2024 is winding down. A lot happened. A lot I wanted to happen didn't. There were successes and failures. And, as usual, I learned more from the valleys than the mountain tops.
Early last year, I started the Hippie Preacher podcast and blog. It's been amazing. Though my content quantity goals were too optimistic, the response and engagement have been encouraging. And just when it kicked off... so did the wheels on our financial bus...
In 2020, someone blessed us with a 2001 Volvo station wagon. It was a miracle and kept us going - though admittedly there was often duct tape involved. It kept us going until... last spring. It died, we prayed, and God supplied more than a car.
While we didn't have the resources at the time to make it happen, God did and a 2020 Hyundai Kona showed up in our driveway - and brought with it a new potential source of income. And suddenly the hippie dude was an Uber driver.
I've written about some of the disciple-making opportunities that have come about doing ride-share with Jesus - probably should publish more. I'm learning that being a disciple-maker isn't dependent on your vocation. It IS a Jesus follower's vocation!
But it's also difficult for me to make a living and also be a full-time disciple-maker. But you are a pastor? Don't you get paid for this? Not much, the way we do things now. That's not a complaint. I wouldn't go back to doing the whole consumer church thing - even for a salary.
And this is not pointing fingers at anyone else. There are some great churches doing great things with what we walked away from. I only have to answer for what God has called us to do. Nothing more, nothing less. I love to preach. I love technology and all the bells and whistles of modern worship. But when you believe God says, stop it. You stop it.
2024 has been quite a roller coaster ride in all departments. My wife Tangi's health, finances, people we love walking away, new people following Jesus - miraculous provision and ever-looming deficits. It really has been the best of times and the worst of times.
As this year winds down, it's becoming more and more clear that God is still molding and refining me. I'm so thankful for the struggles as they reveal more and more of my own faults and failures that I would have never seen otherwise. And this year, the Way has become more narrow for me than ever before.
Whether it's a blog, podcast, job, pastoring or just being human - my priorities should be the same. Love God. Love people. Make disciples. So here's some of my personal inventory.
Did I Really Love God, People, and Make Disciples with Everything in 2024, and How Can I Do Better in 2025?
I could bore you with the details I like to pat myself on the back about. It's really easy to be that religious guy praying and bragging about all the stuff you do for God. You know, not like "those" (insert label here). But the truth is, in the final stretch of my 58th year, in many ways, I'm still running the wrong race - and sometimes in circles.
My biggest issue still being dealt with? Pride. Plain ol' stinking pride.
You see, pride takes credit and blame - when in fact, if there is anything good, then God gets all the credit, and anything bad? It's all the fault of sin. But we all take credit for the good, and sometimes ignore our own sin because it's much easier to point out the sin of others. It even makes your own good stuff feel more good and righteous.
New Year's resolutions are great - but Jesus didn't say we would be known by our goals, but by our fruit.
So let's inspect some 2024 fruit. Fruit of the Spirit first. How did you do this year? What would your friends say? What about your enemies?
Love
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self Control
Not all of my dirty laundry needs to be public, but admittedly I need work in the joy department for sure - and there's a reason self-control is last on the list. That's the foundation all other Fruit depends on. If you can't deny and control your own selfishness - game over.
And selfishness is simply - pride. Here's how diabolical that is. Had a phone call this morning that really enlightened me.
If you hang around me for a while, you'll hear about Kingdom priorities. If you want to know where your priorities are, look at your calendar and spending habits. But even those can be deceptive and selfish. Bearing spiritual Fruit isn't about your to-do list, it's about who writes your to-do list. Your flesh? Your passions? Your desires?
Galatians 5:24-26 (NET)
24 Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave in accordance with the Spirit.
26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, being jealous of one another.
Where do conceit, conflict, and jealousy come from? Pride. As I look to 2025, this is the anti "pride" question I'm asking.
God, am I asking you to bless my plans, or am I seeking your plan the Jesus Way? And here's part of the answer so far...
"STOP REDEFINING WORDS TO IGNORE YOUR OWN DISOBEDIENCE!"
What? What words?
"Church. Disciple. Pastor."
Huh? I just taught about from "church" to Ekklesia.
"But what did you start? What do you do now? Ekklesia or church?"
... uhh. But... I... well we need... and... oh man. You mean we still aren't there yet?
"Not even close, but closer."
Well, I've been saying that it looks like I'll need to stop pastoring to be a successful disciple-maker.
"But you haven't stopped."
Well no - because I'm called to be a pa...
"Disciple-making shepherd. Not the CEO of a church."
But how?
"Stop redefining words like the world does. Stop putting things on your calendar first then asking Me to bless it."
And here's how deceptive that trap is. When we take the Kingdom context out of the words we use, then it's easy to miss the Kingdom while thinking you are in it!
It's easy to say you go to church. But if you aren't sold out for Jesus and gathering with other called-out Jesus followers for the purpose of living out all that Jesus said to do - that's just "church" - not Eklessia.
I can say that I'm a pastor, but if what I am doing isn't making disciples that make disciples then most of my time gets sucked up trying to plant good seed among life's weeds and thorns of the non-fruitful heart soils of the parable in Matthew 13.
Matthew 13:22-23 (NET)
22 The seed sown among thorns is the person who hears the word, but worldly cares and the seductiveness of wealth choke the word, so it produces nothing.
23 But as for the seed sown on good soil, this is the person who hears the word and understands. He bears fruit, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.”
That's the first change for 2025. Stop trying to make Ekklesia out of "church." It's not by just changing the wording, but prioritizing the purpose of why we are called to gather together. To BE disciples and to make disciples. Period.
Next, not letting my titles and modern culture define my role. I saw another pastor's post about how difficult it is to be friends with people on church teams who don't get along with each other. Been there done that. But let's talk about how words and their definitions matter.
"As a pastor, it's difficult when team members don't like each other but you are friends with both sides."
Or…
"As a disciple-maker, it's difficult when your disciples don't like each other but you are discipling them anyway."
Jesus was a friend to sinners and religious types alike. But He only discipled those who were willing to give up everything to follow Him.
Until a "friend" makes that no-compromise commitment to follow Jesus and obey his commands, you can try to disciple them all you want - and it's just never going to happen. What will happen is the discomfort of the weeds and thorns will lead to hurt feelings, gossip, complaining, division and eventually walking away. i.e. the rich young ruler.
It still amazes me how few people will commit to an extra hour a week to be trained as a disciple-maker. It also amazes me how many people can show up to church each week and yet never give to or serve others.
Here's the church planter solution - just reach more people. It takes about 200 attenders to get the few contributors who will support the infrastructure to keep the lights on for the 200.
I know how to do that. There are books and courses and organizations that will help too. It works. In the last 30 years the methods have been refined to launch larger and larger new churches. Meanwhile - 75 to 100 churches fail each week. Thousands a year. And even with all the new churches, church attendance nationally is still in a tailspin.
But how did Jesus build Ekklesia? It wasn't a mega church even though at times thousands followed Him. Jesus poured into twelve disciples - full time. That's how the Kingdom works.
My mistake is that I've been focusing on people's potential, not their fruit. I've tried discipling more than 12, but not with lasting results. The problem isn't that I'm trying to disciple too many - but too few. I don't have 12 disciple-makers that I'm discipling now. Disciple-making doesn't make people fruitful - it reveals fruit and the lack thereof.
And so, here are my 30,000-foot New Year's resolutions for 2025. Stop using the wrong words the wrong way. Kingdom definitions only. And stop trying to disciple potential stuck in the weeds and thorns of life. Instead, look for fruit that's growing without weeds. That's the disciple-makers. That's who Jesus focused on.
Other than that? I have to make a better living somehow. Maybe it's driving passengers. Maybe it's something else. Maybe it's a continued string of daily miracles like 2024. But here's the thing - my hope is to seek the Kingdom first, above all else - make disciples - and get out of these weeds and thorns.
2024 was a year of weeds. May 2025 be a year of Good News seeds growing fruitfully!
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