Many churches have at least one room that, over time, defaults into a storage space collecting one thing and then another until its rendered unusable for anything else. When Greater Faith Fellowship (Gainesville, Florida), a young church founded by community-minded Bishop James Dixon, started dreaming of its future, it considered that, one day, its own back- room storage space might end up being a place for youth. Perhaps it will, but today it’s found a new use.
After “Frank” was released from prison, Bishop Dixon, who has a calling for helping former prisoners reenter society, began supporting and discipling him. For a while, “Frank” was in a temporary shelter, but, when his time there was up, Bishop Dixon and the people of Greater Faith cleared out the storage room and made a residence for their new friend. Believing in the dignity of reciprocal relationships, the church, who needed consistency in its janitorial services, hired their resident to provide custodial work. What has formed is a ministry of mutual service and belonging.
The dreaming which imagined new use for its space and a generous community
outreach was a response to the Dawnings process that Greater Faith began in the spring of last year. When Rev. Tammy Snyder (Coordinator of CBF Florida and The Caribbean Islands) and I led a weekend Dawnings retreat with key leaders from Greater Faith, it was exciting to see this new congregation, which had already begun a renewal journey through CBF’s Thriving Congregations Initiative, take its next steps toward clarity and courage. They were so eager to embrace Dawnings essential questions, “Lord, who are you calling us to be now?” and “Lord,
what are you calling us to do now?” that, not too long after the retreat, they devoted four Sunday mornings in a row to guiding the congregation through the prayer practices and story- sharing exercises which make up the Dawnings process.
Rev. Carrie Jarrell-Tuning of HOPE Christian Fellowship Baptist Church (Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina), like Bishop Dixon, founded the church where she pastors with a passionate calling to impact the community. When her Dawnings leadership team, composed of the small church’s entire in-person members and a couple of its online members joining by Zoom, ended their retreat, the passion which stirred in the pastor’s soul found greater clarity and concrete action steps.
A year later, HOPE is preparing to engage it community with two transformative initiatives. First, it will begin distributing Narcan, a life-saving nasal spray that reverses opioid overdoses, to a community struggling with drug abuse. Rev. Jarrell-Tuning is in the process of developing training which will ensure volunteer “Hope Dealers” (her words) will distribute the Narcan in grace-filled ways that uphold the dignity of their neighbors. HOPE is also raising money for a church van that will serve to transport neighbors in need of medical services in a community without public transportation.
Whereas Dawnings proved to be an early catalyst for enthusiasm and focus in these
new, pastor-founded churches, it has, in other established congregations, created sacred space for reflection, revisioning, and sometimes hard truths like confronting unrealistic expectations around what the church “once was” or acknowledging unfinished grief around conflict or loss.
It’s incredibly rewarding, however, when Dawnings participants discover “lightbulb”
moments— “We are ministering in meaningful ways. We do have resources to try new things. We had no clue about that (good or bad) thing that was happening in our community. We can be vulnerable with one another and not combust spontaneously.”
Centerville Baptist Church (Chesapeake, Virginia), where I served for fourteen years, went through multiple iterations of Dawnings, most of which I co-facilitated with its pastor, Rev. Kevin Ritter. In some of those experiences, the greatest rewards were the lightbulb moments reminding CBC that it did in fact have God-gifts to share with its community. After some iterations of Dawnings, CBC emerged having named lingering questions rather than drawing clear conclusions. Overall, however, Dawnings shifted CBC’s culture in ways that resulted in courageous expressions of faith. CBC opened its arms wide to its unhoused neighbors, becoming a regular participant in the local winter shelter program and opening up a building on its property for a transitional housing program. Recognizing that one of its greatest
assets was property, CBC also turned multiple acres of its farmland into an ecumenical community garden.
Congregations have stepped into the Dawnings process at various seasons of their life and to work through diverse opportunities. The Dawnings Leaders Retreat at First Baptist Church/ Primera Iglesia Bautista (Newport News, Virginia) and Parkwood Baptist Church (Annandale, Virginia) became an experiment in Spanish-language congregants and English-language congregants practicing dreaming and sharing together as churches united by Christ. When Rev. Devita Parnell, herself a Dawnings writer and guide, started her pastorate at First Baptist Church (Morrow, Georgia), Dawnings served as the framework for building trust and launching her ministry there. And Dawnings laid the groundwork for the merger between
Colonial Avenue Baptist and Calvary Baptist which formed Radiance Community Church (Roanoke, Virginia).
If you wonder whether Dawnings might be right for your church, consider whether its
two phases would work in the upcoming months or year. The first phase in the Leaders Retreat. A Dawnings guide like me, Laura Davis, or Mark Snipes would come to your church to facilitate a two-day retreat for a representative leadership group of you congregation. Currently, these guides are provided at no cost to the church.
After the retreat, in phase two, the leadership team designs a Dawnings process, based on key elements of the retreat, for its congregation. The retreat and congregational process are structured in such a way to include numerous prayers conversations and story-telling experiences that help participants clarify direction around the questions “Lord, who are you calling us to be now?” and “Lord, what are you calling us to do now?”
If those questions resonate with you, let me or CBFVA know, and we’d be happy to talk.
By: Brian Harfst
To e-mail Brian, click here.