I came across this quote in Tom Peters book, “Design.” It was really good…. it made me put down the tortilla chips and salsa I had been slamming. It goes right along with all this “experience” stuff I’ve been talking about lately. Here’s a guy who gets it:

“A dream is a complete moment in the life of a client. Important experiences that tempt the client to commit substantial resources. The essence of the desires of the consumer. The opportunity to help clients become what they want to be.”

-Gian Luigi Longinotti-Buitoni, former North American CEO of Ferrari

He’s talking about touching the dreams of others; The art of telling stories; Promoting the dream, not the product. Something that Ferrari has been doing for years.

Churches have missed it!

We thought is was about the pastor’s dream for a new building or to have his own television show.

…It’s never been about God’s dream for “the church”…

We must hold high the dreams of others. Champion the passions of their hearts. Resource what makes them come alive. Discover the uniqueness at the core of who they were created to be… (okay, slow down and breathe…)

That’s what the local church is designed for.

Mr. Longinotti-Buitoni goes on with some measurements of choice:

“Love at first sight.”
“Design for the five senses.”
“Development to expand the Main Dream.”
“Design so as to seduce through the peripheral senses.”

When have we ever measured the church by these? Yet Ferrari has built a company on them. They have built a business around the fulfillment of huge, obnoxious, outlandish dreams. What boy didn’t grow up fantasizing about a Ferrari or some other exotic car?

I believe every person is built with a huge, obnoxious, outlandish dream inside of them to make a difference in the world.

The role of the church is to (look out!) unleash that.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2006 at 7:37 am and is filed under Culture, What's In My Head. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.