The New Year is around the corner, and with it, the natural bent toward new starts, new plans, new intentions. Some of us have a principle-based aversion to New Year’s resolutions, while others see the new calendar year as an opportunity to explore something different or try something new. Without making any kind of statement about the pros and cons of action plans for the new year, I thought I’d pass along some ideas on developing new habits of listening to Jesus. My hope is to start a conversation about how we can lean in to Jesus’ counsel as we move into a new year.

We don’t live in a time when God’s sending has been paused. God’s sending doesn’t stop until the world is renewed. The Father sent Jesus to the world to reconcile us to Himself and Jesus has sent us to carry on His reconciling mission of seeking and saving the lost until the Father sends Him again to bring His final righteous judgment and then the renewal of all creation.

What if you had information that could truly be transformational in understanding your church and its function? What if it provided a key to unlock and unleash your church for greater Kingdom impact?

When it comes to our church’s engagement in Alliance Missions, how do we know if we are engaging well? How do we know if we have succeeded, so to speak, in helping our church to be a part of the global work?

In reality, from our very beginning, the Alliance has been a church planting movement. We have proved it over and over again around the world. On every continent except Antartica, the Alliance has preached the gospel, made disciples, planted churches and equipped leaders for those churches. How do we know when our work is complete?

In our day-to-day life in ministry, it is easy to avoid those kind of questions. People have needs. The church has needs. Sunday is coming with an unrelenting frequency. In the process of helping others experience God, have you lost yourself? Have you lost your own intimacy with God?

In his time on this earth, Jesus had a knack for speaking to issues that were much deeper than what seemed obvious on the surface. He often did this by juxtaposing the values of the Kingdom of God with the values of the current culture. As he did this it would often move people to question and response as to which value was the true value for life.

When Jesus looked at the crowds, He had compassion on them because He saw that they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:36) What do the people of your church feel when they look at their friends, neighbors and coworkers? Are they compelled with compassion?

It is the Gospel that propels us to lead with passion and purpose, to equip the saints, to make disciples who make disciples, to develop others into kingdom minded leaders, to lead with love, to serve with compassion, and so much more. Without the gospel, it is easy to slip into management mode or lead out of performance or achievement.

Sometimes it may seem easier to avoid talking about things that could cause discomfort, awkwardness, or disagreement. But humble, thoughtful dialogue has the potential to result in new insight and freedom.

I’m grateful for the openness in our family of churches to have these kinds of conversations around important biblical subjects, like prophesy.

God has invited us to participate in bringing His blessing to the nations. When we focus on our reception and experience of God's blessing, not only are we tempted to withhold blessing from others, we also miss out on the blessing of giving the blessing. Instead of a win-win, we are setting up a lose-lose. This is why I believe that church planting is not meant to be something wonderful and extra that we do. It is meant to be the normal fruit of everything we do.

I have been back to Cambodia four times since then and I still connect with the friends I made on that first trip nearly a decade ago. I have witnessed the saving power of the gospel and also the transforming power of the gospel in those we ministered to and in the team members who traveled from our church.

Our hope for this year’s district conference is to display the glory of a gospel-shaped life, a life that is personally, relationally and vocationally transformed. We long for a district full of kingdom workers who are saturated and shaped by the gospel.

One of the six ways we develop Kingdom workers for increasing Gospel impact in the Eastern PA District of the Alliance is in the prophetic. Some might maybe ask the question, why do we believe increasing Gospel impact depends on people being developed in the prophetic?

But what he needed in that moment was not just good advice, he needed the Good News of Jesus. He needed the Gospel. This is because the Gospel is not only the message that saves us, it’s the truth that transforms us.

In a world of noise, Jesus calls us to a place of freedom, rooted in Gospel faith which empowers us to love well. We don’t have to live swinging on the pendulum of fix it or forget it.

For the leadership development area of leadership, we like to say, “Loving Shepherds Lead”. It should be our desire as we follow Christ’s example to lead out of a heart overflowing with love for those under our care and for the task at hand.

Whatever the reason, as pastors and church leaders, we cannot allow ourselves to be content with the hesitancy our people have to share their hope in Jesus. It wasn’t just to leaders that Peter wrote, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” He wrote these words to encourage all believers to talk about the hope they have in Jesus and to be ready to explain it.

I for one am grateful that God has put it on the heart of our district leadership for Eastern PA to be all about “developing kingdom workers for increasing Gospel impact.” I am especially excited that one of the areas we focus on with that development is relationships!