Happy New Year

New years are a time of transition and carry the potential for considering transformation. Many of you will still be making New Year's Resolutions. However, most of you will not be considering changes in your ministry habits. Most pastors and lay leaders are on cruise control! You might consider changes in your eating habits, exercise routines, friendship networks, Bible study habits, and other personal care practices. Still, you will likely not think about changing how you practice ministry. Changes in personal habits can be transformative. That is wonderful, but imagine how changes in your ministry habits could affect your congregations. You might not know what changes you could make to have a significant transformational effect on your congregation, so let me suggest two things: 1) Consider coaching! Especially if you don't have regular opportunities to meet and talk with other pastors. Coaches don't give you all the answers or direct your ministry. Coaches listen, they help you reflect on what you might not see in your context, facilitate creative thinking, support change, and are prayer partners for your ministry. Making time with a coach ensures that you have time to consider how you do ministry instead of getting stuck in a never-ending routine that discourages Sabbath, reflection, and experimentation. 2) Read the linked article below. It has some very hopeful statistics. After reading it, consider seeking, identifying, and mentoring new leaders in Gen X and the Millennial demographics. They are not only future leaders, but potential partners for transformation in the church today. They are hearing God's call into the church.

Lay leaders, you, too, have an opportunity to facilitate transformation in your congregation. If you will partner with young people and give them a voice, they will help you hear the new thing God is doing in Christ's Church. The alternative is to resist the transformation that is evidenced in God's calling of the next generations.

https://www.barna.com/research/church-attendance-2022/