Instead of Resolutions…Try Church!

I gave up on New Year Resolutions a long time ago.  I just never found it helpful to set myself up for disappointment every year.  Will I eat better this year?  I sure hope so!  But I am probably not done with my large cokes from McDonalds anytime soon.  Will I exercise more this year?  Well, the dogs will still need to be walked and I plan to be there to walk them.  So, yes?

Ultimately the problem is that resolutions are often done in our own power.  But if will power were always effective to change habits, we would all have different habits.  What we need is not resolutions done in isolation, what we need is a new community to surround ourselves with. What we need are not just new priorities for our life, but new people in our lives. 

Instead of trying to get healthy overnight, why not start by surrounding ourselves with healthy people?  Instead of trying a new gym, wouldn't it help to find a friend and commit to the gym together?  Solomon says a threefold cord is not easily broken.  Community makes a difference.  But where can we find a community of people with a common goal who are seeking to make progress in their life and meet regularly enough to provide accountability?  

The Local Church.

Don't stop reading yet.  Hear me out!  You might think my position gives me a biased view of the whole institution.  But that couldn't be further from the truth!  Being a pastor has given me a unique vantage point of the dysfunctional community God has created.

Like any family gathering, the local church is full of messy people.  Uncle Tim has lots of opinions and doesn't know when to keep it to himself.  Aunt Karen often walks a different life from the one she talks about.  It is essential to remember that the church is a place for people seeking to make progress, not people who have arrived.  Part of the journey forward will include having to navigate life with broken people. 

The pathway to the wholeness you long for isn't meant to be sought in isolation.  Rather, the path to life and health and healing is one where we must walk locked arm and arm with others walking the same direction.  Only a deep community provides the power for lasting change.

Jesus’ first invitation to his disciples was, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19).  Jesus promised to transform fragmented followers into a family of fishers of men. Jesus wasn't calling his followers to an isolated personal relationship, but rather to a community transformation project.  The local church is the place for that transformation.  It is where we follow Him, together, that we might be made into something new.

In 2025, you don't have to do it alone.  To grow upward and inward you must begin by reaching outward.  Forget the resolutions and instead seek reconnection.  The local church is ready and waiting!

So this New Year, why try the same failed life improvement strategy and expect different results?  Go against the grain and try the time tested institution for life transformation.  Connect to life in a local church where challenging truth is shared, community is taken seriously, and “works in progress” are welcomed.  Start by asking someone you know for a recommendation; they will welcome it and let you sit with them!  I know our church would love to have you as would many in our community. 

The church is called to be a city on the hill shining light into dark places.  It is called to speak hope into desperate places.  God has created a community of nobodies trying to everybody about the Somebody who can make all the difference.  In 2025 let's join the church in shining and hoping and feasting together.