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A new year is always a great time for a reset. For most people, January 1 is not just another day on the calendar. We use it as an opportunity for a fresh start with our schedules, our fitness plans, and our budgets. But it’s also a time for a fresh start in our ministries—a time to let go of the past year’s struggles and embrace what God has in store for us this year.Paul gives us a great blueprint for how we can do this when he writes, “I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us” (Philippians 3:13-14 NLT). We all need this kind of reset as we head into a new year. Maybe your 2024 didn't go as you hoped. You feel the momentum slipping away. A new ministry has struggled. Attendance and giving are declining. You’ve faced personal setbacks that have left you feeling uncertain about your leadership.That's okay. God specializes in giving us fresh starts. You see it all the time in the Bible. Just read the Old Testament prophets, where God constantly promised his people he was going to do something new in their midst. In the Message paraphrase of Hosea 14:6, God says, “I will make a fresh start with Israel.” And in Zechariah 10:6, again in the Message paraphrase, God says, “I’ll put muscle in the people of Judah; I’ll save the people of Joseph. I know their pain and will make them good as new. They’ll get a fresh start, as if nothing had ever happened. And why? Because I am their very own GOD, I’ll do what needs to be done for them.”God's mercies are brand new for you and your ministry, too. But if you want 2025 to be a better year, you'll need to let go of some things.   Let go of 2024’s baggageEven in the best years, we have disappointments. That’s normal. You can’t erase them. You can’t have last year back. But forgetting the past, as Paul describes in Philippians 3, isn’t about erasing the past. Instead, it’s about not letting it control you or limit what God will do through you in 2025.So what from the past year should you not let control you in 2025?Resentment - You can’t lead effectively when you’re weighed down by unforgiveness. It’s like drinking poison and expecting someone else to die.Control over outcomes - Often it feels like everything is riding on your decisions. But control is an illusion. God is ultimately in charge. He’s better at running your ministry than you are.Unrealized expectations - Impossible expectations that everything has to be perfect—your preaching, your leadership, your family—are a recipe for burnout. Past failures - Not everything went the way you would have wanted in 2024. Some of your best-laid plans flopped. Every pastor has some regrets. But those regrets about 2024 can’t change anything about 2025. Learn from your mistakes; don’t wallow in them. If you’re tied to yesterday’s failures, you can’t embrace the future.Spend some time at the beginning of the year writing down the resentments, attempts to control outcomes, unrealized expectations, and failures that weighed you down in 2024. Name them. Learn from them. Then release them to God. It’s time to move forward. Seize the opportunities God has for 2025Once you’ve let go of the weights of the past, you’re free to step boldly into the opportunities God has prepared for you. This new year isn’t just about leaving things behind; it’s about moving forward in faith.Paul said he was “looking forward to what lies ahead” (Philippians 3:13 NLT). You can’t look behind and ahead at the same time. So, once you’re facing forward, how do you seize the opportunities in front of you?Say no to good opportunities so you can say yes to great ones. God doesn’t expect you to do everything. You don’t have the time, and not everything is worth doing. Say no to the opportunities God is not leading you into.Evaluate every opportunity. When an opportunity comes up, make sure it aligns with the vision God has given you for your life and ministry. Not every good opportunity is a good fit for you and your church. God has prepared some of those opportunities for other churches. Just because you don’t do it doesn’t mean it won’t be done. Stay flexible. Opportunities come in a specific window. You may have specific plans you’re looking at for the upcoming year—but recognize that God can change them in a heartbeat. He may ask you to set aside one plan in order to embrace a new opportunity. Proverbs 10:5 tells us, “A sensible person gathers the crops when they are ready; it is a disgrace to sleep through the time of harvest” (GNT).Don’t be so infatuated with your plans that you’re not ready to gather the harvest when God prepares it for you!The 2025 God has planned for you and your church will have both battles and blessings. Be prepared for both. Pursuing God’s best for 2025 won’t be easy. But God will be with you every step of the way. He will keep his promises.

One way Satan will try to discourage your ministry is by convincing you that if people are leaving your church, you’ve done something wrong. Too many pastors feel like they’re a failure when they see people leave. It’s simply not true. Numbers matter. I’ve written many times that numbers matter because they represent people—and people matter to God.But people leave your church for a variety of reasons — most of which have nothing to do with you as a pastor. For example, here are seven of the biggest reasons people leave.Illness - No matter how large or small your church is, you’ll certainly have people from time to time who can’t attend because of illness. Of course, that’s not your fault—and it’s not their fault either. No one is immune from illness.The Bible reminds us that the church should have an active ministry to those who can’t make it to worship because of illness (Matthew 25:36). But even if you’re ministering to people who can’t be there because of illness, your attendance will still drop, which can be disheartening.Job transfers - In biblical times, people rarely moved. Most people were born, lived, and died within a few miles of their homes. In today’s mobile society, people move often. According to the most recent U.S. Census information, about 1 in 7 people move every year. That means theoretically, you could have a completely new church every seven years!People move for all kinds of reasons. Sometimes they get new jobs; other times they’re looking to change neighborhoods or get nearer to families. But it’s not likely they are moving because of you or your church.Fear of accountability - Some people leave our churches because they don’t want others to know them well enough to keep them accountable. They hop from church to church, particularly hiding in larger churches where they can slip in and out each week. The moment someone challenges them to get into a small group where they will need to let others into their lives, they leave.But that’s not your fault either. The church is a family. If people don’t want the accountability that comes with church involvement, that’s their choice.Worldliness - Others leave your church because they’re backsliding. Years ago, I had a guy tell me he was leaving Saddleback because we asked for too much commitment. When you start a building campaign, people will leave your church. They want to be on the ship, but they don’t want to pay for your ship.Sometimes people leave your church because they love their bank accounts, their sinful lifestyles, and their free time more than they love Jesus. That’s not a reflection of your ministry. It’s a reflection of their relationship with Jesus.Divisiveness - No church has 100 percent agreement in every area. That’s not realistic. Even Paul and Barnabas disagreed. You can have unity without uniformity.But some people will grab onto these areas of disagreement and use them to create divisions in the church. Romans 16 warms us to watch out for “those who create divisions.”Unresolved personal conflict - This is the number one reason people leave the church. People don’t get along with one another, and they didn’t grow up in a family where they learned how to deal with conflict.Again, the church is a family. Families have disagreements. The easiest thing for people to do when this happens is just to leave. You and I know that will not help. Often, people will go to another church only to discover the other church isn’t perfect either.Sent out in ministry - Of course, this is the best reason people leave your church. This isn’t a reason to despair. It’s a reason to celebrate! Every church should send people all over the world to spread the gospel.You’ve likely read this from me before. You should judge your church not by your seating capacity but your sending capacity. You have little control over the other six reasons people will leave your church. But you can— and should—actively organize your church to see this happen more often. It’s frustrating when people leave your church. Sometimes it hurts—especially when it’s someone you’ve poured into for years. But don’t jump to conclusions. Don’t assume you’ve failed. Look at why the people have left.

This is a continuation of last week's article that can be found here: https://blog.pastors.com/articles/how-to-become-a-…-preacher-part-1/ As a preacher, it’s never enough just to communicate information. God didn’t call us to be seminary professors or entertainers. God called us to be do-something preachers. He expects us to preach for transformation. Last week, I talked about how to become a do-something preacher by helping your congregation see that they cannot change their behavior without changing what they believe, because all behavior is based on a belief. Change always starts in the mind! The biblical word for “changing your mind” is repentance. When most people think of the word “repentance,” they think it means to stop doing something. But not a single Greek lexicon defines repentance (metanoia) that way. Repentance means to change your mind. Helping the people you preach to change the way they think is a battle, because they may have held these wrong beliefs for years. Changing them isn’t easy. You don’t change people’s minds.  The applied Word of God does. Paul writes, “When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths” (1 Corinthians 2:13 NLT). The Bible teaches that real preaching isn’t just a matter of intellectual study and the presentation of facts. God is at work within the speaker, and that makes it different. As preachers, we “demolish arguments” (2 Corinthians 10:4). Spiritual warfare isn’t as much about fighting demons as it is about battling ideologies, beliefs, and values. That’s why we’re so exhausted after preaching. We’re not just giving a pep talk. We're battling for the minds of men and women.  Changing the way I act is a result (or fruit) of repentance. Repentance happens in our minds. It’s not about our actions. Repentance doesn’t mean forsaking your sins. It means changing your mind. That's why John the Baptist says, "Produce fruit in keeping with repentance" (Matthew 3:8 NIV). Actions follow beliefs.  Paul echoed this in Acts 20:26 when he said: “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds” (NIV). Deeds are not repentance. Deeds are the proof of repentance.  The deepest preaching is preaching for repentance.  Life application preaching is not shallow preaching. Anytime you teach doctrine without applying it to the lives of listeners, your teaching is shallow. Life change only happens when you challenge someone's thinking. Preaching for repentance is preaching for life change.  Repentance is the central theme of the New Testament. Just look at these verses: John the Baptist: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 3:2 NIV).  Peter: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38 NIV).  Paul: “I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds” (Acts 26:20 NIV).    Jesus: “This is what is written: ‘The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem’” (Luke 24:46-47 NIV). The message of the Bible isn’t information and interpretation—it’s life change.  To produce lasting life change, you must enlighten the mind, engage the emotion, and challenge the will. Many pastors particularly struggle with the third of these—challenging the will. But as a preacher, it’s critical you challenge the will. Every message really comes down to two words. Will you.  Will you do what you were created to do?  You make the challenge, and then you have the courage to wait and let your congregation respond. It takes courage to do that because it’s risky to challenge our congregants. They may reject you. They may walk out on you. People may not like what you ask. But never forget what the Bible says in Proverbs 29:25, "The fear of man will prove to be a snare" (NIV). The moment we worry about what other people think, we’re finished as a teacher. We are no longer a tool in the hand of God because we’re worried about what others will think.  So now what? Over the past two weeks, I’ve shown just how important it is to preach for life change. God wants to help the people in our churches to be Christlike in conviction, character, and conduct. The purpose of preaching is to produce doers of the Word, not just hearers of the Word. Preaching for application isn’t just a matter of preference or style. It’s a matter of obedience. God intended his Word to be used for the changing of lives. Will you repent and never again preach just to communicate information?

Jesus was a do-something preacher. He didn’t want people to just listen to what he said. He wanted them to do something as a result of what he taught them. He said, “Anyone who hears these words of mine and does not obey them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand” (Matthew 7:26 GNT). Other New Testament preachers expected the same. John the Baptist said, “Do the things that show you really have changed your hearts and lives” (Matthew 3:8 NCV). And the apostle Paul instructed Titus to “[tell] believers to live the kind of life that goes along with accurate teachings” (Titus 2:1 GW). It’s not enough to be an accurate teacher of the Bible. You must show your congregation how to live out God’s Word.  So how do you become a do-something preacher? You help your congregation see that they cannot change their behavior without changing what they believe. All behavior is based on a belief. Every action we take, good or bad, is based on what we believe. If we want to change the action, then we must change the belief. Unless we recognize the beliefs driving our thoughts, then we cannot change our minds.  Behind every sin is a lie that we believe. When we are tempted, it’s not something out there that’s the problem. It’s Satan twisting our own desires and thoughts that are already out of order. Your congregation is aware of their sinful behavior—laziness, gossip, greed, etc. They need you to help them see that the battle they are really facing is in their mind. As Paul said, “I love to do God's will so far as my new nature is concerned; but there's something else deep within me that is at war with my mind and it wins the fight and it makes me a slave to the sin within me” (Romans 7:22-23 TLB). Change always starts in the mind. You’ll find this principle throughout the New Testament. Romans 12:2 says, “Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think” (NLT). The way you think determines the way you feel. And the way you feel determines the way you act. If you want people to change the way they act, then don't tell them to “do better.” Help them understand how to identify the belief behind the feeling behind the action.  People will not change their behavior unless they first change their beliefs. The battle with temptation always starts in the mind. If you want people to change to become more like Christ, then you must first help them see the lies they believe about God, about themselves, and about their circumstances.  When Satan wants to tempt us, he tries to get us to doubt what God has said. He whispers to us, “You know what will make you happy more than God does” and, “It’s no big deal; no one will get hurt.” Our self-defeating behaviors are our autopilot mode, where we keep believing Satan’s lies and repeating them to ourselves. Some of our behaviors are the result of a mental rut, where we stopped challenging our thoughts and keep believing them, even though they are based on a lie.  We’ve got to turn off the autopilot. How do you help people identify the lies they believe and change their minds? You point them to God’s Word. We separate truth from lies by holding what we think up to the light of Scripture. “We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:2 NIV). We’ll continue to talk next week about how to become a do-something preacher by helping people obey God’s Word and God’s Spirit. Until then, how will you apply these truths to your own life? Next week, I’ll share five more tips about how you can become a do-something preacher.