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"Where do babies come from?"
Every parent remembers the first time their child asked them this. With age determining the depth of conversation, the question of origins is almost a primal instinct.
When the question "Where did The Well come from?" is asked, what most people don't realize is that the conception point came through a group of us reading "Visioneering" by Andy Stanley.
It was the fall of 1999 and I was working at Northwest Church. We were studying the book as a staff team, but God was birthing something in my heart. The more I read, the more my heart was set aflame with hope. I was convinced that church could be different. It's not that what was already happening was somehow wrong or missing the mark, but that to reach an unreached portion of our city, the expression would have to be entirely different. These pages began to birth in me a desire to start a work that would focus on "being the church" and not simply attending a corporate gathering.
I was stirred by the need for the people of God to connect in such a way as to promote and encourage life change. I was hopeful that the scriptures could be unashamedly communicated and that the pure teaching of the scriptures would begin to impact the lives of those around us. I was also longing for a community of faith that lived in my world, understood my temptations, and spoke with humility into my daily life. These passions started as a simple perusal through a book, but quickly ignited into a life-altering experience.
The book uses Nehemiah as a guide for the journey and challenges the readers to consider what could and should be. This concept awakens us to the current reality and the hope of a preferred future. The honest evaluation of current circumstances is a difficult step to take. Whether it's from personal sobriety or from organizations trying to leap from "Good to Great," this candor and honest evaluation is hard to swallow. Once you've taken an accurate assessment of the current reality, the next step is to create a sense of calling for change. This is where the preferred future begins to take shape. Stanley calls this "Visioneering." It's when a vision get engineered into reality. It was this process that stirred a group of us to band together to step out by faith and launch "The Well."
As you read through "Visioneering" I hope and pray that God will open your eyes to see what could and should be in your life and that He might ignite in you a passion for your preferred future.