One of the challenges that I have is sorting out all the ideas, dreams, and compulsions that are constantly popping into my mind to try and determine which ones are from God. The first step for me is to wait until I “fall in love” with a particular idea. It starts popping into my mind with greater frequency and I start day dreaming about it. The second step is I write the dream down with as much detail as I can and then I put it away for one month. If I start to think about it I treat the thought like I would an immoral, covetous, or bitter thought, I replace it with a scripture verse that I have memorized. After one month I get it out and read it. In about 90% of the times I do this, when I read it my impression is negative. Words like stupid, waste of time, crazy, come to mind, so I just forget it. But occasionally when I get it out and read it my first impression is “Wow”, “let’s do it”. I then begin to write a lot, plan, set steps of action and then write a goal. Most of the time the new dream will require a lot of research which is probably my favorite part of any new venture. I enjoy learning new stuff and when it is attached to a new and exciting dream I get extra motivated to read, look for information on the Internet, go to seminars, and talk to people who have some experience. Way back in 1987 I had a thought that kept popping into my mind of planting a daughter church. It was crazy because we were still a small church with lots of problems. I wrote out as much as I could come up with which wasn’t much because I really had no clue how to do this. I went to a seminar in Southern California that Peter Wagner taught on church planting and bought a couple of books. This particular idea was so crazy and scary that I worked on it for several years before I told anybody about it. In 1990 I had it all worked out, put it in writing and began sharing it with those that would need to agree to it and help if it were to happen. The projected date for the first of 10 daughter churches was Easter of 2000, 10 years away, with another following every 2 years. That is pretty close to what has happened.