met by that group, so it’s the central network expenses we need to find. That’s mostly Richard’s half salary (because I’m worth it) and central stuff like network events, the website, etc. It all comes to around £20k per year.

Ok how do I give?
We've added a new section to our website just for you.

dream to go 20 - career opportunity

I'm excited to be able to tell you that Dream has now grown to the size where we are ready to expand our staff portfolio. Please read the following job description carefully. You could just be one of the people we are looking for, so don’t miss this opportunity for a change in career direction!

Job Title
Your position will reflect a encompasses a range of roles. Please choose from any or all of the following titles…
-Pastor
-Minister/Priest
-Missionary
-Full time Christian Worker, living by faith

Responsibilities
As a pastor, you will take pastoral responsibility to care for a group of people around you. This will be challenging, since much of this work is done undercover and most people in your “flock” will not realise that you are their “pastor”. Nevertheless you will take seriously the need to care for them and to seek their spiritual growth and wellbeing.

As a minister and priest*, you will be aware that you have been called by God to serve your flock sacrificially, to pray faithfully for them and to take opportunities to make them aware of God’s presence.

As a missionary, you will seek to understand the culture within which you work. You will look expectantly for signs of God’s work within your mission field. This work is aspirational as you seek see your context transformed by the presence of Jesus. As a missionary you will also cherish the legacy of others who have, and still do, experience intense suffering and even death for the sake of this cause.

As a “full time Christian worker”, you will know that your true employer is God, whether or not you have a official employer. As such, you will embrace the call to “live by faith”, trusting God to lead you and provide for you.

Remuneration and Support.
Dream will not pay any wages, however we will be working in the months ahead to increase opportunities for giving, something which we regard as an outstanding long-term (ie forever) investment opportunity. Successful applicants may expect ongoing support from across the network through prayer, encouragement and resources for personal spiritual development.

Qualifications
This is an equal opportunities appointment that does not discriminate based on age, gender, race, class, sexuality or education. There are however two essential qualities

-A commitment (however fallible) to follow Jesus, seeking to live a life shaped by Him and in obedience to his teaching. (This bit automatically makes you a pastor, priest, minister, etc!)

-A desire to carry out this vocation (that means calling) as part of the Dream network. (This bit qualifies you for our exclusive remuneration and support package)

Application Procedure
None required, though you might like to be brave and add a comment to indicate that you are taking the job!


*please not that “priest” in this context neither requires you to wear strange clothes (though whatever floats your boat), not does it entitle you to claim a pay cheque from the Church of England!

dream to go 19 - stop flapping... or maybe start

Choas theory refers to the "butterfly effect". The idea that a butterfly flapping its wings in one place can be the tiny but crucial difference that leads to chain reaction, causing a hurricane on the other side of the world.

What were you doing 5 mins ago?

What will you be doing later today?

It is significant.

Could be more significant that what Bill Gates, George Bush, Bono and the Pope are do at those moments!

And if not, then still significant.

By the way, who says that Gates' job is more 'important' than the house-husband/wife who makes their own home hospitable?

Flap away, lets create a storm!