Okay... so, we've had some good discussion and even interpretations from Brother Maynard on my post regarding the dream I had a coupla nights ago.

First- thanks BM (Brother Maynard!) for your thoughts- I think they were pretty perceptive. Your comment that the last dream took place in a "teaching environment" (i.e. classroom) was what I needed to put everything together.

Second, I need to point people to some comments I already made about the dream I had a couple of nights ago.

And third, I need to say I'm not a big dream guy. I know just enough about psychology (85% of an MA in counseling!) to be dangerous... and I'm not what you might call "charismatic", in the sense that I don't get a ton of overt communication from God and have really wild things happen spiritually. Things are pretty staid around the Hyatt household!

All that being said, I need to tell you about another dream I had a few weeks back (I thought I had already blogged it, but no record exists!). It's connected to this dream in a couple of ways. They both had the same feel to them- I could just sense they were both telling me something.

So, anyway, this other dream. I was on a retreat in North Carolina a few weeks back. One night, I dreamed that I was doing a pastoral "visitation" call. I don't really do these, in the sense that we either have people over for dinner, or Amy and I will go to someone's house, but this was odd since I was alone, visiting a couple that I guess had come to evergreen on a recent Sunday.
We were in their house and as we sat and talked, they told me they didn't really believe in the whole God thing. So I began to ask if they had any spiritual beliefs at all. "Oh yes," one of them said. "In fact, there's a lot connected with this house!"
At that point they got up to show me something on the wall behind me. There was a small door there, about knee high. As they both went over to open it and one reached out for the knob, I noticed that both of them had bandages on their hands- completely wrapped, in fact. And there were long, somewhat curved and ragged nails protruding from the bandages.

They opened the small door and inside was a safe. They opened that and there was an indistinguishable "object" inside (a necklace or something). I knew at that point that the object was evil.

I invited them back to the couch and asked if we could pray... I grabbed a hand of each and began to pray, but as I did, they both began to laugh. The more and harder I prayed the louder they laughed. They had a hold of my hands and wouldn't let go. I looked down at the coffee table in front of us where I had set my business card. My card has a picture of an icon of Christ on it, but when I looked, the picture and bright colors had changed to something dark and grotesque. At that point I woke up.

I had a feeling that I should talk to one of the leaders on the retreat, a woman named Mary Kate Morse who teaches at George Fox. I'm glad I did- she gave me some good thoughts to go on which today, in connection with other comments brought everything together.


Both of these dreams centered on my work, which is a big part of my identity right now. In both I was doing the pastoral thing, and interestingly, in both I was going it alone.
And I think both were working out an issue which has been bubbling to the surface for me, in regards to pastoral identity and leading the evergreen community...

The first dream (in the house) centered on the issue of shepherding. Me, conecting with people. Unfortunately, these people that I was connecting with were not what they seemed. In fact, they were a threat, and they tried to hide that (the bandages) until it was too late. They came, introduced something evil, and changed the card...a symbol of attacking my church, I believe.

The second dream (in the classroom) centered on the issue of teaching. In it, I was in a room, doing the evergreen thing and I could just tell- our equipment wasn't enough to hold the people's attention (I think we use technology well, but much less than others- I think the thing with the TV was about me feeling insecure about keeping people's interest through glitches and low tech-ness). The room had the feel of being divided into left and right, a feeling I get a lot in terms of our community in general. As I said in the previous post, I tend to feel like I bouce between trying to push the boundaries (for the sake of those who need that... but also for the sake of those who want that) and playing the more "conservative" element of reigning in (again, for the sake of those who need that... but also for the sake of those who want that). The people that left at first and who started the stampede out had kids. That's been a heavy thing in my thoughts recently- kid's ministry.

All this to say, what these two dreams were doing, I think, was bringing to light a growing concern in my mind over the past few months.

I love our community. The freedom that we have to be who we are is incredible. The freedom to question and doubt has been great for many people.

I'm realizing though, that (as with everything) there needs to be balance. I have (as pastor) put a lot of the responsibilty for the community on the community. But there's these two aspects of being a pastor I think I'm being told to pay attention to- "protecting the flock" and teaching the people.

more later...



If anyone else has any insight, I'd love to hear it!