2008 - A Year in Review

Now that we're into 2009, it's time for me to review the commitments I made on January 1st of 2008:

I'm going to copy that blog entry here and then comment on each goal.

Personal
Jog 12 miles per week, although I need to fix my treadmill first
I don't know what my total mileage was but in July I started training for the KC 1/2 marathon, doing about 20 miles a week. I've kept jogging since then but not at the same pace.
Do my ab workout on the running off days I might have done two ab workout - FAIL!
Finally get to 3 plates on my bench press and 4 plates on my box squat D
Frustratingly, I didn't this goal. I'm still suck at benching 315, can't hit the 320 I want to make. My squat is still about 50 pounds away from my goal, too. Running the half marathon hurt me in this goal and although losing weight through running was nice (I've put most of it back on) I still wish I could've hit those goals.
Spend 3 hours per week in personal Bible study
I hit this goal - right on. With the exception of vacation days, I spent half an hour each day in personal prayer and Bible reading. It was a total of 149.5 hours.
Begin studying French I audited a French class at MNU. It was a TON of work, though I learned a lot. But I also know I barely scratched the surface of the language in just those 3 1/2 months. It was fun, I'd like to learn more in the future. I thought about writing a paragraph in French to impress everyone, but I'm too lazy.
Attend some sort of coaching training event Completed this in January but I didn't get to coach this fall.
Read the Bible with my wife before going to bed Did this fairly regularly, more regular than any other time period in our lives.
Fast every week from Monday noon to Tuesday noon Didn't always do this on these days, but I did fast a 24 hour period every week but the week of Christmas.

Pastoral
I've decided it's time to stop worry about things that are out of my control and to actually let God be in control of His church. This means that I'm going to entrust God with growing TF numerically so I can focus on growing people. There are two groups of people in which I'll be investing most of my time: our Advisory Council and the unchurched people God has entrusted us with. With that in mind, here are my specific goals.
Redesign the structure of our Advisory Council so we have leaders over each of the 5. Finish this by spring We've got 4 of the 5 leaders, with the 5th waiting in the wings.
Personally invest in the new people who were previously unchurched (I have a list on my desk)
This hasn't happened as systematically as I would've hoped, but I have discipled a handful of previously unchurched people this year.
Spend 3 hours per week in prayer for TF. Yep, did that. Enjoyed the "coincidences" that happen when we pray.
Find more ways to emphasize the 5 during Sunday morning worship Sort of did that, we're still taking as a Point Team about how to give periodic updates to the church.
Read 1 chapter a day of a ministry related book. I didn't do this every day, but I read a lot of books. See the book list on the right of my blog.
Equip the church for personal Bible study (coming this Sunday) or as the pastor from whom I heard of this plan called it, "develop a self-feeding program." We did this but I don't know how successful we were. It was our SOAP readings. I know some people read them periodically but how consistently and what was the result, I'm not sure. How do we measure that?
Focus on our Fave Five (coming soon) We did that for awhile, then it lost momentum and I didn't know how to get the momentum going again. I do know that my fave-five list had to change as some on the list gave their lives to Christ. One of the families I discipled this year was on someone else's Fave Five list.

That's the review for 08. I've got a few goals for 09 but they're of a different nature than the above goals. I'm still working through them and will post on it soon.