1.03.2007

Indian Winter

Tuesday afternoon I had my weekly meeting with our marketing team. After sifting through the upcoming print projects, we spent a little time processing the changes in the prayer room. For those who haven't followed the story elsewhere, we had a major redecoration (or perhaps just decoration!) during the Onething conference. Setting aside all strange affection for the old setup, the new stage and lighting are a big improvement and will enable us to broadcast prayer around the clock at a moments notice.

In a time of crisis, these changes will enable us to conduct a literal, world wide prayer meeting in real time.
The potential is huge....but so is the change...and change is always easier talked about than actually endured. Our team was optimistic about the new set up and all it will mean for thousands of people around the world. We were also honest about our own struggle with change to things we felt so familiar with. It was a very healthy discussion.

In the context of that time, I remembered a dream I had back in January of 2004. The dream focuses on an influx of people coming to IHOP (one way or another) and the struggle that the long timers will have with all those changes. I relayed the dream to our team, but tonight I sifted through the archives and found an audio file of me sharing it with the FCF family in June of 2004. Sometimes our dreams telescope out into the future.

I thought about typing it out, but there's a certain innocent rawness to the recording when you know that it's from that far back, so I'm posting the file here for those who are interested. I think the dream is more applicable today than it was three years ago when I had it.

It's about 4 minutes in length. You can click to listen in your browser or right click and save the file to listen to later.
DREAM CLIP

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow - that is an excellent word. very timely...and ever will be, won't it? I didn't get to hear it when you originally shared it.

thanks for sharing it now. :)

IntrotoIHOP-KC said...

Randy,
That is interesting you bring that message up. It was one of the first we heard here at IHOP and we just talking about it during Onething with some others and how it seemingly applies to the times now.
It is also gives perspective, as we thought we were the "settlers" at the time (2004), but now we see ourselves as one of the "Indians"....interesting how time changes perspective as well. I think the smoke is clearly on the horizon.....

Esther Irwin said...

Haven't listened to your dream yet b/c I'm still listening to the prayer room until this set is done. Thanks for letting me know the room had changed decorations. I only listen to the prayer room, not putting it on video since our internet is sloooowwww... but the good thing is that is still sounds the same even with new decorations. :)

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for posting that word, Randy. I have only been here several months and already can see myself as a "native" and one who is admittedly, struggling with the changes. In the struggle, though, God is teaching me that His ways are higher and that His ways are good, pure, right, true, best, trustworthy, and beautiful. Praise God for all these changes, then! He is doing something bigger than we can imagine...So once again, thank you!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing the Dream Clip with us, Randy. So prophetic and definitely a concept to ponder in this time of change.