How To Start The New Year Right
One of the things I quickly learned after becoming the Lead Pastor at Allison Park Church was that life never slows down. Neither does ministry! The only way to lead effectively is to constantly be thinking at least six weeks into the future.
When we plan far enough into the future, we can process the schedule and strategy and verbalize it to everyone who is following us, with enough lead time for them to be able to engage. I'm not sure who said this, but it is very true: “If there is a mist in the pulpit, there's a fog in the pew.” If you are unclear about the future and the “why” behind what you are doing, the people you lead will be totally unaware of what is coming next and will not understand why they should sacrifice their time and energy to participate
As we enter the month of November, if you haven’t looked ahead at the holidays and the new year, now is the time to start.
First, it is important that you have a clear picture of how your church is going to approach the holiday season. What's your plan for Christmas and New Year’s Day? It’s especially challenging this year because both holidays fall on a Sunday. How will you work around and through that schedule effectively?
Second, how will you launch the new year? What's the plan to challenge people spiritually? What will you do personally to lead the way? Let me suggest that you start to think through and begin to articulate a few key things:
#1 - BIBLE ENGAGEMENT
One of the critical areas that needs to be addressed within the western world right now is people’s deficit in Biblical literacy and a Biblical worldview. There is a desperate need to help people read the Bible consistently and understand how to interpret it properly. Our team at Allison Park Church has made Biblical literacy one of our focuses for 2023. We have decided to use the YouVersion app and have set aggressive goals to get our people to sign up for a Bible Reading Plan in the new year. A great new feature of YouVersion is that it now allows for each local church to have a unique location on the app, where your people can join and participate together.
Our APC Leadership Team is also preparing to do training for all our Life Group Leaders to help them become more effective at leading group Bible studies.
#2 - FASTING
At APC we start each year with twenty-one days of fasting and prayer. During this time, we encourage people to fast for a day, three days, ten days, or the entire twenty-one days. We talk about the purpose of a fast and provide some resources, like an amazing book(link) by one of my staff members and good friends, Chris Griffin, and a booklet by Bill Bright.
I always publicly announce my personal plan because leading the way in a spiritual endeavor provides a challenge for others to follow. This year, I will do a ten day, liquid-only fast from January 4 -14 and then I will fast the final three days of the twenty-one day season, January 22-25.
#3 - PRAYER PATTERNS AND PLANS
We look to provide some type of prayer engagement plan each January. Here are some things we have done in the past:
Ten Promises To Pray for the New Year: We select ten Scripture verses to pray and agree with each day.
Seven Breakthrough Points In The Upcoming Year: We write out Biblical declarations for things like financial breakthrough, family salvation, and healing miracles.
Prayer Patterns: I wrote a book with thirty-one Biblical prayer patterns called Praying with Confidence. A second edition with an additional thirteen prayers for your family will be released in the next month. My book teaches people how to pray more effectively using the word of God.
I then use these formats to do a series of Facebook Live prayer moments (as well as youtube.com and instagram.com) to engage my congregation in prayer at a specific time each day.
In the past we have also scheduled in-person prayer meetings, like an hour of prayer at noon led by one of our staff for the twenty-one day season. Whatever the time and approach, it truly helps to design a plan for your church so that you can get maximum participation.
Lastly, at some point in December or early January, I will preach on the vision of how to start the year and will challenge my people to live with passion, practicality and intensity.
I am praying that you have an amazing start to the new year!