Stop Doing in 2008

1. Admin for the church (Andy Whitworth is coming on board for that...yeah God!)
2. Time-wasters (the 80% of the jobs that only get 20% results)

Focus

I've been intrigued with the notion of a "Stop Doing" list ever since I first heard the concept a few years ago. What do I need to stop doing with my precious 1440 minutes per day in order to have time for what is most important?

Add to that Andy Stanley's "Less is more" idea (The secret to concentration is elimination), and there's a huge challenge to me to stop doing many things so I can do the few things that really matter.

As part of my thinking for how we gear the church (and my role) to grow to 600, I came up with the four (only four) things that I am called to do:

1. Hear from God
2. Preach the Word
3. Lead the Staff
4. Cast C4 Vision


Next post: Candidates for my "Stop Doing" list for 2008

New Year's Resolutions

I love fresh starts, especially the new year.

I'm working on my resolutions for this years...here's a few I'm thinking about so far:

1. Reading (25 books this year???)
2. Exercising (10000 steps a day)
3. Preaching Prep - sermon outline by Thursday noon
4. Blogging - 3 times per week
5. Kids - strategic time every day
6. Scripture Reading - NT, Psalms, Proverbs - 5 days per week

Why I want to Blog in 2008, Part 2

2008 marks five years of service at Peachtree Church. The elders and I put a sabbatical policy in place about three years ago which provides for a short summer sabbatical to rest, renew, and recharge after five years of service.

I've been dreaming for a year now about what I would do with my sabbatical time, and I was pretty set on a serious study of the life of Paul including a Footsteps of Paul trip.

But God has blessed me with something that will be just what I want/need and is going to be far cheaper. I applied for and received a free two week trip to Israel for April 2008 specifically for renewal.

I'm really excited about this, and am just blown away by the Grace of God that He would allow me to travel back to the Holy Land. My first trip six years ago was the trip of a lifetime.

So, I want to blog about my time on that trip this year.

Why I want to Blog in 2008, Part 1

God is blessing me with some incredible opportunities in 2008; I'm VERY excited, and look forward to sharing them here.

In January (9-20), Katie and I are travelling to Thailand as ambassadors from Peachtree to encourage and assist a dear missionary friend our church sends.

This will be my first overseas mission trip since I was married and the first Katie and I have been privileged to go on together.

I'm looking forward to what God will do for His global glory, and I'm anxious to have my vision for missions expanded and ignited.

Blogging in 2008

I love the idea of blogging. Most of all, I think it is incredible that I could have a journal of my whole life...the highs and lows, all on the web and forever searchable. What an awesome testimony of my life with Christ to be able to see what what I was thinking a year ago, three years ago...wow!

Just think of the legacy that I could leave for my children to know what their dad was thinking and how he was growing at different stages of life.

The problem I've always had is that I usually fret over whether a thought is lofty enough to put out there.

Three things just intersected my life at the right time, though, so I'm excited to try my hand at blogging fresh for 2008.

The first thing is that I always love making new habits and new year's resolutions at the end/beginning of a year, and Blogging was one thing I was thinking about getting serious about.

The second thing was I just read a quote that said, "Don't blog for the world; blog for yourself."

That's what I needed; permission for my blog to be my quick unedited thoughts, not a polished complete analysis of whatever thought I'm having at the moment.

The third I'll save for the next post.

If you want to join me from time to time to see what I'm thinking, I'd love for you to join me.