I met Bill Dotson for the first time in 1998 when a friend told me about Dallas Real Estate Ministries.  I visited their meeting on a cool November morning of that year, and joined the group of 40-50 in eating breakfast, drinking coffee, and listening to an inspiring speaker.  I appreciated the speaker, and the people who were in attendance, and was particularly impressed by Bill.  Dallas Real Estate Ministries or DREM is a group comprised by some very successful and talented real estate professionals in the Dallas business community, many of whom happen to be Christian.  There are many men and women who lead an organization for a few years, and then take on a new challenge in life.  Bill faithfully shephereded men and women in the Dallas Real Estate Community for 27 years, starting with a call he received from God in the mid 1980's.  I have a book in my library at home which I read years ago, entitled A Long Obedience in the Same Direction.  As I ponder that title, I have to state that it exemplifies Bill's life.  A man or woman who is called to something does not have to focus on impressing others through the application of their personal polish.  They are playing to the audience of the one who called them to the task.  Their focus enables them to receive the gravitas needed to administer the mission to which they have been called.  Bill, a long time member of Park Cities Presbyterian Church, faithfully served as the leader of this endeavor until just a few days ago.  Now, at the young age of 74, he is focused on his next calling and challenge, Abiding Fathers, which will no doubt bless the men and families with whom it comes into contact.

Chuck: What was going on in your life to bring you to the point where you saw the need for Dallas Real Estate Ministries?
Bill: I really was at a spiritual low at that time.  It was really a matter that God thought I was obedient enough to receive His call.  I did not go into this with any plan.  I was asleep one Saturday morning and woke up to falling rain.  I got up and for three hours I was on my knees.  I heard God repeatedly speaking to me, “I want to build a spiritual house in the real estate community of Dallas.  I called twelve men to Myself.  You do the same.”  I will say that once we started, DREM has always had twelve people on its Board.  I went back to sleep and woke up later the next morning, and began writing as fast as I could so I would not forget anything.  I called my friend Ford Madison and said “you must hear what I have heard the past three hours”.  Ford said, “I just came back from Lausanne, Switzerland.  People from 140 ministries were there.  Just like those people, you are another person receiving a wake-up call from God to get out of the four walls of the church and start a ministry in the marketplace, so I affirm you in that.”

The key operative phrase I kept hearing from the LORD was, “I want to build.”

I met with a friend, David Burgher, Jr. every other week for about a year and we had lunch with different Christian men, sharing the vision with them.  After we met with about 25-30 of them, David felt that it was time for us to call a meeting and see who shows up.  We had a meeting scheduled for five p.m. at my house.  My wife made chocolate chip cookies and iced tea. After thirty minutes we believed everyone who might be coming was there; so we decided to start the meeting, and I remember that David and I looked around the room and I felt chills on me as there were exactly twelve men in that room, including David and myself.  Bear in mind this was one year after the vision where God had told me He wanted twelve men involved in this ministry.  From this point forward, we began regularly meeting, praying and seeking His will for a year or two.

One thing I have learned over and over throughout my life is that everything of God has to die and be buried so that He can resurrect it to help you know that it is His and His alone.  I say this now because after a period of meeting regularly, the group dwindled down to four men: David, myself, and two others.  I was out walking in my neighborhood one morning sometime in 1989 or 1990 and asked God, “Is this all there is to this vision?”

God answered me very emphatically, “No, and it shall be called Dallas Real Estate Ministries.”  I quickly ran back to my house and called my attorney to see if Dallas Real Estate Ministries was available to use as a name.  After about two hours he called me back and said that no, that name had been taken.  However, the name Real Estate Ministries of Dallas, Inc. dba Dallas Real Estate Ministries was available.  We reorganized with twelve men and began planning.

One year later after a period of regularly praying and doing the things that we were being shown, we believed it was time that we stop meeting as 12 and to go public.  We prayed and asked Bob Breunig to come and speak at a meeting.  We invited only men at that point.  110 men met at the Park City Club to hear Bob give his testimony, and for the twelve men to share what they had heard from the LORD.

Chuck: What have been the high-lights of the past 27 years for you?
Bill: I would say that the high-lights for me would be:
•To see His faithfulness
•To see so many people being united concerning the vision
•For the Real Estate Networking Group to be added as a room to the house
•For MissionMarketplace to be added as another room
•We all believed this should not be a high profile ministry, but salt, light, and leaven, and to lift         up Jesus Christ in the marketplace knowing He would draw men to Himself.  That has always          been our task and He has always met our needs.
•       The formation of DREMkids giving back to the urban poor and needy.  We formed a                         partnership with Mercy Street.

Chuck: What have been your low points with this?
Bill: The low points – The ministry partnership with Mercy Street Dallas didn’t last.  We were raising funds and giving opportunities for people to work and serve in West Dallas.  The demise of this particular partnership was truly the low point.

Chuck: Could other industries in Dallas copy the DREM model and make it work for them?
Bill: Yes, assuming they were called by God.  Over the years, people have wanted to duplicate this.  One man came from the Houston Real Estate Community and met with us but nothing has started as far as we know.  Engineers have thought about this.  Some of them have attended our meetings.  Individuals in the financial advisory community have been interested in this.  Business people who have been connected with this ministry, or who have studied it have realized that DREM will work anywhere.  In my opinion when God is ready to begin a similar work in another industry, He will call someone to that.

Chuck: What are the strengths of DREM in your opinion?
Bill: The strengths of this ministry are the following: (a) It has always been under-girded by prayer; (b) We have always had a group of very dedicated and committed Christian board members; and (c) It was God’s calling and His strength and the presence of the Holy Spirit that have enabled us to endure.

It has been humbling to see men and women come and take on the issues of the ministry and serve on the board without pay, even giving their assets to it.  They have all been obedient and good caretakers of the calling and vision.

Chuck: Had you ever thought in the years before DREM was formed that you would start and be over it for 27 years?
Bill: Never in my mind.  I am a starter of things.  I am not a long suffering, persevering person.  It is definitely a compliment to God that I have stayed in this.  We have attempted to broaden the ownership.  When we started Circle of Wisdom, 40 men and women signed up to help broaden the ownership and get more people involved in DREM.

Chuck: What traits or abilities in your opinion must a person have who starts an organization like this?
Bill: You definitely have to be called to it.

Chuck: What traits or abilities in your opinion must a person have who manages an organization like this for over 20 years?
Bill: Here again you have to be called to it, and also maintain the vision for it over a long period of time.  You also have to have a lot of good people around you sharing the load.

Chuck: What are the greatest needs of Christians who are involved in real estate?
Bill: For more time in Scripture and prayer to develop a deeper relationship with the LORD.  That will produce great benefits; personally, financially, and socially.  My life verse is Matthew 6:33: But seek first His kingdom and righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  This is the answer!

Stop striving.  Christianity is a relationship, not a religion.  If you try to be a religious Christian, you wear out, and won’t be effective.  You succeed by developing that relationship, and working in His strength.  You need all of that and accountability of others.

Chuck: Where do you sense the United States is going in the next five years?
Bill: Our nation is under judgment, for all of the obvious sordid reasons.  We have one generation left, and if this one fails to turn it around and turn to the LORD, it will not be the America that it was founded to be.

My calling to start Abiding Fathers was a strong call to me to leave DREM.  The central issue of the decline of this country is the father abdicating his role.  Many fathers are weak, not present, non-existent and negative.  Unless we stem the growing tide of absentee fathers in the home, I don’t see a lot of hope.  The passion I have for the United States is in my latest book: Revival of Repentance, addressing II Chronicles 7:14:

And My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Chuck: Where do you sense the Christian community in Dallas is going during the next five years?
Bill: I sense God raising up a youthful generation of believers more interested in spiritual matters than financial success.  That gives me hope.  Our ministry in Dallas gives me hope but as one man said, ‘Christianity in Dallas is ten miles wide and one inch deep.”  We need to get Christianity ten miles deep.  Many storms are coming.

The growth of the church is outside of the four walls.  Across the world, Christianity is spreading rapidly where they are not building buildings.  Dallas and the United States are obsessed with building buildings instead of meeting the needs of the marketplace.  The institutional church is not effective.  We are building buildings.  Others are building Christ’s kingdom.

Chuck: A nice classy building can be proud achievement for someone to develop, how is the focus on showmanship and image in Dallas a strength and weakness?
Bill: MissionMarketplace has the objective of filling offices and board rooms of these buildings with ambassadors for Christ to minister to the people in those buildings.

Many buildings are built to satisfy the egos of man.  They are monuments to selves.  They are needed  but eventually they will be destroyed, (when we have the new heaven and new earth.)  It is my hope that the Christian developers will see the kingdom of God being worked out on the inside.  If the buildings are just for business purpose, they have lost the opportunity to see God bless them.

Chuck: How is the self-made entrepreneurship of the Dallas real estate community a benefit for the future of Dallas and the United States?
Bill: What drew me to Dallas 40 years ago was the unbridled can-do attitude of the Dallas business arena.  The real estate community is a tremendous benefit to Dallas.  Perhaps that was why God called us to real estate because so many from the Dallas real estate community are impacting ministries in Dallas and globally.  God has blessed this community.
Dallas is doing much better than most of the rest of the United States, DREM, East-West Ministries, E3.  The presence of Christ is in the marketplace of this city.  He is pleased to prosper it in many ways.  I thank God for the entrepreneurs here.

Chuck: Bill, you mentioned Mission Marketplace earlier.  How many people has Mission Marketplace impacted?
Bill: We have trained and equipped 150 men since we began four years ago.  The number will grow as we have laid the groundwork.  The material has broadened in training and equipping them.

Chuck: I attend quite a few of your luncheons.  What is the average attendance at one of the monthly Encounter luncheons?
Bill: Between 90 and 150 and growing.

Chuck: Are these open to anyone?
Bill: Yes, and they are complimentary.  Go to www.drem.org and register.



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Life's Opportunities Are For The Engaged

Posted: July 1, 2012 by Chuck DeShazo