of the people in our community. Sure, the piano had one or two notes that didn’t work and was out of tune, and the drummer didn’t keep a steady beat. Jack, our smiling senior accordion player and his wife, Elaine, not only were a part of the band but also looked after the tiny group of kids in our children’s ministry, including our own four-year-old and eighteen-month-old sons. Those were rough, raw, pioneering days, but the fruit of the labor of many faithful people early on began to give way to opportunities beyond our wildest dreams.
It was on that piece of paper, more than two decades ago, that I wrote these words: “I see a church whose heartfelt praise and worship touches heaven and changes earth—worship that influences the praises of people throughout the earth, exalting Christ with powerful songs of faith and hope.”
Only one year before I wrote that, in 1992, the very first live Hillsong album was released: The Power of Your Love. But even before that, we recorded our first musical effort, Spirit and Truth, in a tiny home studio. I was so proud of that little collection of original songs that, when I had the chance as a pastor to speak at a citywide gathering of hundreds of ministers (almost all older, wiser, and more seasoned than I was), I made them first listen to some of the songs. I can still see the blank stares sending a clear message that no one in the room was anywhere near as excited about this as I was. But the idea of recording an album simply came from our passion to worship God in our local church, along with the belief that our local church was called to resource other local churches with words and music that would glorify our worthy God. At the time, we never could have imagined that our albums would be sung throughout the earth, but we had a belief that God had called us to do something with what was in our hands and that, as we were faithful, He would also be faithful.
Now, more than ninety albums later, God is growing and stretching and changing the story of Hillsong Worship. But it was long before those first albums that the songs of God and the sound of our house were established as a priority, an arrowhead, and a cornerstone of who we are—all because of a God-breathed dream.
The Bible tells us in Zechariah 4:10, “Do not despise these small beginnings” (NLT). Whatever it is God has entrusted into your hand—your family, your career, your ministry, or whatever—don’t count it as insignificant. Whatever dreams are in your heart and still seem like a world away, don’t be discouraged! I believe that in the eyes of God and with His leading, wisdom, favor, and provision, if you hold fast to that dream He has placed in your heart, you, like Joseph, will see it come to pass.
Dream Killers
Among the youngest of the sons in his family, Joseph probably took his fair share of mocking and rough-ups from his older brothers. Yet when Joseph dreamed of his mother, father, and brothers bowing down to him, he didn’t hesitate to share with them the God-sized dream. It had the predictable effect: it enraged his family.
Joseph’s brothers waited for their chance to get back at him. When they were out with the flocks one time and Joseph came to them, they knew their chance had come. “They saw him in the distance, and before he had reached them, they plotted to kill him. They said to one another, ‘Here comes that dreamer! Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal ate him. Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams!” (Genesis 37:18–20, HCSB).
Because of Joseph’s dream, his brothers tried to kill him. He was captured, thrown in a pit, and sold into slavery. Talk about dream killers!
But Joseph didn’t stop dreaming.
Have you ever had a dream die? Have you ever shared your dream with anyone? Perhaps you have and you’ve been mocked for it. Maybe when you finally opened your mouth to share about the impossible longings in your heart, you were met with laughter or cynicism or hurt by the words spoken to you by the people you love.
Dreaming can be a lonely place. If you’re going to dream things that will set you apart, sometimes the people who are closest to you and know you best will be the very ones who are threatened by the trajectory of your life and will oppose you, try to squash your dreams, and bring you down to size. So, if you are going to be a dreamer, understand that it can be a lonely road. You are going to need to hold fast to your convictions and hold firm to the Word of God and the desires of your heart, despite the criticism or accolades you receive along the way.
What it comes down to is that you have an enemy who would love to kill your dream with all sorts of “realities,” such as opposition or lack of resources. Often the negative voices of other people, or even the wrong ambition in your own heart, can suffocate your dreams. Sometimes along the path toward your dreams, you have to make choices and sacrifices that feel like backward movement instead of forward motion.
When I married Bobbie, I told her, “Sweetheart, we might never own our own home or have a new car or a lot of money, but we will serve Jesus together.” For the first year of our marriage, to be volunteer youth pastors in a small suburban church in South Auckland (near where Bobbie grew up), we both worked multiple jobs. Bobbie was a secretary in a pharmaceutical company, and I was in sales. I had after-hours jobs cleaning the bathrooms in an automobile factory and stocking shelves in a supermarket—all because we were passionate to serve God. And we desired to, when the time was right, build a local church that was enjoyable and warm and filled with people who were influential in their own spheres. In many ways it wasn’t easy as we gave our all in the local church, but it was the very sacrifices that we made then that enabled us to keep dreaming now, confident in a God who always provides. We could have let the setbacks take us off course, but we held fast to the vision we had for our lives.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to just live on a dream I had way back in the past. I want to keep dreaming new dreams. Being a dreamer isn’t past tense; it is an ongoing part of life! Just like Joseph of old, dreamers never stop dreaming. Despite the obstacles put in front of them, the limitations imposed on them, or the dream killers that get in the way, dreamers just keep on dreaming!
Surrounded by Dreamers
In order to keep dreaming, you need to surround yourself with other dreamers. Find people who will walk alongside you and remind you of your dream when setbacks make you want to forget. Keep company with people who inspire you to dream and breathe encouragement into your vision—people who will keep you on course.
Winston Churchill, the Nobel Prize–winning, twice-elected wartime prime minster of the United Kingdom, wasn’t always as well regarded as he is today. In fact, he struggled in school and failed the sixth grade. Later, he faced many years of political failures until he finally became the prime minister at the ripe old age of sixty-five. Churchill was a dreamer—he dreamed of making a difference in his nation. And when he finally got elected to office, he credited his wife of almost thirty-two years for continuously dreaming along with him and believing in him, despite his failures and the financial hardship and public ridicule they endured. Clementine Churchill is not often spoken of, but history may never have recorded her husband’s achievements without her support of his dreams.
Who is cheering you on? Who is offering you consolation in the form of encouragement while your dreams are yet to be realized?
Being around other dreamers is a catalyst for dreaming bigger. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (KJV) or “cast off restraint” (NIV11). The New Living Translation says they “run wild.” The Message translates it like this:
If people can’t see what God is doing,
they stumble all over themselves;
But when
