New Years Resolutions

Are you gonna make one? I hate the idea, but it tends to be a motivator for me. I resolved 72 days ago to prepare for running a 1/2 marathon. I'll keep that up for my '08 resolution. I'll also look to improve my Spiritual connection as well.

The message this Sunday was about resolutions, of sorts. In my message I spoke about layovers, of the travel variety. Layovers are a waste of our time, we are at the mercy of another's schedule, we're unproductive in our journey, just idling the time away. Sometimes our spiritual lives are very much the same. Ask yourself, "Am I farther along my faith journey today than I was just 365 days ago?" I hope you are. The only reason for a layover is to have enough time to move from one leg of our journey to make the connection with the next. Making connections of the spiritual kind is my goal for your for the coming year. Here are the 5 connections I'd like you to consider for 2008:

God Connection: Personal
Get on a personal Discipleship plan. What ever it is. It doesn't have to be much, just get started. It's like eating an elephant... one bite at a time.
Around August we will have a way for you to track your personal discipleship plan with a booklet we're developing called a "Transformation Pathway." I'm looking forward to bringing that to you. I hope it will be helpful.

God Connection: Accountable
I would never succeed at running a half marathon unless someone was holding me accountable. My daughter is running with me, so that helps. I also post my daily training regimen so that you can hold me accountable... please do.
Our small group ministries function in much the same way. They become the way in which we allow others to hold us accountable to practice our faith journey. We call our Small Group ministry "Transformation Groups." Check them out here.
On February 3rd we'll be starting up Sunday morning small groups during the 11:00 time slot. There's another way you can get involved.

God Connection: Responsible
There are many passages, especially in the New Testament, where we are commanded to ..."One Another." Love one another, care for one another, build one another up, to name a few. This year I'm asking you to "get into each other's business." What I mean is to become a person who offers real and sincere care to a neighbor, friend, family member, church member. We need to find real and sincere ways to offer care for one another.
To help you get started we'll have two related sermon series. In "Living is For-Giving" we'll talk about forgiveness, accepting it and offering it. In "One-Anothering" we'll talk about what to say in those difficult times when someone is struggling with grief, divorce, job loss, etc.

God Connection: Reliable
There is that bible passage that says "to whom much is given, much is expected." We have all been given, by God, an ability to serve in some special way. God has a purpose for each of us and hopes to rely upon us to get it done. What place of service will you focus on in 2008?
The passage holds true as well for our generosity. Giving as a weekly discipline is a practice that will draw you deeply into connection with God. This year we'll also be talking about our church's indebtedness. Good Shepherd is $2.6 million in debt. We refinance our balloon note in 2008. For every $100,000 we can pay down our debt at the time we refi we'll have about $10,000 extra per year for ministry. You'll be hearing more in February and March.

God Connection: Evangelical
Finally, it is everyone's job as a Christ Follower to share the good news of what God is doing in the world. It's also the one task that falls somewhere below root canal for most of us. To help you succeed in sharing your faith we will have a sermon series in February called "Be Contagious." Our goal is to make faith sharing easy and comfortable for you.
We'll also give you something else to invite people to. On March 16th we will launch our fourth worship service. We'll be providing a time for those who either cannot or will not make it to church on Sunday morning. Every Sunday at 5:30 pm we'll worship just as we do at the other three worship services. I hope you'll join us then.... and bring a friend... or two.

I'm praying you make a God Connection in 2008.