To Dream Again: How to Help Your Church Come Alive

by Robert D. Dale

There are four ways to revitalize a church, organizationally speaking. The easiest change is policy change. You simply adjust the way you do things. A second strategy is to change personnel. Firing the minister or electing new lay leaders is a common approach. Another change tactic is to create new program structures. Reorganization plans are familiar in institutions of all kinds. Change policy. Change people. Change programs. Each of these approaches has its advocates. But the approach I suggest is the most basic of all--clarify purpose. The fourth way to revitalize a church is to define and act on its fundamental purpose. A new dream awakes a congregation. A poster motto "Aim for the sun. You may not reach it, but you will fly higher that if you never aimed at all." --from the Foreword

Genres: Leadership, Church

154 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1981

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

To Dream Again, by Robert D. Dale, is targeted at those in church leadership. It is intended to serve as a reminder of the organizational “dream,” something today’s culture seems to refer to more often as vision. Dale says, “A ‘shorthand’ way of describing a healthy church…is that it plans. An unhealthy church solves problems.” However, when Dale speaks of goals, he says, “Church goals generally fall into two categories: mission and survival.” Highlighting these differences, and endorsing the biblical choice promoted highly in Acts chapter two is the heartbeat of this book.

There are many possible roles that a pastor can assume in any given congregation. “Minister as Congregational Consultant” means the minister acts like an internal consultant. “Minister as Church Diagnostician” means the minister can learn their church’s stage, isolate major issues, and mediate in a productive manor. Finally, “Minister as Growth Planner” is where ministers can be visionary managers. Once these pastoral roles are identified, Dale speaks into the issue of losing their dream and drifting. He defines this as, “Drift…is the nature of organizations to dull their focus.” He draws a clear line between focus and dream by saying that congregations can loose both by drifting. He says, “Any congregation that’s attempting ministry without clear reference to its dream is drifting.”

How a congregation shapes the dream is affected by their experiential theology. This is the congregational belief system, and it asks the question: How did we get where we are? Dale says, “Theology becomes visible when we act out our convictions in worship, discussion, and ministry.” He concludes that the words of the songs the congregation sings with passion is when they develop their heart for the church. He says, “Congregational singing lends itself to the intuitive, spontaneous, repetitious, and corporate nature of experiential theology.”

With this comes a challenge to pastors to deepen their congregation’s beliefs. This is where the bell curve is divided into north and south hemispheres. Dale marks the south hemisphere (dream, belief, polarization, and dropout) as the more intuitive issues associated with the right brain. The north hemisphere (goals, structure, ministry, nostalgia, and questioning) is marked as more rational and associated with the left-brain. He says, “the Bible tends to be right-brained, but most theology is inclined to use the left hemisphere.” Speaking of goals, there are three major goal shapers: The minister’s outlook, climate of the congregation, and stakeholder’s expectations. Dale says these are evidenced by the church budget and calendar of events.
When it comes to plateaued churches, Dale makes the “view from the top” synonymous with “plateau.” This should be a shocker to church leaders who feel like they have everything figured out and are in a safe financial position. To them Dale says, “A congregation is especially vulnerable to the organizational plateau after marked ministry success or a period of growth.” He goes on to say, “leaders may lose their personal touch…Communication may become slower…Smugness may follow…The organization may multiply its policies, procedures, and paperwork.” These are all the symptoms church leaders should be looking for when trying to figure out whether or not they’ve hit a plateau.

Dale explains that the unhealthy congregation consists of those who remember the better days. This is defined as nostalgic thinking. This is the beginning of a lack of trust in the leadership because members would rather look back than trust an unknown future. Dale titles one subsection, “The Many Faces of Nostalgia,” and one can’t help but think of the contemporary marketing for diseases like diabetes or dementia and then later defines it as a type of depression . Nostalgia can be a very clear sign of decline since it is easy to spot. People will share openly about how things used to be or how their favorite church event was such and such. Nostalgic members can also be very welcoming to new leaders, as they are not yet fully into the decline where questioning kicks in. However, leaders tend to be threatened by such members because they are a constant reminder of the glory days. It can make a new pastor feel like his leadership methods are inadequate.

In one of the final sections, Dale entitles “Decent Into Organizational Hell” after one of the affirmations in the Apostles’ Creed. Dale talks about the role of conflict in the church, and instead of denouncing it at unchristian, as seems to be the norm, he encourages it (of course, in a healthy and balanced environment in which all members are focused on the dream of the church). This is also the chapter where, after nostalgia, questioning and polarization are explored. “The ‘is this right?’ questions of the previous stage are now answered with strongly emotional yeses and noes.” Dropout is soon to follow. Dale uses the word “apathy” to describe when an organization remains “unresponsive to the nostalgia and differences of members.”
In the final section, Dale points out the difference between maintaining/surviving and dreaming/planning. He uses the real life example of Lakeside Church in which nostalgia had set in and the pastor was able to dream again and revive the church. He provides many examples of what this church did during their gatherings to unify the body and strengthen their knowledge of and relationship with Christ. In a more practical section (the last chapter), Dale gives some final steps for how to plan and continue to implement a dream. This section is targeted more for those readers who have not yet inherited someone else’s church dream, but may one day be able to plant their own church that has it’s own need for a lasting dream.

Overall, Dale’s book, To Dream Again, was an excellent reminder that before there were modern leadership conferences and slick books published about solving the problems of church growth, there was an author who had a deep understanding of the specific issue undermining America’s dis-infatuation with sticking to a vision or dream. Dale concludes with the summary, “Dreams without plans are fantasies. Plans without dreams are adrift.” This is an excellent book, especially for those in a pastoral leadership position in any sized church, especially those churches that may be plateaued or declining.

[Alan Findley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basic concept was new and set a new precedent for much of the revitalization in the American church. However, Dale focuses too heavily on practical ideas (which are so far beyond outdated to a 2019 reader that it's laughable).

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book that will aid any church that is on the path of revitalization.

[Dan Winnberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, a helpful read on understanding where aging churches are in their lifecycle. The main objective is to help leaders get back to what their main mission is and not to be stuck in the nostalgia or potential dropout stage.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read 1995

Good model to help asses, diagnose and prescribe solutions to help the church stay engaged.