new year, new goals, new challenges

And so we have begun 2010.  How's it going so far?  Did you make new year's resolutions?  Break any of them yet?

In worship this morning, we were discussing evaluation.  As a body, we have 7 core values:

• Relationship based ministry
• People are the Church
• Reaching the Lost
• Freedom of Ministry
• Everyone's a minister
• Making Disciples
• Evaluation

The past six weeks have been a review of the core values, ending today with evaluation. Basically this core value is often overlooked in most bodies.  Many bodies of believers have committees and even core values.  But how often is it that the body evaluates itself to see how its doing?  I mean, lots of places have Benevolence committees...you know the committees that are formed to determine how to spend the money they receive on benevolence, or helping others in need.  So, how often does the committee look at how its doing?  Who have they helped?  Did they use ALL the money given them for the year? 

So, we do an evaluation of our body as well as ourselves.  For example, in the last year, how did we - as a church body - do in reaching the lost?  Rate ourselves on a scale of 1 to 5. What do we need to do differently in 2010?

I focused the evaluation on myself this morning (we could go either way).  I wasn't all that thrilled with how I rated myself, particularly in those areas where in order to excel, I have to be purposeful.

Relationships are such a vital part of any person's life.  However, in order to be successful in relationships, one must be purposeful...pick up the phone, send an e-mail, respond to an e-mail, stay in touch, go to lunch, etc.  I realized in 2009 that I am NOT purposeful in my relationships.  In fact, I suppose you could say I almost take them for granted.  This is definitely NOT something I am proud of, and is definitely something I am going to work on in 2010.  Working on being purposeful in my relationships will mean having to swallow some humble pie as I apologize to some people with whom I have not been purposeful.  In fact, there are unfortunately some people who I lost track of due to the busy-ness of my life.  Again, something I am not proud of.

Engr2mom's 2010 Relationship goal: To be more purposeful in my relationships with others. 

I have other goals - some related to the core values we share with our church body, and others not related to those at all.

Now, here's the hard part.  Right now, they are just goals on a piece of paper.  Without a plan and whole lot of motivation, they will never be more than words on a page.

One of my goals is to read the Bible through in a year this year...something I have tried to do and not yet done.  This year, I have a plan...I found a great website here that lets you pick the type of reading plan you want.  I simply chose the one that allowed me to read the New Testament and then the Old Testament.  I printed it out and shared it with some other folks.  The second part of my plan is to meet regularly with my accountability partners.  Accountability to and with one another is so important to our spiritual growth.  We (Roundabout Geek and I) belong to Life Transformation Groups, or LTG's.  This is not something we came up with...it is the brain child of Neil Cole.  His books Cultivating a Life for God and Organic Church are must reads!!

Anyway, my LTG group (as well as Roundabout Geek's) have decided that we will read the Bible in a year for the Bible reading portion of our LTG.  So, not only do I have a plan, I have someone to keep me true to my goal and myself.

**If you haven't already guessed it, I am already three days behind!

So, I have lots of goals - some really lofty and others are more realistic.  But without a plan, they will go nowhere.  I will be spending some time this week exploring these goals and what plans I can make to achieve them.

How about you?  What goals will you set for your personal growth this year?  How about professionally?  After you set the goals, how will you achieve them?  Do you have a plan?  Who will keep you in check, motivate you?

Here's to what we learned in 2009, and what we'll change in 2010!

Happy New Year!!!