Our Dream Team
‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
-Acts 2:17 (NRSVUE)
In the summer of 1992, the world witnessed the greatest sports team ever assembled: the U.S. Men’s Olympic Basketball team. The Dream Team.
Until that point, professional NBA players were not eligible for the Olympics. Amateurs, mostly college students, filled team rosters. A rule change made the 1992 Olympics the first to feature active NBA stars, many who were at the peak of their career.
This was also a unique season in men’s professional basketball when most of the world’s best players were American. This balance was just beginning to shift at the time of the Games. In today’s MVP race we will likely see a Serbian, Slovenian, Canadian, American, and Cameroonian. But in 1992? The United States talent pool was unmatched.
Defeating the Not Dream Teams by an average of 44 whopping points each game, the Dream Team left Barcelona with the gold
The perfect confluence of structure, timing, and people made the Dream Team remarkable. When the time is right, the right people are present, and the right structures are in place, dreams can come true.
I have thought about this often because of the view outside my office door. Squiggles of cut-out paper clouds line the hallway windows, each carrying just part of the heart of our congregation. We have written on these clouds the past two weeks in worship. This All Saint’s Sunday we will stand on the shoulders of the faithful ones who have come before us and ask our third and final question:
What is your dream for the future of First Church?
It is prime time to cast our vision and state our strongest held core values so that we can boldly move forward.
The right people – you – are present, active, energized, passionate.
The Vision Task Force is at the ready to receive your responses with the support of our committee and governance structure who are prepared to act on the vision we cast together.
Right time, right people, right structures. We’re not in Barcelona competing for the Men’s Basketball gold medal, but we have our own challenge right in front of us and we are ready to go!
The first step is our current vision work. If you have not yet registered for our Stirring the Pot major visioning event on Saturday, November 16 from 3:00-6:30pm, please do so today.
It is imperative that you participate! The results from this event will heavily impact the vision and core values which will guide us through financial decisions, facilities plans, and more.
This is not a long-visioning campaign. Everything you’ve heard about is everything that’s happening: the paper clouds, ongoing small group conversations, and Stirring the Pot. After November 16, a small team will take what you have shared and distill it into a Vision and Core Values.
That means that right now is the time for your dream for our church to be heard. Big dreams, scary dreams, joyful dreams- it’s all on the table.
On Sunday afternoon we’ll send out this year’s State of the Church annual report. Be on the look-out for this email and plan to spend time on Sunday afternoon reading and reflecting on its substance. It will share more detail about the stakes we face today and in the next 5 years. It is an extremely important read for anyone who participates in our community.
The following Sunday we’ll conduct our fall Charge Conference at Noon in the Fireside Room: a reminder that even when we’re doing the big picture dreaming, the regular business of the church continues.
Let’s keep dreaming and working together!
In gratitude,
Pastor Karyn
