Go Big or Go Home

It was the 19th century missionary, William Carey, who famously said, "Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God."   My experience has been that when you step out, in God's power and with things that are important to Him, he is more than able to support you.

I remember standing on the platform of Redwood Chapel Community Church (in the San Francisco East Bay where I served for all of the 90's) in about 1992 with Dawson McAllister.  We were in the worship center alone.  He said, "I have a vision.  I see this place filled with students...packed.  What if this Fall we do a crusade here and we do assemblies in public schools and invite students to an event each night?"  I saw what he saw– it was from the Lord not just our own dreams or desire.  I said, "Let's do it!" 

Six months later we did exactly that:  we did all-school assemblies at several local high schools and middle schools, invited kids out, spread the word.  On Monday night, we had 1000 students in attendance, then on Tuesday night 1,500 were there and finally on Wednesday night they counted 2,400–in a room that was suppose to seat 1800–don't tell the officials!.   So many stories come out of those gatherings.  We did that for several years in various forms.  

Let me share one other story to illustrate that season:  I called my friend Jon Robberson who coordinates Christian concerts and events all over the west coast.  I said, "Jon, we are doing a big event and I want to keep the costs down.  Do you know of a band that would do a good job with a big crowd but they are not really known yet so I can get them at a decent price?"  He said, "You know...I just met some guys named THE NEWSBOYS, they are from Australia and I think they are going to be huge"– he was right.  I had never heard of them.  Jon made contact, they agreed to come.  They did two nights for us for $2,000!  They blew us away.  We blew them away.  The Newsboys later called and said that if we did that event again the next year, they would come back for the same amount of money!  Of course we took them up on it.  

There is one other story I have to include about those days: Adults in our church were so excited about thousands of students turning out that they made themselves available to pray and to counsel students who made a profession of faith.  One night adults gathered on the second floor of our large building and formed a complete circle AROUND the outside hallway of the complete second story.  It was quite a sight to see hundreds of people in prayer completely circling the building hand in hand.

It is wonderfully in keeping with our big God to dream big.  So often our ambitions are so small as to offend God.  Go big or go home!