JOEL MALM WAS ICE-AXING his way up Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in Europe. A whiteout made it impossible to summit. It also covered the trail markers back down the mountain. Joel had never felt more alive, more alert.
At sixteen thousand feet he could have chalked it up to oxygen deprivation, but Joel knew it was a vision from God. The thrill of conquering a mountain was more than an emotional high. It deepened his dependence upon God in a way that nothing else could. And that was the gift he wanted to give to other leaders like him. That’s why Joel started Summit Leaders.1
Why go to a conference and passively listen to a leader when you can hike the Inca Trail or raft the Colorado River with him? I’ve been privileged to co-lead three trips with Joel. He leads the adventure, and I lead devotions.
Our inaugural adventure was a four-day hike on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. The next year we hiked Half Dome in Yosemite National Park. Last year we spent an epic week rafting the Colorado River and hiking out of the Grand Canyon. And this year I’ll go after Life Goal #109. I’ll watch the sunrise from the top of Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park. And when I do, I’ll be the first person in America to see the sunrise that day!
Joel doesn’t just lead hiking or rafting trips. Our carefully orchestrated adventures create a field of dreams where people can get a vision from God, not unlike a Native American vision quest.
Because most of us read Scripture in the comfortable confines of air-conditioned homes or offices, we often miss the geographical subplot. The walk from Jerusalem to Jericho is 15.7 miles with a 3,428-foot change in elevation. In other words, the Good Samaritan had to be in good shape. Mount Sinai is 7,487 feet high, which is quite a trek carrying two stone tablets. And the Sea of Galilee is 8.078 miles wide, which is pretty scary if you’re in the middle of the lake in a storm.
These facts might seem insignificant to us, but not if you’re the one walking it, climbing it, or sailing it. It’s no coincidence that Jesus prayed on the beach, fasted in the wilderness, and taught on the mountainside.
I live by a little formula that Joel has adopted for Summit Leaders: change of pace + change of place = change of perspective. In other words, geography and spirituality are not unrelated. View affects vision. I think that’s why God told Abraham to go outside his tent and look into the night sky.2 Inside the tent an eight-foot ceiling obstructed his vision. Outside the tent, the sky was the limit.
Not long after surviving Mount Elbrus, Joel picked up a copy of In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day and read it in two days. Then he uncharacteristically woke up very early the next morning. “I try to see four o’clock only once per day, and the a.m. version is not the preferred one!” said Joel. “When I’m wide awake at that hour, I pay attention.”
Joel heard an inaudible yet unmistakable voice that morning: It’s time to move on the vision. Contact Mark Batterson. In the wee hours of the morning, Joel typed out his vision for Summit Leaders. Then he made an educated guess at my e-mail address and hit Send. I was in a writing season, so I was up early that day. I saw the e-mail right after Joel sent it. And even though I didn’t know Joel from Adam, I e-mailed him back immediately: “I’m all over this idea! Let’s talk about what it could look like.”
One reason I was all over the idea was that Joel proposed hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, and that was Life Goal #42. I had just set that goal, and I had a hunch that this was my golden ticket.
Sending that e-mail was a field-of-dreams moment for Joel. And as is often the case with God-ordained dreams, Joel’s dream made one of my dreams possible. Because of his obedience to the vision God gave him, I’ve checked quite a few life goals off my list. And so have lots of other leaders who would rather go on an adventure than go to a conference.
Fight Song
It was an ordinary day in every way, but it was a day that would change the trajectory of my life forever. When the days of my life are measured, it will rank right near the top.
Our family was vacationing at Lake Ida in Alexandria, Minnesota, just as we had done every summer of my life. I was a week away from my sophomore year at the University of Chicago, but my spirit was unsettled. On paper my life was absolutely perfect. I had a full-ride scholarship to one of the top academic institutions in the country and a starting position on the basketball team. But God was stirring the nest, stirring my spirit.
In retrospect I call it my summer of seeking. But at the time I didn’t even know what I was looking for. For the first time in my life, prayer was more than punching a timecard. Instead of asking God to bless my plan for Him, I genuinely sought His plan for me—His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
I got up extra early on the last morning of vacation, set out on a prayer walk down a dirt road, and took a shortcut through a cow pasture filled with cow patties. It was in the middle of that cow pasture that I heard the same inaudible yet unmistakable voice of God that Joel heard on Mount Elbrus. It was my burning bush, the place where God came out of nowhere and spoke in a way I’d never heard before.
It’s hard to describe, and I don’t want to exaggerate what happened. But I knew God was calling me into full-time ministry. I had no idea where or when or how, but I knew I was called to be a pastor.
That cow pasture in Alexandria, Minnesota, is my field of dreams.
It feels like a lifetime ago, but I’m reminded of it almost daily. Nearly a decade ago I took a pilgrimage back to that cow pasture and took pictures. Why? Because there are days when I need to swivel my chair, look at the picture of that decisive moment, and be reminded of why I do what I do.
Your dream is more than a dream. It’s a calling. Sure, someone hired you and someone can fire you. But they didn’t call you. God did. And if you forget that fact, you forget why you do what you do and Who you do it for.
Scripture doesn’t give much context, but Shammah found himself in a field full of lentils. Why Scripture even nuances that fact, I’m not sure. Lentils were one of the first crops domesticated in the Near East. In other words, this was a farmer’s field. But for Shammah, the third-ranked mighty man, it was his battlefield.
We don’t know what was going through Shammah’s mind, but this was his fight song, take back his life song, prove he’s all right song. This was where he took his stand, made his name, and won the greatest battle of his life.
This was Shammah’s field of dreams.
Go Back
I love going back to places where God has done something significant in my life. Whenever I have the chance, I revisit the cow pasture in Alexandria, Minnesota. I go back to the chapel balcony in Springfield, Missouri, where I learned to pray, or I drive by the nursing home in Naperville, Illinois, where I preached some of my first sermons. And several times a week I visit the school where I preached my first sermon as the pastor of NCC, because it’s now the gym where I work out.
Something about going back to a place where God has proven Himself faithful builds our faith even more. It’s not just a walk down memory lane. Those memories fuel faith and stoke the imagination.
I wonder if Shammah ever went back to the field of lentils later in life, the place where he took his stand. I wonder if Abraham ever went back to Mount Moriah, the place where God provided a ram in the thicket. Did Jacob ever double back to the Jabbok River, the place where he wrestled with God? Did David ever go back to the Valley of Elah, where he defeated Goliath? And what about Elijah? Is it a coincidence that he prayed for rain in the place where God sent fire? I think not. When you go back to a place where God has already done a miracle, you have twice the faith. That’s why I climb onto the rooftop of Ebenezers coffeehouse to pray. I have more faith up there!
Before going wherever God wants to take you next, is there some place you need to go back to? Sometimes the way forward is backward. “The farther backward you can look,” said Winston Churchill, “the farther forward you can see.”3
After our first attempt at church planting failed, I thought the dream of planting a church was deep-sixed. I’ve since discovered that God-ordained dreams often go through a death and resurrection. Only when the dream is dead and buried can it be resurrected for God’s glory.
Dreams aren’t just born; they are sometimes born again.
Most dreams die not because they’re the wrong dream but because the timing is wrong. We’re not ready for it, or it isn’t ready for us. But what seems like a waiting period is really a grace period. Don’t put a period where God puts a comma. When the time is right, dust off the dream and rededicate it to God.
Church planting isn’t the only dream that took me two attempts. So did In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day. I didn’t write the book once; I wrote it twice. It took two attempts to get a contract on the crackhouse that is now Ebenezers coffeehouse. The first contract fell through, and I’m glad it did. God knew we needed another year of financial and numerical growth under our belt before undertaking that project. It felt like a waste of time when it happened, but God’s timing is perfect.
More often than not, what we perceive as a no is really a not yet.
Plan B
My spiritual father, Dick Foth, was a premed student at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1959. During his freshman year he got straight D’s in chemistry, so he decided not to inflict himself on the medical community. As Foth likes to say, “No one wants a surgeon who got a D.” Foth opted for ministry instead, but it was his plan B.
In 1966 Foth planted a church in Urbana, Illinois, and then pastored it for more than a decade. Then another plan B presented itself when Bethany College in Santa Cruz, California, asked him to interview for their presidency. Dick would serve as president for fourteen years, but he was actually their second choice. It was only after their first choice passed on the job that Dick was offered the job, and by then he was having second thoughts. Maybe because he was their second choice!
When the chairman of the board at Bethany asked Dick to reconsider, he began to pray. He was lying on his bed wrestling with God that day when he heard the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit said something like this: You know you can pastor, but you aren’t sure if you can president. You’re afraid of risking your reputation. You’re afraid of failing. Aren’t you glad I wasn’t?
When we operate in faith, we aren’t risking our reputation. We’re risking God’s reputation! And God can handle Himself just fine, thank you. You may doubt yourself because of your lack of education or lack of experience. But if God has called you, you aren’t really doubting yourself. You’re doubting God.
God doesn’t call the qualified.
God qualifies the called.
My father-in-law, Bob Schmidgall, had at least two dreams that he never fulfilled. He wanted to plant a church in the inner city of Chicago, but it never happened. He also wanted to be a missionary. Instead, he faithfully pastored Calvary Church in Naperville, Illinois, for thirty-one years.
Toward the end of his life, my father-in-law came to terms with his unfulfilled dream of being a missionary. He said to my mother-in-law, “God has used me more by not going.” And it’s true. For many years Calvary Church was the leading mission-giving church in the Assemblies of God. But it’s not just the millions of dollars that made a difference. He was a missionary’s best friend. And, most important, his heart for missions was passed on to his son Joel and his nephew Dave.
Joel and Dave lead the way at NCC when it comes to missions. This past year we took twenty-eight mission trips and gave more than $2 million to missions. And we’re just getting started. We want to grow more so we can give more. The true measure of a church isn’t the seating capacity of its sanctuary. The true measure of spiritual maturity is sending capacity, and we dream of the day when a short-term team is coming and going fifty-two weeks a year. We also dream of the day when the 126 missionaries and ministries we support double and triple and quadruple. We dream of the day when every NCCer is on mission whenever, wherever, whatever.
Sometimes God will put a dream in your heart that is actually for someone else to accomplish. And sometimes there is more joy in watching someone else do it. David dreamed of building a temple, but God said no. God downloaded the plans to David, but it was David’s son who would fulfill the dream.
In a similar way I’d like to think that National Community Church is a fulfillment of my father-in-law’s dreams. It’s located in Washington, DC, rather than Chicago, but I think it still counts. And I know that our vision for missions is a passion within a passion, a dream within a dream.
Planting a church in Chicago was our plan A. I even put together a twenty-five-year plan for a seminary class that got an A, but in reality it earned an F. And I’m so grateful it did fail because that’s how we discovered a much better plan, plan B, in Washington, DC.
Don’t settle for your plan A.
Go after God’s plan B.
Imaginary Drummers
“Oh great! Real bullets!”
“Something amazing, I guess.”
“If you build it, he will come.”
These one-liners are a few of my film favorites. The first one, from Three Amigos, makes me laugh. The second one, from The Incredibles, makes me smile. And the third one, from Field of Dreams, makes me risk.
In the 1989 classic Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner plays the role of novice farmer and baseball lover Ray Kinsella. While walking through a cornfield, Ray hears a faint whisper: “If you build it, he will come.” Ray bets the farm by building a baseball diamond in the middle of nowhere. After Kinsella does much soul-searching and penny-pinching, the ghosts of baseball past mysteriously appear and play ball.
That one-liner has become a life metaphor for me.
Many people hit a dead end in their dream journey because they’re waiting for God to go first. In my experience signs follow.4 If you wait for God to part the Jordan River, you’re going to be waiting the rest of your life. You have to step into the river and get your feet wet before God will part the river.
Faith is taking the first step before God reveals the second step.
When NCC first started, I was both the preacher and worship leader. I didn’t lead worship because I was gifted at it. I did it because there wasn’t anyone else to do it. I have a heart for worship but not the voice. I don’t have the rhythm either!
Our dominant prayer our first year was Send us a drummer! Save souls too, but send us a drummer! If I prayed it once, I prayed it a hundred times. One day after praying that prayer, I felt as if God said, Why don’t you buy a drum set? My reaction? Just as soon as You send a drummer! I wanted God to go first. That way there’d be no risk involved. Of course, that also eliminates the element of faith.
This was pre-Google, so I looked for a used drum set in the classifieds. At that point our monthly income as a church was $2,000, and we were paying $1,600 to rent the DC public school where we met, leaving $400 for our salary and all other expenses. You can guess how much the drum set cost, can’t you? Four hundred dollars.
I still remember my internal dialogue as I drove to Silver Spring, Maryland, to buy that drum set. This is crazy! I’m buying a drum set for an imaginary drummer that doesn’t even exist. But it was a field-of-dreams moment—if you buy it, he will come. The very next Sunday a clean-shaven young man with a short haircut walked into NCC for the first time. I could tell he was military, but I wasn’t sure which branch. Turns out he was stationed at the marine barracks and was with the Drum and Bugle Corps. We have a simple policy at NCC: if you play an instrument for the president of the United States, you don’t even have to audition for our worship team! God didn’t just send us a drummer; he sent us a rock star. And even more important than the rhythm we added to our worship was the faith that multiplied.
Sometimes you have to take a stand by taking a step. And when you do, that one small step can turn into a giant leap.
Faith Defined
I have quite a few definitions of faith that I’ve coined and collected over the years. Faith is climbing out on a limb, cutting it off, and watching the tree fall down. If doubt is putting your circumstances between you and God, faith is putting God between you and your circumstances. Faith is unlearning your fears until all that’s left is the fear of God. Faith is the willingness to look foolish. And I’ve already mentioned it, but it’s worth repeating: faith is taking the first step before God reveals the second step.
Let me give you one more.
Gratitude is thanking God after He does it.
Faith is thanking God before He does it.
Sometimes you need to stop praying for something and start praising God as if it has already happened. Isn’t that what the Israelites did when they marched around Jericho? God didn’t say, “I will deliver it into your hands”—future tense. He said, “I have delivered it”—present perfect tense. In other words, it had already been accomplished in the spiritual realm. All they had to do was circle Jericho until God delivered on His promise.
Dick Eastman is one of my prayer heroes. He’s spent more time in prayer than just about anybody I know. Dick made a vow in his twenties to spend an hour with God every day. Now in his seventies, Dick has logged at least sixteen thousand hours in prayer!
During a recent conversation Dick told me a story about a missionary who was praying for a four-by-four vehicle for their ministry. As a statement of faith, he would wash that imaginary vehicle with soap and water in front of his mission house as very inquisitive African neighbors looked on. That may seem silly to some, but faith often comes across that way. And it’s no coincidence that a church in California bought that missionary a four-by-four not long after.
Inspired by his example, Dick did something similar when Every Home for Christ, the organization Dick is president of, was believing God for a building. Dick would often circle the imaginary foundation, open imaginary doors, and walk into his imaginary office. It was Dick’s field of dreams. And that dream became reality when EHFC built its headquarters, the Jericho Center, in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
One more story for good measure.
Joshua Symonette is a former Washington Redskin and current campus pastor at National Community Church. His boyhood dream was playing in the NFL, but he was a long shot. Not many NFL teams scouted at Tennessee Technological University, especially since Peyton Manning was playing down the road at the University of Tennessee at the same time as Joshua.
It had been a decade since Tennessee Tech had a player in the NFL, but that only fueled Joshua’s fire. Before the start of his sophomore season, he made a decision to wear a suit to every game. Why? Because he noticed that NFL players wore suits to their games. So he followed their example. That may seem insignificant to some, but it was a statement of faith—a dress rehearsal for his dream. If your dream is to play in the pros, why not dress like one?
Now for the fun, or funny, part! Joshua would put on his suit in his dorm room, walk five minutes across an empty campus, and then immediately take off his suit in the locker room. It made no sense to his fellow players or his coaches. But he repeated that ritual, game after game, year in and year out. Why? Because it was his field of dreams.
“If I look ridiculous,” Joshua said, “so be it.”
That’s faith—the willingness to look foolish.
Only one team gave Joshua a shot, but that’s all it took. He didn’t look ridiculous then! And it’s appropriate that he lined up in the same defensive backfield as Hall of Famer Deion Sanders. Why? Because if there was a Suit Hall of Fame, Prime Time would be in on the first ballot! And so would Joshua.
If You Build It
The Bible is full of field-of-dream moments.
If Noah would build the ark, God would send the animals two by two.5 If Elisha would dig ditches in the desert, God would flood them.6 If the widow would borrow empty jars, God would fill them with oil.7
In 1997 NCC built an ark, dug a ditch, and borrowed jars. We hosted our first Convoy of Hope outreach, which I’ve already referenced. But that field of dreams moment created a ripple effect.
A decade later we hosted another Convoy of Hope at RFK Stadium, which blessed twice as many people. And it was that outreach that gave birth to the dream for our Dream Center in the nation’s capital.
If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat.8 That first step will feel awfully foolish. But that’s how God turns the Sea of Galilee into a field of dreams.
If you want to experience the supernatural, you have to attempt something that is beyond your natural ability. If you want to experience God’s miraculous provision, you have to attempt something that is beyond your resources. It might not add up, but God can make it multiply just as it did in a field of dreams filled with five thousand hungry souls two thousand years ago.
One of the first steps in going after your goals is going public. You can announce it to the world via social media, or you can tell a trusted friend. One way or the other, it holds you accountable. And you’ll discover that when you put your dream out there, perhaps by putting on a suit and dressing the part, supernatural synchronicities start to happen.
If you build it, He will come.