With the New Year upon us, it is a great time to examine ourselves and make plans to start this brand new year with some renewed personal commitments or resolutions. More than likely, you will have seen or be familiar with most of the suggestions from our list. As a pastor, I am sure that you understand that making commitments or resolutions are serious business. The Scripture warns us against making vows unto God and subsequently breaking them (Ecclesiastes 5:4-5).
(Ecclesiastes 5:4-5) “When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay.” (KJV)
It is the prayer and desire of The Working Pastor that you have a great New Year. We hope that there will be at least one suggestion from this lengthy list that will help you become a better pastor and spiritual leader. It should be noted that we, in no way, claim this list to be exhaustive nor do we feel that it is strictly for a pastor’s use only.
101 New Year’s Resolutions For The Pastor!
Concerning Prayer
1) To spend 1/2 hour more each day in worshipful prayer.
2) To purpose that each prayer session be an encounter with the Lord Jesus not ritualistic in form.
3) To start giving thanks for at least one answered prayer prior to asking for something.
4) To seek out other people and teach them to pray.
5) To begin each day with a season of prayer and singing before beginning the day’s chores.
6) To fervently pray for those we have issues with rather than mention their actions to another soul.
7) To pray for direction and wisdom concerning God’s Will rather than make decisions on a whim, spur of the moment and/or from our own inclinations.
8) To pray for revival in our hearts, family, church, local community and country.
9) To pray for the leaders of our nation.
10) To make prayer our priority, not our pass-time!
Concerning Personal Devotions
11) To spend a greater portion of our day in Bible reading.
12) To seek to be marked by our Bibles rather than to simply mark in them.
13) To keep a journal of each day’s activities and record answers to prayer.
14) To guard our personal time from intrusion from other non-essentials like the checking of email and Facebook games.
15) To find a way to incorporate the memorizing of a verse a week into our devotion time.
16) To endeavor to grow closer to the Lord Jesus by trying to apply the Scriptures we study each day into our lives.
17) To memorize the 66 books of the Bible.
Concerning Family
18) To have family devotions every day at a set time.
19) To spend more quality time with your spouse.
20) To spend more quality time with your children especially if they are under age.
21) To seek out more opportunities to be with your children if they have grown up and are out of the house.
22) To spend more time in prayer for and with your children’s decisions in their service for the Lord Jesus.
23) To endeavor to leave a godly legacy rather than mere riches and material possessions.
24) To seek more ways to serve your spouse, rather than always “take”.
25) Take time to speak with your family members and let them know how proud you are of them.
26) Never let a day go by that you do not tell a loved one that you love them.
27) Stay close to those distant family members and endeavor to stay in touch with them often.
28) Share answers to prayers with family members as well as prayer requests.
Concerning Evangelism
29) To seek to be spirit-filled BEFORE attempting to witness for Christ.
30) To endeavor to pass out at least 5 gospel tracts a day.
31) To try and take your family out visiting with you at least once a month.
32) Take your wife out visiting with you more during the week; if possible.
33) To study from a spiritual mentor, who is experienced in soul-winning, and try to use their strategies in evangelism.
34) Memorize Scriptures that are related to soul-winning and evangelism so as to help you while spreading the gospel.
35) Seek to win one person a month to Christ and begin to disciple them.
36) Be sure to leave a gospel tract on the table when leaving a restaurant.
37) Before leaving anyone’s home, be sure to ask if they know of others who need prayer and or a visit.
38) Buy a full page ad in your local newspaper presenting the Plan of Salvation.
39) Seek to do an “Operation Saturation Project” in your community this year.
40) Never leave your house or church without gospel tracts in you pocket.
Concerning Pulpit Ministry
41) To be more prayed up BEFORE entering the pulpit.
42) To preach with more passion for your people and their needs.
43) To give 1000 percent when preaching this year… acting as if each time you preached would be your last opportunity!
44) Seek to preach more in a simple and understandable way.
45) Seek to guard the pulpit from becoming a “Bully Pulpit”.
46) To be sure that the messages given are exalting Christ and not man.
47) To preach whatever God lays upon your heart… regardless of the topic!
48) Seek to preach the gospel rather than majoring on political issues.
49) Make sure that you or whoever preaches behind the pulpit God gives you, does nothing that would bring shame and reproach upon it’s dignity or Christ’s name.
Concerning Your Congregation
50) Take advantage of every opportunity you have to convey the fact that you love and appreciate them.
51) Be more forgiving with your congregation when they do things that you do not agree with.
52) Spend more constructive time in fellowship with your flock.
53) Give your full attention to individual members when they speak with you… no matter how busy you are. Stay focused!
54) Send a letter of encouragement to each member from time to time.
55) Encourage your church family to give you ideas for ministry and such. People like to feel like they are contributing to what you are doing.
Concerning Missions
56) Take on a new missionary.
57) Visit one of your missionaries unannounced with a group from your church.
58) Call a missionary who is seeking support, which has not called you before, and give him a meeting with you.
59) Take up a special love offering for a missionary.
60) Seek to find an avenue to encourage a missionary’s wife and children.
61) Have congregation pray over a map of the world and seek to support missionaries on the continent that the church feels God is leading them to work on.
62) To be sure your missions program is not an appendage, but a vital part of your local church.
63) Have a Missions Conference, if you have not had one before or in a long time.
64) Seek to honor a veteran missionary with an award or something while he or she is on a furlough.
65) Involve more of your key people in the missions program in some way!
Concerning Personal Health
66) Do not be or stop being a glutton.
67) Seek to be in the best physical health as possible so you can be a sharper tool in the ministry.
68) Get adequate sleep.
69) Exercise more. Just going door to door soul-winning will keep you in good shape!
70) Don’t lose your testimony by over eating and abusing the body God has given you to serve Him with.
Concerning Sin
71) Be a friend to sinners, but don’t join them!
72) Seek to get victory of the sin that easily gets you.
73) Stop laughing at sin and start hating it like you used to!
74) Stay away from every appearance of evil.
75) Have compassion for the sinner… don’t hate him/her.
76) Don’t be harder on someone else’ sin than you are about yours.
78) Stop living a life that provides and arena of temptation.
79) Don’t excuse your sin, but rather admit it and confess it!
Concerning The Discipleship Of New Converts & Baby Christians
80) Lead by example, and not by word only.
81) Seek out one person to focus most of your time on and try to develop them and then duplicate the process.
82) Pray for each of your new converts EVERY day!
83) If possible, start a Sunday School class just for the new converts and baby Christians to get them grounded.
84) Help your new people find their spiritual gifts.
85) As you can, try to involve them a in ministry so they can develop their spiritual gifts.
86) Have devotions with them and allow them to ask questions.
87) Hold your people accountable and teach them to be faithful.
Concerning Your Personal Library
88) Try to save money just for purchasing books.
89) As with choosing friends, choose your books wisely.
90) Seek to be well rounded by buying good Christian biographies as well as commentaries, etc.
91) Don’t waste money by buying everything you see, just buy the books which God leads you to purchase.
92) Take better care of your books by keeping them in a good storage climate.
93) Make your personal library available to your congregation.
94) Don’t be selfish, give good books away to people whom you think God will use. Invest in their ministry!
Concerning Your Secular Job
95) Have a better testimony at work this year!
96) Give more than a day’s work for a day’s pay.
97) Seek to minister to the people you work with as if they were members of your congregation.
98) Be on time and faithful to work.
99) Guard against frivolous talk and bad humor.
100) Be positive at work and someone folks like to be around.
101) Be an employee that you think God would be proud of!
Related articles
- Do You Know Jacob Knapp? (ministry127.com)
- How to Pray for Pastors (ministry127.com)
- Tracts – Some Amazing Numbers! (ifbkjv.com)
