As probably many are doing, I am spending some time reflecting on some goals and changes I want to make personally in this upcoming year. Here's my list in reverse:
5. I want to read more this year. For those of you who know me well, you know that I already read quite a bit. As someone who is speaking and writing, I find it is critical to maintain a healthy intake of new ideas. So I do several things to feed myself. I read other blogs. I listen weekly to other speakers. Actually, I may listen to about 5 other pastors messages during a week (iTunes with free pod casts is such a great asset). When I exercise, I listen. The final thing that I do is I read. Currently, I am reading about 3 books per month (approx 36 in a year). I would like to double that next year. Pastor Rob Ketterling has written about his 'book goal' for 2006, and he has inspired me to read more.
4. I want to complete the writing of my first book. Actually, just today I finished writing chapter one. So I am on my way. Writing is far more emotional and exhausting that I expected. I had hoped to be much further in the process, but this is a new skill. Pray for me on this one.
3. I want to become a more effective coach. God has been dealing with me in my leadership both in my family and within the church. My kids are now shifting gears and moving toward adulthood. David is going to be sixteen in just a few weeks! Can you believe it? As a father, the shift for me is now more as a life-coach and less as a disciplinarian. When kids are young the focus is on 'training the will' and 'teaching obedience'. As they grow, the focus changes to 'influencing a life'. I am beginning to release more decisions to my oldest kids. Instead of control, my goal is influence. They are doing so well. I am very grateful and proud of them all.
As a lead pastor, I realize that I need to shift more out of the 'do-er' role and more into the 'coach' role. My tendency is to want to be right in the center of it all. I love being a solution to a problem. But I have come to realize that my 'doing' is hindering the development of my very gifted and talented elders and staff.
So I am really working to set back in some ways so as to create room for my team to rise up and reach their fullest potential. Already I am seeing some very exciting signs of growth. This is going to be an amazing year for our pastors, our elders, and our small group leaders. My goal is to provide a greater platform for our leaders to shine.
2. I want to 'husband' my wife more effectively. What does that mean? A husbandman is the tender of a vine. It is basically a gardener. The job of a husbandman is to make sure that the vines under his care flourish and become incredibly fruitful. This is the job of a husband as well.
So I want to provide my 'vine' (Melodie) with everything she needs to grow and flourish. This is a big year for my wife. She received many prophetic promises about how God was going to use her beginning in her 40th year. The gun has sounded and this year of destiny has been launched for her. I am asking God for help in being the man she needs me to be, by providing her with support, love, affirmation, encouragement, opportunity, and just plain adoration. I am crazy about her and I want her to know it.
1. I want to maintain the health of my own soul by consistently delighting myself in the person of Jesus Christ. I have come to believe that Christianity is mainly about ATTITUDES. We often focus on rules or rituals, but God is concerned with heart attitudes.
As a husband, father, and pastor--I know that the greatest gift I can give to my family (natural and church) is my own personal holiness, the overflow of an abundant heart.
My heart does its best when I am monitoring its attitudes. The key attitudes for me are the attitudes of JOY, WONDER, and FAITH. Joy is a choice that I have to continually make. Joy is an attitude that is based on the sufficient grace of God and not on the set of my natural circumstances.
Wonder is a view of the future that is based on the fact that Jesus is alive and is continually at work. The opposite of wonder is dread. If I don't choose to anticipate Jesus' next amazing move, I will live in dread. My soul will become burdened with an unnecessarily negative view of the future. One of the central definitions of the church in the book of Acts is that they were continually in awe and wonder of what God was doing.
Faith is the constant declaration of God's promises in spite of the current challenges or struggles.
Beyond 'attitude management', I know that I also need to invest in physical health, with diet and exercise. I need to manage my emotional life by keeping a sane schedule and creating margin to have a life beyond my work. And I need to manage my relational life by making a time-priority on my walk with God, time with my wife, and investment in my children.
I believe that 2007 is going to be a year of BREAKTHROUGH. This is what I am naming my year...the year of breakthrough.
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