Robert D. Dale

Robert D. Dale. To Dream Again: How to Help Your Church Come Alive. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004. 154 pp. $19.00.

Robert Dale (Ph.D., Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) teaches at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina as a professor of pastoral leadership. He has written numerous books in the field of church leadership.

In Part I, Dr. Dale states, “There are four ways to revitalize a church...Change policy. Change people. Change programs...but the approach I suggest is the most basic of all--clarify purpose” (5). Paraphrasing Lyle Schaller, Dale claims, “What is our mission? is the most fundamental question a volunteer organization can ask itself” (23). Yet, most churches are vague, if not negligent, in defining their mission. Often, over time congregations which were founded with an outward-focus become inward-focused. Again Dale writes, “A constant tension faced by any church is to balance service (external ministry) and ‘serve-us’ (internal ministry)” (23). Besides the issue of defining mission, Dale concludes there are three other vital questions a church must answer satisfactorily. They are: (1) What do we pay our volunteers? (2) How is our church unique? (3) Are we a healthy church?

Part II helps church leaders begin to define their ‘dream’ with insightful information and Action Exercise questions. Throughout the book, our author repeatedly refers to what he calls the health cycle model. The chart is a visual aid that pictures how churches are founded on a dream, they grow, and eventually begin to decline into nostalgia and dropout if the church neglects to dream anew. An example of how this occurs is found in how churches set goals. Robert Dale states, “Some congregations use the needs + resources = goals equation for goal setting. Too often they define needs as problems and resources are viewed mostly as limiting factors. Their goals have a defeatist flavor in advance” (63). Declining churches cease being on mission and settle for the goal of mere survival. Circling the proverbial wagons results in ineffective ministries being defended and repeated year after year even though they have passed their prime. Church stakeholders refuse to dismount horses that are clearly dead. To Dream Again gives practical advice for church leaders to implement. If acted upon, they will more likely prevent the tragedy of organizational plateau from occurring. Fortunately, the advice is applicable for congregations of any size.

Part III discusses the chart’s right-side of decline. Half of the book is dedicated to the healthy upward momentum of the “health cycle” diagram. However, only 20 pages are devoted to the unhealthy congregation. Yet, these two brief chapters are worth the price of the book! Chapter 8, “I Remember Better Days!” explains nostalgia (organizational homesickness) as an exile mentality that will inevitably doom the church into becoming a “religious dinosaur.” Chapter 9, “Descent into Organizational Hell” briefly describes the angry decline of Questioning, Polarization, and Dropout. Regrettably, these issues are given too little space. However, most pastors have been schooled in these areas by experiencing dysfunctional churches firsthand.

Part IV closes with some tips for churches to awaken a new dream and plan accordingly. Without planning and corporate buy-in the new dream will exist only as a ministerial fantasy. The Afterword warns, “Congregations either redefine their basic purpose every generation or they die” (148).

To Dream Again is easy-to-read, insightful, informative, and practical. The $19 price tag is expensive for a thin book that measures only 5.5 x 8 inches. However, the content is well worth the monetary sacrifice.

Professors of Practical Ministry and Church Leadership would do well to have this jewel of a book as a textbook for their students. Pastors and elders would greatly benefit from reading To Dream Again as a team in order to provoke strategic thinking and jump-start difficult conversations.

Andrew Ramey… (more)