Something happens to me on the hill—the nearby sledding hill. I know that I shouldn't do it but the longer I stand there the more I feel a compelling urge to strap on the snowboard. So I do, and the results are predictable if not laughable. Every ten to twenty feet, I entertain everyone with a fall. Some are spectacular, others quite graceful. When the hill bottom rescues me from misery, I vow to stop. But by the time I get back to the top…

Over lunch recently, I summed up my snowboard skills. "I'm just not good," I said.

"But dad, you always get up and try again, and that's cool," my son assured me.

This month, our country celebrates Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Among a lifetime of notable achievements, Dr. King combined four simple words into one of the most memorable phrases ever spoken, "I have a dream." So what do these words and snowboards have to do with children's ministry? Plenty.

With a fresh year underway, most of us have at least one or more new dreams for our ministries. ...