Pastors' Personal Goals: More Prayer, Less Junk Food
Although sometimes refraining from calling them "New Year's resolutions," pastors and ministry leaders openly shared their personal goals for 2012.
Through the use of primarily Twitter and Facebook, Christian leaders often linked to their blog posts in which they detailed in serious and sometimes humorous fashion about what they would like to accomplish.
The Christian Post also contacted leaders to ask about their "resolutions" for 2012.
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Will Graham, eldest son of Franklin Graham, and the assistant director of the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove in Asheville, N.C., told The Christian Post that he wants to continue looking to his grandfather as an example.
"There were two big pieces of advice that my grandfather, Billy Graham, gave me when I began my evangelistic ministry," Graham wrote in an email to CP. "Those nuggets of advice were 1) Pray, pray, pray; and 2) Study, study, study. He said that those were the two things he wished he had done more of during his active ministry.
"That has been very convicting to me because any time I've ever gone to see my grandfather he was either praying, studying God's word, or watching Larry King Live. (He loved watching Larry King and learning more about other people around the world.)"
Graham continued, "He told me that he and his team could have done so much more for the Kingdom of Christ had they spent more time in prayer and in the Bible and took fewer speaking engagements. While I'm not a big fan of making New Year's Resolutions, I guess I would say that mine is to follow my grandfather's guidance and spend more time in prayer and more time in God's Word, especially as I'm sharing the Hope of the Savior with people around the world."
Pastors.com editor and church planter Brandon Cox is looking to be more careful with his physical health this new year. His personal goal, he told CP, is: "To be heart-healthy (no more chocolate-covered beef jerky)."
When talking about plans for Grace Hills Church in Rogers, Ark., he said he would like to continue his launch of Grace Hills as "a church with a strong footprint in the community and celebrate a lot of genuine life change."
Pastor Jim Dixon, who along with his wife lead a marriage ministry, said he wants to continue focusing on helping other couples whose relationship needs restoration.
"The only New Year's resolution I've ever kept is one I made several years ago not to make any more New Year's Resolutions," Dixon wrote to CP. "On the other hand, my goal for the coming year is to surrender more and more of me to Him and fulfill His calling on our (my wife and me) lives."
Living Waters ministry leader Ray Comfort, meanwhile, said he wants to continue evangelizing through his 33-minute documentary-style video, "180." The controversial anti-abortion video was released in September and distributed for free at colleges and high schools, and is available online.
"We will continue to promote 180movie.com because it's not just a pro-life movie – it is a pro-everlasting life movie," Comfort messaged CP. "It has had nearly 2 million views (averaging 21,489 views per day). We have an exciting (secret) plan to get that to 200 million before the end of 2012."
Pastor and online evangelist Kevin Martineau, who leads a church on Northern Vancouver Island, British Columbia in Canada, was a bit more traditional in talking about his New Year's resolution.
"My focus for 2012 is going to be on my overall health – physically, emotionally and spiritually. I want to push myself further in these areas. I don't want to settle for the status quo," he told CP.
