What if...

I have become a lover of all things Walt Disney in the past few years since our family first visited Disney World on a delightful mild week in January.

What truly struck me was Uncle Walt himself. The story of how he inspired people and was able to build a team of people who, together, would make history in the field of animated film as well as amusement parks.

It's hard to believe, but before Disneyland came around, most amusement parks were seedy and unkempt. It was while sitting on a park bench eating peanuts watching his kids on a merry-go-round, that the idea occured to Disney, "What if we could build amusement parks where parents were free to let their kids run around safely and have a great family experience?"

He poured blood, sweat and tears into his dream and we are the benefactors of Walt's simple question, "What if?"

In fact, as I have read more and more about Walt Disney and the Imagineers who made Disney Parks into what it is today, I found that the key to their success was not being afraid to ask the question, "What if...?"

To this day, they hold "Blue Sky" meetings where the Imagineers brainstorm and refuse to allow the words, "we can't" in their meetings.

Here is my "What if?" list for youth ministry for the state of Wisconsin:

1. What if...we could put together a team of youth workers from across the state who would innovate ways to impact every student to grow closer to Jesus?

2. What if...this team of "imagineers" were already in communities around the state and we pulled them together for prayer, strategy and relationship, and they in turn would bring that healthiness back into their communities?

3. What if...we had networks of adults who love God and love kids in every community who support the vision of helping students to grow closer to Jesus?

4. What if...every youth ministry network had a team of missional teachers, moms, dads, students, businessmen, social workers, civic leaders, etc. as a support system empowering every church to invest in the spiritual formation of our young people?

5. What if...we could begin training churches on what healthy youth ministry looks like?

6. What if...churches banded together and gave parents resources to help them be the primary spiritual care givers of their students (not contracting their kids' faith out to their church youth group)?

7. What if...we could create a learning community where all the youth workers in the state would be able to sharpen one another?

One week from today a group of Wisconsin youth workers are hosting "Unconference" with Mark Matlock from Youth Specialties. However, we aren't selling Youth Specialties or Life Promotions or National Network of Youth Ministries.

We are gathering together to dream and have a "Blue Sky" session of our own where a lot more "What if" questions will be developed, and maybe we will even see some kingdom traction.

This is the first gathering of its kind for our great state and we hope that it will continue on an annual basis. It's important for those of us in the church to dream big dreams and work together. I think about the high priestly prayer of Christ as he sweat drops of blood, carrying our sin on his shoulders.

His last prayer before being taken away from Gethsemane  to the cross was "that they may all be one, just as you, Father are in me, and I in you, that they may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me." (John 17:21)

As our family left the experience of  Disney World, the one thing that stuck with me was the simple phrase "A dream is a wish your heart makes." To some that may seem like pollyanna kitsch for children, but I believe that our God who made the human heart is the one who plants those dreams firmly in the seat of our being.

"For we are God's workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them." (Ephesians 2:10)

Dreaming that the bride of Christ would work together to impact students in our communities in a substantive way is not all gumdrops and lollipops. It's the deep desire of God to see His bride beautiful, working in relationship with one another, meeting the felt needs of those around us, and making a deep kingdom impact that surpasses even Uncle Walt's Magic Kingdom!