I’ll let you in on a secret, if you don’t already know.
There are an awful lot of people who think their idea is exactly what the church/pastors/beer aficionados/the world needs.
That’s not all bad. God knows the world needs more dreamers, more people passionate about making a difference.
And chances are, many of those ideas are actually good and helpful – new paradigms or restatements of old truths which we need to hear.
But here’s the problem, in the excitement about our idea and the difference it could make we easily make a subtle shift.
We take a good idea, and treat it like it’s the only idea.
Soon, every conversation begins to connect back to this idea.
Worried about pastoral burn out? My new take on Revelation can solve it. Own beachfront property that’s slowly disappearing into the sea? If we all follow my cutting edge leadership model, climate change will be fixed by the weekend.
Ok, perhaps that’s a tad bit overstated, but I’m guessing you’ve seen what I’m referring to here.
The problem is that when we do this we lose credibility. We might be incredibly excited about idea X, but the person across the desk from you isn’t – at least not yet.
And if we can’t be realistic about our idea, it’s not going to be taken seriously. Because the guy across the desk has heard a dozen other aspiring authors/designers/engineers who are convinced that their idea is exactly what the world needs to hear.
Don’t undervalue your dreams, just learn to see them from an outsiders perspective. Be willing to share them in such a way that people can see exactly why they matter, without the hype.
