Rebuilding the Walls
From the Series—Dream
February 3, 2004This evotional begins a three-part series from the book of Nehemiah titled Dream.
Sense of Destiny
Ephesians 2:10 is a linchpin in my theology. It says, “We are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works prepared for us in advance.”
The word “prepare” is drawn from the oriental custom of sending servants ahead of a king to prepare the road ahead. Here’s what I love about this passage. God turns the tables. The King of Kings goes ahead of His servants to prepare the road ahead. The way we say it around NCC is this: God is in the business of strategically positioning us in the right place at the right time. He is setting us up for success. And that ought to give us an incredible sense of destiny.
A few years ago I took Parker fishing for the first time at the Tidal Basin. Parker knew nothing about fishing so I basically did everything for him. I put the leader on the line, I put the hook on the leader, and I put the worm on the hook. I did the casting and reeling. I watched the bobber and when the bobber finally went under I hooked the fish. I reeled the fish in until it was right offshore. I did everything. I engineered that experience. Of course, like any good dad, I then handed Parker the pole and grabbed my camera so I could video Parker catching “his” first fish! That is how God works in our lives. He is setting us up for success. The theological word is providence.
I could you tell you story after story, but let me tell you the story behind Union Station because some of you may not know how we got here. And I’ll tell you the story behind Ballston next week.
Here is my prayer for you as we begin this series of evotionals. I said last week that our theme this year is deeper. In keeping with our theme, I hope and pray that you have a deeper sense of destiny at the end of this series. I’ve been praying that God would help you dream bigger dreams because of it.
445 BC
Nehemiah 1:1 says, “These are the memoirs of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah. In late autumn of the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes reign, I was the fortress in Susa. Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had survived the captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem. They said to me, ‘Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is torn down and the gates have been burned’.”
In 586 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judah and took many of the Jewish captives back to Babylon. In 538 BC, Zerubbabel returned to Jerusalem with about 43,000 Jews. In 458 BC, Ezra returned with a remnant of about 1800. And Nehemiah picks up the story in 445 BC.
The bottom line is this: the wall of Jerusalem is in total disrepair. And the significance of that is this—a city without a wall was the ancient equivalent of being surrounded by hostile neighbors with nuclear capabilities and having no missile defense system. Jerusalem was defenseless. To make a long story short, a palace waiter named Nehemiah has a God-given dream. He returns to Jerusalem and against all odds he rebuilds the wall in fifty-two days.
And the amazing is this. As far as we know, Nehemiah had no education— he never took wallbuilding 101. As far as we know, Nehemiah had no experience in construction or leadership. And as far as we know, Nehemiah had never even been to Jerusalem . There is no earthly reason why Nehemiah should have done what he did. But let me tell you something at the outset of this series: never underestimate someone with a God-given dream.
Three Pennies
In 1910, a baby girl named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu was born in Albania. As a teenager she felt called to ministry. She did her training in Ireland and India. One day she approached her superiors and said, “I have three pennies and a dream from God to build an orphanage.” Her superiors said, “You can’t build an orphanage with three pennies. With three pennies you can’t do anything.” Agnes smiled and said, “I know. But with God and three pennies I can do anything.” For fifty years, Agnes worked among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta, India. In 1979, Agnes, known to the rest of the world as Mother Teresa, won the Nobel Peace Prize.
How does such a diminutive woman become one of the most recognizable and most revered women in the world? How does a woman with three pennies end up inspiring people to give billions of dollars to charity?
Never underestimate someone with a God-given dream!
Defining Moments
This evotional explores the process of discovering God-given dreams, but let me preface what I’m about to say. Oswald Chamber said, “Let God be an original with others as he was with you.” I don’t think there is a foolproof formula when it comes to discovering God-given dreams. I think every dream is unique because every person is unique. But I do think we can learn some lessons from the life of Nehemiah.
Nehemiah 1:1 says, “I was at the fortress of Susa. Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had survived the captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem. They said to me, ‘Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been burned.” And Nehemiah says, “When I heard this I sat down and wept.”
Nehemiah never forgot this conversation. In fact, it was a turning point in his life. Call it a divine appointment. Call it a defining moment. Call it whatever you want. But a seed was planted in his Spirit.
Graham Greene said, “There is always one moment in childhood where the window opens and lets the future in.”
Jesus is a great example. When he was twelve years old, his family went to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. Jesus stayed behind and Luke 2:46 says, “After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone one who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.” I think this is one of those moments where the window opened and let the future in.
I think my moment was during my junior year in High School. I had to give a speech in speech class and I decided to share my faith. Ministry wasn’t even a blip on my radar screen, but somehow my grandma got a copy of that speech and she shared it with her bible study group and someone in the group said, “Has Mark ever thought about ministry?” I think a seed was planted in my spirit.
I still remember moving into the neighborhood near Union Station in 1996 and walking by a rundown building with ugly green paint and graffiti. It was the neighborhood eyesore. It had been neglected for more than twenty years. But a seed was planted in spirit and I started praying. I still remember doing prayer walks around the neighborhood claiming that property for God. When we purchased 205 F Street, which is adjacent to 201, we used to lay hands on the wall that abuts and pray that God would give us that property.
I am absolutely convinced that we own 201 F Street for one reason—we prayed like it depended on God. I think prayer is what keeps dreams alive. Prayer is a dream incubator.
Notice what happens next in Nehemiah 1:4. It says that Nehemiah mourned and fasted and prayed for days on end. I think a lot of dreams die because they never take root in our spirit. Too often we’re like Teflon — we deflect God-inspired ideas or desires or dreams or passions instead of allowing them to take root in our spirit.
A few years ago I read a little book by Catherine Marshall titled The Adventure of Prayer. And I’ll never forget one thing she wrote. For some reason it resonated with me. She said, “Dreaming is praying.”
All I know is this: the more I pray the more dream. I think dreaming is a form of praying and praying is a form of dreaming. Catherine Marshall says, “There is no limit to what this combination of dreams and prayer can achieve.”
Total Dependence
If I were to ask you for some synonyms of spirituality I’m guessing that “dreaming” isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Most of us don’t equate dreaming with spiritual maturity. But I want to challenge your thinking. What you’re about to read could totally change the way you view spiritual growth.
In our human relationships, we move from a state of total dependence to total independence. Babies can’t do anything on their own. You have to feed them. You have to put them to sleep. You have to burp them. And you have to change their diapers. For what it’s worth, the word “diaper” spelled backwards is “repaid”—deep thoughts by Mark Batterson.
My goal as a parent is for my children to move from a state of total dependence to total independence, especially with the pooping part. What’s fascinating is that our relationship with God moves in the exact opposite direction. And I think that’s why spiritual growth sometimes feels like we’re going against the grain.
Spiritually speaking, we start out in a state of total independence. I know if no simpler definition of sin that living your life independently of God or as if God doesn’t exist. I think sometimes we think of sin in negative categories—things we do that we shouldn’t have done. And that is certainly one kind of sin—the technical term is sin of commission. But I’m talking about sins of omission. I think Goethe was right. He said, “Hell begins the day God grants you the vision to see all that you could have done, should have done, and would have done, but did not do.”
You could have been empowered and enlightened by the Spirit of God. You could have exited time and space via prayer. You could have experienced miracles. You could have been and could have done so much more, but you lived your life within your natural human limits. Here is one of my personal definitions of sin. Sin is not relying on God for anything. Sin is trying to make it on your own or trying to live your life without God’s help. And God’s goal is to move us from a state of total independence to a state of total dependence where we rely on Him for everything. We live in moment-by-moment sensitivity to His Spirit.
Maturity on a human plane is moving from a state of total dependence to total independence. Maturity on a spiritual plane is the exact opposite—it is moving from a state of total independence to total dependence.
What does that have to do with dreams? Dreams are the way God stretches us spiritually. And when you’re stretched spiritually you have no other option but total dependence on God. I can tell you right now that there is nothing like a God-given dream to kill the independent steak in you! The bigger your dreams the more you’re stretched and the more you’re stretched the more you depend on God.
I think you may be coming into this series of evotionals liking the topic or excited about discovering your God-given dream, but what you need to understand is this: dreams aren’t optional. Dreams are the way God grows us spiritually. And the bottom line is this: If you’re not pursuing a God-given dream you’re not being stretched the way you could be or should be which means you’re not depending on God the way you could be or should be.
Let me tell you why we need to pursue this God-given dream of building a coffeehouse on Capitol Hill. It’s not because we need more office space. It’s not because we want to have a Saturday or Sunday night service. It’s not because we want to create a marketplace where the church and the community can cross paths. It’s not because we need a space for our small groups to meet.
The primary reason we need to pursue this dream is because we need to be stretched spiritually. And the way God stretches us spiritually is by giving us God-sized dreams. This dream is a $1.5 million stretch, but that’s good for us. This is not about building a building. This is about us growing spiritually by being stretched.
Nehemiah 1:4 says that Nehemiah wept and mourned and fasted and prayed for days on end. When you’re pursuing a God-given dream you don’t have to have someone telling you to pray. Why? The bigger the dream the more you have to pray! Some of you struggle with the spiritual disciples and here’s why. You don’t have a dream. I don’t think you’ll ever have a great prayer life if you don’t have a great dream. I think some of us try to discipline ourselves to pray, but we end up short-circuiting because we don’t have a God-sized dream.
One more thought. I’m not sure we think of Him in these terms, but no one was more of a dreamer than Jesus . In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins talks about BHAGS —Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals. I know of no greater BHAG than Mark 16:15 —what a God-sized dream. In a day and age when the average person never ventured beyond a thirty mile radius of their home, Jesus said, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” Jesus was a dreamer. And to become like Christ is to dream God-sized dreams .
Dead Dreams
Nehemiah 2:1 says, “Early the following spring I was serving the king his wine.” The significance of that is this: it had been several months since the dream was birthed in Nehemiah’s spirit. The dream is conceived in late autumn. And it’s now early spring. That may not seem like a big deal to us because it’s one sentence. But it had to seem like an eternity for Nehemiah. And I think this is where a lot of dreams die or gather dust.
Put yourself in Nehemiah’s shoes. He had no education, no experience, and he had never been to Jerusalem. And it’s easy for us to read the box score, but Nehemiah was a literally a thousand miles from his dream. And he had no idea how he would get from where he was to where God wanted Him to go.
I’ll be honest. When I started dreaming about a coffeehouse at the corner of 2 nd and F Street it seemed hopeless. I had no idea how we’d get there. We seemed so far away. Our lawyers told us it was a zoning nightmare. Our architects told it was an architectural nightmare. And for years I don’t think our congregation was ready for the magnitude of this undertaking. It felt like the dream was a thousand miles away. That’s how some of you feel reading this.
This week I got an email from an NCCer. They gave me permission to read what they wrote. “I’m so thankful for the vision of NCC. Last weekend as we went through the annual report and you spoke about the coffeehouse I found myself getting excited. You see I haven’t had much to be excited about lately. I’ve lived in DC for almost a year and I still can’t find full-time employment. I’ve come so close to packing it up and giving up on my dreams. I never thought that I would be where I am today. However, because of this coffeehouse project I’ve decided to stick it out and stay for a while. Mine is one of the countless lives that will be touched with this endeavor, just wait and see. I thank you for allowing me to share in the vision.”
Ten years ago, if you had asked me what I wanted to do with my life I would have told you that I wanted to plant a church and see it grow from the ground up. At the time I had no idea where or when or how it was going to happen. But ten years later I’m living my dream. I wouldn’t want to be anyplace else with anyone else doing anything else.
But I also know what it’s like to have unfulfilled dreams and dreams that have died. It’s tough for me to even talk about this, but when I was in seminary I felt like God gave me a dream to write. And on one level that dream is being fulfilled via evotionals. But I can’t tell you how many books I’ve started and stopped. I have so many book files on my computer its embarrassing. To be perfectly honest, sometimes I wish God hadn’t given me the dream because the longer I live without fulfilling it the heavier the burden I feel. It’s like walking around with ten pound ankles weights. Some of you know exactly what I’m talking about.
I also know what its like to see a dream die. When I was in graduate school I tried to plant a church on Chicago ’s North shore. I really believed that God has given me a vision to plant a church, but we failed miserably. We fell flat on our faces! It was downright embarrassing. In retrospect, I’m glad the plant failed because we ended up in DC, but I still don’t get it. If you were to ask me if it was a God-given dream I’d tell you absolutely. So did God want us to fail? Or were we just not ready? I really don’t know.
I have what I call my Deuteronomy 29:29 file. That verse says the “revealed things” belong to us, but the “secret things” belong to God. In other words, there are some things we’ll never understand this side of heaven. What I’m trying to say is that I’ve experienced the confusion and the frustration. And that’s where some of you are at as you read this evotional. You feel like your dream is a thousand miles away. Or you seem to be in limbo —the months and years pass by and the dream is still a dream.
George Eliot said, “It’s never too late to be who you might have been.” Some of you have dreams that have died. God can resurrect those dreams. Moses’ dream of delivering the Israelites was dead and buried for forty years before God resurrected the dream. And he can do the same in your life.
Examine the Walls
Let me take a minute to touch on the second chapter of Nehemiah. God opens the door of opportunity and Nehemiah goes to Jerusalem. But what I find interesting is that he doesn’t go public with the dream.
Nehemiah 2:11 says, “I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days I set out during the night with a few men. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on. By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls.”
I’ll never forget the day I spent walking and praying around Ballston Common Mall in February of 2003. In fact, I remember reading Nehemiah 2 that day. I was examining the walls to see if Ballston would be a good second location for NCC. I was trying to get a lay of the land.
Before we decided on a second location we did our homework and we did our groundwork. We did multiple surveys of the congregation, we did reconnaissance at different theaters, and we had a spreadsheet with about twenty factors that were weighing into our decision. Doing your homework and doing your groundwork is part of pursuing a God-given dream. It comes back to our core value: pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on you.
The Coffeehouse
Before we purchased 201 F Street, NE we did our homework. We hired lawyers to do a zoning analysis. We talked to multiple architects about the project. We did geological studies of the soil and water tables. I actually got a copy of the DC zoning codes and read them. And we commissioned a history on the property. All of that was part of the process of examining the walls.
As we pursue this dream of building a coffeehouse on Capitol Hill we need to continue counting the costs and examining the walls. Let me talk about a couple critical numbers.
The first number is $300,000. That is how much 201 F Street, NE cost when we purchased it on February 7, 2002. When our property was rezoned commercial a year ago the value of the property doubled overnight so we’ve got quite a bit of equity in the property.
The second number is $1,500,000. That is the estimated cost of construction. The good news is that based on comparables in the real estate market, we estimate that the building will be worth approximately three times the construction cost once its built so it’s a great investment.
The total square footage will be 6,150 making it one of the largest coffeehouses in DC. The top level will provide office space for our growing staff. The main level will be a first-class, fully-operation coffeehouse and will seat approximately ninety. And our lower level will serve as meeting space for community groups, concerts, and weekend services. It will seat approximately 214.
Finally, our estimated occupancy is spring 2005. If everything falls perfectly into place and we don’t experience any delays with building permits or construction, there is an outside chance we could occupy earlier.
Shareholders
Our 2004 dream is to build a coffeehouse on Capitol Hill. And I have one simple goal: I want every NCCer to be a shareholder . When you walk into Ebenezers for the first time I don’t want you to feel like a visitor. I want you to feel like a shareholder because you have a vested interest.
If you’d like to see an artist’s rendering of the coffeehouse or invest in the dream you can click on the Ebenezers link.
Dream on!