Planning for the new year

The new year brings new opportunities for churches, families and individuals. I've always looked forward to the start of the new year because of the opportunities to learn new things, to have new experiences and to see how God will work in my life and the lives of my family. At the same time, I do not believe in merely sitting back and waiting to see what God will do. I'm convinced we have a part to play in this as well. Each of us needs to have some plan, a vision, for what we want to see happen in the new year.

For a number of years I set several goals I would work on in the coming year. Some of these would be short-term that would be achieved before the year ended. Some would be longer term that would need several years to see fulfilled. These would include goals for my family, my ministry, my finances, my own self-care and any other thing that I felt was important. I used a goal-tracking program to ensure I was making regular progress on each goal. One of the things I learned was that setting these goals allowed me to accomplish much more than if I had just sat back hoping that something good would happen that year.

Every goal was not fully achieved. Once I set a work goal of reaching a certain number of people I would serve in an area of my ministry. I came up about 10 people short of that goal. When our Executive Minister asked why I thought I didn't reach the goal, I explained that I knew that goal would stretch me, but I had still achieved more pursuing that goal than I would have without the goal. Occasionally, I would realize that a particular goal I had set was not for this time in my life, and I would stop working on it. Sometimes, God would lead me in a different direction for a certain goal. It's often been said if you want to make God laugh just tell Him your plans. I've made God laugh a few times, and He has led me in a different direction than I thought I would take.

What goals have you set for 2024? Without goals you run the risk of coming to December 2024 and look back to see that you really didn't accomplish very much, you didn't grow very much, and everything looks much like it did at the end of 2023. No one should be satisfied with that. 

Set goals and find ways to hold yourself accountable to achieve them. If you have goals for the most important things in your life you will find yourself more in control of what's happening rather than drifting around wondering what's happening.