Bonhoeffer Convinced Me to Abandon My Dream
His words challenged everything I had learned about pastoral vision.
By Chase Replogle, Christianity Today.
[…] I wanted to go somewhere adventurous. I wanted to build something great. I wanted to achieve something impactful for the kingdom. After all, I had spent the last decade collecting bits and pieces of training and experience which formed my vision of church. I didn’t recognize any of that vision in those Sunday evening basement services. I was hesitant even to call it church. My vision had become my expectation and my discouragement.
In the midst of this, I came across Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s classic book Life Together. I’m not sure what motivated me to pick it up. Maybe it was its deceptively small size. Whatever my reason for starting the book, I was entirely unprepared for four words on page 27: “God hates visionary dreaming”…
…I’m not sure Bonhoeffer could have written anything about leadership more fundamentally opposed to what I had learned and imagined practicing in ministry. Bonhoeffer’s words collapsed the scaffolding on which I had erected my ideal vision of a church and my role as its pastor.
See also
Bonhoeffer: the prophet against the culture-controlled church, by Andrew Symes, Anglican Mainstream.
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