Don’t wait to start living your dreams.

I started a church when I was 25 years old and I had no idea what I was doing.

You might feel God calling you to do something but you're not quite sure how to start. Maybe you just started a career or you're a 30-year veteran. It doesn’t really matter how long you’ve been with the company, you only have one life, you should live it to its fullest.

Before starting the church I had been working at a company for about two years. It wasn’t a bad job. Yet I was totally unsatisfied working there because it wasn’t what I was meant to be doing.

Why would you spend your life doing something that you don't even feel fulfilled by while you're doing it? Most people ignore the dissatisfaction in their heart because they feel comfortable in other areas. They make enough money, the schedule works for the family, it’s close to home, or any number of reasons.

Risk. People don’t like it. What if I start the thing I really want to do and I fail? What if it doesn’t work out as well as I think? There are a million thoughts that will try to stop you from doing something great. Most people embrace those thoughts and stay with what is comfortable.

What if you embrace the thought of succeeding at what you actually want to do? If God has called you to do something, and you are passionate about it then the odds are stacked in your favor!

I’m not saying you have to quit your job to start on your dreams. You do have to start taking steps towards your goal, otherwise, you will never get there. (Maybe you should quit your job, it depends on the situation- I quit mine)

God has something big for you to do. I believe that you wouldn't be reading this if you didn't feel that way as well.

You might feel like you have to get everything perfectly in order before you start whatever it is that God has called you to do. This isn't necessarily true.

There are some practical things that you should do in order to be ready to answer your calling. For example, my wife and I paid off over $24,000 of debt the year before we started our church. This greatly reduced the amount of financial stress in our life while starting the church.

We still had to Believe God to do miracles in our finances. Even though we didn't have any debt, we didn't take a salary from the church for the first eight months that it existed. Yet it would have been a lot more difficult to do what we did while making payments on $24,000.

I'm not implying that you can't have any debt in order to start your dream. We felt that was what we needed to do. There might be an area in your life that you know that you need to deal with before you step out and answer the call on your life.

There were a lot of technical things that we didn't know how to do when we start at the church. Starting a nonprofit organization can be complex. Neither my wife or I knew how to run a soundboard, a worship team, a kids church program or many areas of the ministry.

Maybe you have felt like you wanted to step out and start a ministry or a business but you have felt that you needed to have everything in order to be able to start. You don't.

We stepped out in faith believing that God would provide people to come alongside and help. We weren't going to wait for that to happen in order to start. The help that you need will come once you are actually doing something.

There was a lot of learning that we had to do in the beginning. Things that we never thought that we would need to do in ministry.

When I was in Bible school I was under the impression that all I needed to know about ministry was the spiritual side of things: prayer, faith, preaching, leadership etc. There are many practical things that I’ve had to do in ministry that isn't just spiritual. This was especially the case in the beginning of my ministry.

You might have to do some things that you never thought you would. You might not know how to do everything. Start anyway! You will see God’s hand of blessing come upon your life when you step out in faith and do what He has put on your heart.

Waiting for the perfect conditions is just an excuse to procrastinate.

The years I spent working at a company were years that I could have been working on the ministry God had called me to. I procrastinated because I was waiting for the perfect conditions. Don’t make this mistake- life is too short to waste time doing something that doesn’t fit into your purpose!

The Bible says that if you're faithful in the little God will make you ruler over much. Many people don't want to be faithful with a little before they're made a ruler over much and therefore they'll never become a ruler over much. In those beginning years we weren’t just ruler’s over little, we were rulers over next to nothing.

God saw that we were faithful with what we had. And now we have a team of helpers that have joined our vision to help the ministry go forward.

For the first six months of the church, every Sunday morning before I would preach I would set the room we were renting. The chairs, speakers, soundboard, projector and everything that needed to be set up. While I was trying to prepare for the service that I was about to preach at I wasn't able to spend time studying or praying, I was moving chairs around.

My wife was the helps ministry: greeter, usher, photographer, kids church worker, and the worship team.

You might have a vision of grandeur as to what your ministry (or business) will become, that's a good thing. While starting out, many people look at successful ministries or businesses that they want to emulate. Yet they are so far from being at that level they feel like giving up. Don’t make this mistake.

Whatever it is that you’re doing, give it 150% of your effort and you will see God’s hand of blessing come upon it. Don't give up in the beginning while you’re small. As you start, try to learn as much as possible and be faithful with what you have at that time.

Like I said, I didn't have a clue what I was doing when I started the church. As you seek God and as you remain faithful to what he has called you to do, you will see God's favor and increase come upon your life, ministry, or your business.