Transcript
A (0:00)
And what I do is actually every year, and this is my encouragement to every person that's listening right now, is that you need to start the year off with, I'm going to go find some models, I'm going to go look at some churches, find some best practices, and I'm going to implement some of that stuff. I still do that.
B (0:20)
Hey, everybody, and welcome to the Grow Leader Podcast, where we grow leaders that grow churches by helping them reach their full potential. So glad to have you with us today. And happy 2020 25, which just feels.
C (0:31)
Weird to say that out loud.
A (0:32)
Man, I love it. I'm so excited about this new year. And of course, we're in day two of 21 Days of Prayer. I hope everybody's joining us in that if you're not too late, it's not too late to get involved in some praying and fasting. But, man, yeah, I'm excited.
C (0:46)
The beginning of the year should be the most exciting time for a leader. I mean, you're looking ahead, right? Getting ready. I know you love this time of year. You've been talking about it for weeks.
A (0:55)
Yeah. Because in some way, I mean, honestly, God will do this for you all the time, but in some way it gives you that, that fresh start. By the way, God's willing to give you that any day you ask him, which makes him so wonderful. But I love the idea of just, hey, clean slate, fresh start, all things new. In fact, that's our word of the year is, I believe this is the year of new beginnings, spiritually, in your marriage, in your personal life, and of course in your leadership too. And the question is, if you had a blank slate, if you had a clean page, how would you write it? And I think this is the opportunity to do that. I've already gone through that process the last couple of weeks, the to think through, pray through, you know, my initiatives, my growth ideas for the new year. And now I'm praying them through. So I like, once you have them in your heart and your mind. Now we have this season of prayer where we commit them to God because as the proverb says, there's no plan that succeeds outside of the plan of the Lord. So wanna make sure this is not my idea, but it's God's idea and then it's to cover it and bathe it in prayer. And so I'm excited about it in every way. And I wanna encourage everybody too, for a minute, Matt, just on the idea of starting the year with a tithe of your time, so to speak, where we Give God the first few days of the year to seek his face and to pray and to fast. And if you don't know much about fasting, we have loads of resources. I think most of you pastors have been taught this, but if you've not, if you've never been involved in praying and fasting, you're missing out, honestly, on the best way to start a new year. I'm 61 years old and I've been starting the first 21 days with prayer and fasting since I was 19 years old. So this is what I. What can I do in the math? I think this is my.
