Here is a strange and wonderful story.
As I was walking out of St. Matthews Baptist Church on Tuesday, I met Dr. Wade Rowatt coming in. Dr. Rowatt is a well-known professor and therapist.
For years he was on the faculty of Southern Baptist Seminary and later, Director of the Pastoral Counseling Center at St. Matthews Church. This fall he begins his work (in a kind of retirement, I suppose) on the faculty of Baptist Seminary of Kentucky. He was my teacher years ago.
Rowatt said to me: “I had a dream about you last night. We were on a mission trip together in Mexico. That is the first time you ever appeared in one of my dreams.”
I said to him: “I don’t know about Mexico but I do have a ministry we can do together.” He said, “Tell me about it.”
So I proceeded to tell him about the Festival of Young Preachers (of which he was already familiar). “We are dividing these 100 young preachers into 8 teams, what we call preaching circles. There will be 12 or 13 in each circle. They will hear each other preach at the Festival. We are looking for trained group facilitators to meet with each preaching circle twice during the Festival to help them process what they are hearing, feeling, and thinking. Are you interested?”
Yes, he was interested, and before the conversation was over, he offered to recruit the other seven, lead training before the Festival and a debriefing session after the Festival, and even write a report!
I don’t know if this encounter has anything to do with his dream, but perhaps! As a festival planner working on a thousand details our “chance encounter” was a dream-come-true. Praise the Lord!!