Church Dreams

Discussion Questions 

1. Read 1 Kings 6, about the temple built while Solomon was king; you can find the verses here. Then read the devotional below, “Church Dreams.”  

2. How do you imagine the people of Barcelona and beyond brought Sagrada Familia to fruition?  

3. What is one impossible thing you wish for your local faith community?  

4. Is it true that God is in no hurry? Where in your life do you wish God would hurry up? 

Devotional 

The foundation of the temple of the Lord was laid in the fourth year, in the month of Ziv. In the eleventh year in the month of Bul, the eighth month, the temple was finished in all its details according to its specifications. Solomon had spent seven years building it. – 1 Kings 6:37-38 (NIV) 

I’ve had a recurring church dream for decades. I enter a new-to-me church that gets bigger by the moment. I move from room to room with a sense of wonder at the possibilities for adding community to this beautiful built environment.  

But then I begin to notice the building is so full of stuff that it won’t fit any people. In my dream I sigh and say, “It’s got good bones. But who’s going to clear it out?” 

A friend of mine has her own recurring church dream. She’s at the pulpit in a full sanctuary, but as she preaches it leaks people and energy, from a trickle to a flood. Another friend dreams he is in his church’s sanctuary, and it’s bigger on the inside than on the outside, with an extra, secret sanctuary behind the one he inhabits. 

What dreams do you have about your churches? What do they say about your hopes and fears and biases?  

It took Solomon a mere 7 years to build the First Temple. By contrast, Sagrada Familia—the whimsical, gorgeous drip-castle fever-dream of a cathedral in Barcelona—took 144 years to complete. Its architect, Antonio Gaudi, died broke before it was even a quarter finished. He famously said, “My client, God, is in no hurry.”  

Gaudi’s plans demanded technologies that did not yet exist when he put pencil to paper. He dreamed up a church that was impossible to build—until it wasn’t.   

Because his descendants delivered it. The most jaded tourist is helpless against the divine wiles of that one-of-a-kind sanctuary. How did the people catch and hold such an enormous vision after Gaudi’s death? How did they sustain it for generation after generation, cost overrun after cost overrun, to bring it to completeness? 

Prayer
God, may we dream bigger dreams for your Church.

About the Author
Molly Baskette is a UCC minister, psychedelic facilitator and author of books about church renewal, parenting, post-traumatic joy and more. Learn more at mollybaskette.com.