Six years ago today on Black Friday my whole life changed.
Real life is crazier than fiction and the painful miracle that I experienced is so crazy that if I made it up it would sound ridiculous! Coming that close to death has caused me to not take a single day of life for granted and even though it hurt like hell and took me forever to recover, I wouldn’t trade the pain because I am who I am today (in part) because of it.
Every since that day I have tried hard to go after the dreams and visions that God has placed in my heart. Planting and leading Courageous Church is one of those dreams.
You have dreams too. We all do. Most of us though, including me, chicken out and never pursue them. Some of our excuses are legit. Most of them aren’t. We settle for less than our potential and are left to wonder what coulda/woulda/shoulda been.
Let me tell you one way that I combat that. After really wrestling with a dream or vision, running it by people that I love and trust, praying about it, discerning if it matches up with the Heart of God, and even testing the waters a little bit…
I GO PUBLIC WITH IT. This doesn’t mean I won’t still back out, but going public with your dream is a GAME CHANGER. It demystifies the dream. It causes it to go from a private secret to a public possibility. When you go public with your dream, potential keepers or carriers of that dream begin to appear and sometimes make it their dream too.
Well…today…6 years after getting over 400 stitches on my face and getting my bottom lip and left eyelid sewed back on, I want to announce to you a dream that I have had for nearly ten years. It is going to happen. I feel it my bones. Here goes:
- I want to start an elite, award-winning, private Christian, college prep high school in inner city Atlanta for the kids of inner city Atlanta. Nothing like it exists in our city and it will take many miracles for this dream to come to pass.
- My three role model schools for this dream are Cristo Rey in Chicago and The SEED School in Washington DC and Drew Charter School in Atlanta. I have studied these schools from top to bottom for over five years and know that a hybrid version of these would succeed in Atlanta.
- Each one of the above schools has ONE key feature that I absolutely love! Cristo Rey’s work option, SEED’s boarding dynamic, and Drew’s partnership with the YMCA hook me. Click on the links above to understand more.
- This school would be closely related to Courageous Church, but distinctly different from a management and financial perspective. For instance, I am imagining that Courageous Church would use the school auditorium for Sunday services.
- I want to form a foundation in the next few months with a Board of Directors that will begin a feasibility program.
- I want to begin searching for the first Academic Principal and the first Director of Operations and want them to come from the very best prep schools in the country. I do not plan on running the school in any way. God has been clear with me on this :-)
- I have already found three potential locations for the school. One would be an amazing turnkey solution and the other two are vacant lots that would require that the school be built from the ground up. Each location has great benefits.
- It would take between $30-$50 million to fund this project.
- I believe in miracles and I believe in hard work. When these two things come together AMAZING things happen!
- I have received several clear signs that this dream is a GOD THING. One sign is all I need :-)
I have a lot more I could say, but I am putting my business out there because I believe it will serve as a CATALYST for this dream. Do you have any thoughts or impressions? Is God speaking to you about this dream? I would love to see your comments and thoughts! Comment here or email me directly @ shaunking@courageous.tv
{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
Dang dude…God sized dream…believe God is able to make it happen for you.
Thanks Jason. For this to work it will take every person in my network AND every person in yours :-)
Thank you for sharing your dream brother. I believe in you and stand ready to support. this inspires me to share some things on my site. You are a blessing man!
I appreciate it J! Maybe I can come up there to Chicago soon and spend some time around the best schools up there. Think you could help with that?
I believe in it…
Thanks bro! I need you on board for sure.
go shaun – go GOD!!!!
Thanks a ton Lisa!
There is a already a conversation about starting a Cristo Rey Network school in Atlanta.
Hey John,
That's great. We aren't quite wanting to start a Cristo Rey School. Do you know who is leading that conversation? How did you hear about it?
Nothin here sounds impossible, let’s roll on! I think this sounds like an idea that we’ll all be standing around talking about one day, “remember when you posted that blog…” while standing in the auditorium.
j.
Hey Shaun, I love it! Dream big and run after those dreams God puts on your heart! That's when big stuff happens.
Hey I came across you on Twitter I think and wanted to ask… We're actually working on building a resource library for youth leaders and youth pastors. Would you be interested in contributing any resources & joining the conversation?
You could post something specifically for youth pastors, or maybe even some of your blogs posts…
The new (growing) library is here:
http://www.calledtoyouthministry.com/resources
And you can contribute your own resource here:
http://www.calledtoyouthministry.com/contribute
Would love to see what you might share–let me know. Blessings!
Thanks brotherman! I will go to the library as soon as I can!
Thank you for sharing your dream. It shall come to pass.
Thank you Gloria!
Thank you for sharing your dream!! I truly believe that God is moving mountains in the area of education for our youth. I am a newly trained counselor and God has given me a dream in the area of school counseling and educating our kids holistically and I would love to talk to you one day about it, if possible. I think your vision is awesome!!
Wonderful! I support your dream 100%
Keep chasing those deams, we got your back!!
I recently starting following you on twitter. I am always prayful about who to follow. God has given me a dream to bring about authencity for members of the body of Christ through the return of small home group studies. A return to the basics our New Testament brothers and sisters experience . Pastor Shaun, I stand with you in your dream and pray God enables me to pour into it. We need to return Kingdom purpose God designed for the earth.
Rachel
Walk It Out Ministries
I knew I liked ya for a reason, you dream almost as big as I do! :) This sounds awesome Shaun. We will be praying for ya. There is a school here in Canada that rocks at this too. http://www.bearspawschool.com there all about fostering creativity and dreaming big in God. Check them out you might like to hear some of there ideas on how to use education to make kids more creative and dream huge, then to use it to kill creativity like a lot of public schools do.
Shaun–You and I share a common dream..this is awesome. I received signs of this over the summer, and I have been wrestling with it since then. The school I would open would be pre-k through 12th grade. I, like you, don't want to be running the place, but I do have a huge vision for such a place. You have inspired me since Life Goals..Love and support! If you need anything from me…I am here.
dope. i am in. how can i help.
Awesome dream! Go for it!
You might want to check out Harvest Preparatory School in Columbus, OH. The school is ran by World Harvest Church (Rod Parsley). The web address is: http://ohps.rodparsley.com/
Our children need it . . . a place of learning about God first, then all else sounds good to me . . . there are too many kids who don't believe in anything even themselves and I believe you would reverse that especially in inner city kids. Dream big! Dreaming for God's glory is always a +
Shaun, thank you for sharing your dream.
I love it
I have a dream as well, that one day everyone will be connected with a mentor.
Seems crazy, but I believe that if everyone had a mentor things would be different.
Our dreams are much a like and I am very interested to see how your dream plays out and the conversations that will happen on this blog about your dream. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.
Love your passion and I am glad your life changed 6 years ago today.
This is an amazing dream! We need GREAT places for our young people to learn and feel like they are apart of a community that cares about their growth, both as students and also on a personal level.
Awesome dream! I love the part about the church using the auditorium for Sunday service. It is a major break from the Multi-Million dollar church facilities that the well intentioned "boomer" generation Pastors built for Sunday and Wednesday use. If you're ever in Chicago benchmarking schools, let's do lunch.
You know that I am so down that it doesn't make sense. I have a dream of starting a preschool and then building it all the way through high school. I am so excited about it! Your dream just inspired me to be even more excited! Thanks for sharing and as always I am here to help if you need me.
WHUT!!!
Sounds AWESOME. Can't wait to send my son there and be that annoying mom that NEVER leaves the school! And if you need a math/science teacher…call me!
8D
Hey Shaun,
I believe in your bro. I know it will come to pass in a matter of time. You also may want to check out Bishop Jakes dream for a school fully realized: Clay Academy. http://www.clayacademy.com. Awesome K-12 private school.
I'm praying for more vision in my life and will continue to pray for you. God has given me some things even today that I will reach out to you soon about. Has to do with mentoring, Morehouse, and Courageous Church. As it comes to me and things start to come together here in Dallas, I will be in touch.
Give my love to the family,
Alfred R.
P.S. Did I mention Bishop is opening up his 2nd plant church this year in far North Dallas and it is going to be campus pastored by Sheryl Brady??
I felt the Holy Spirit all over me as I was reading and looking at your school ideas. I too have had dreams, one of which is an alternative Christian school. I am concerned about taking children away from their parents…so often in he church giving the babies up for adoption is the option that is presented to single moms as the best for the child, when in reality it isn't. We scream about abortion, but are never willing to adopt the mother and the child. So that is my only redress.
On the flip side, I am a college professor & English instructor by trade. I am working presently in Portland OR at a school that is referred to as a "Career College." I could comment a lot on what I see about a school charging the highest prices for the poorest members of our society. But, I have met students here who have had parents truly abandon them early on. They have needed homes and parents and support in their lives which they did not have. My heart goes out to them and I wish I could have parented them all! I am a Mom too, and a Teacher. This kids have surmounted incredible odds.
So if you school will give those kinds of kids LOVE and an education, it will be an amazing thing. I would go so far as to say I would love to be a part of something like this.
Blessings. God is up to lots, isn't He!
Sunshine Loire
I love the dream, but I wish I had your fundraising gift! We've been operating a Christian school in Quebec for 7 years. It's been a long drawnout legal battle just to exist, but we finally got a government permit (without funding) for our elementary school last year and our secondary school this year. We have many commited staff and tons of ideas, but having a hard time covering textbook costs, never mind any other resources. Sometimes I envy the church in the states, where so much support seems to be available. I wish you well in this and all your other visions
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