New Year's Resolutions for Ministry Leaders to Consider

The year is winding down and a new year is kicking off soon. Say goodbye to 2025 and hello 2026! So what should ministry leaders (and anyone else for that matter) think about making new year’s resolutions? Should we make them at all? Are they helpful? How should we think about this biblically?

These words from the Apostle Peter tell us that believers should be intentional about making progress in faith and fruitfulness: “...make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love” (2 Peter 1:5-7). He says, “make every effort,” “increasing” (v. 8), and “be all the more diligent” (v. 10). How can we “make every effort” and “be all the more diligent”?

Jonathan Edwards, eighteenth-century pastor, theologian, and president of Princeton, provides us with a great example. When he was eighteen, Edwards wrote his Seventy Resolutions. His dependence clearly was not on human-empowered grit and determination; rather it was on God’s grace. “Being sensible,” he wrote, “that I am unable to do anything without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him by his grace to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to his will, for Christ’s sake.” His seventy resolutions fall into these categories: life mission, good works, time management, relationships, suffering, character, and spiritual life.

If by God’s grace you are inclined to make new year’s resolutions, consider using these thoughts from 2 Peter and Jonathan Edwards as guides. How can you “make every effort”; what “virtue” (moral goodness) could you focus on developing; what knowledge should you pursue; what self-control or discipline should you cultivate; in what way could you grow in godliness, brotherly affection, or love? Like Jonathan Edwards focused effort on his seven categories, the following three areas would be great places for any ministry leader (or anyone) to begin making resolutions: marriage, mind, and ministry.

In your marriage, how can you make every effort to honor God and your spouse?

• Spend ______ time together in conversation. Discuss how your marriage can grow.

• Sit at your table, without phones, for a meal together at least once daily.

• Show affection verbally and physically two times daily.

• Go to bed at the same time and pray aloud together.

• Designate time each week for a date, just the two of you.

In your mind, what virtue, knowledge, and godliness should be cultivated?

• Devote at least 30 minutes daily for uninterrupted time in the Word and prayer.

• Memorize and meditate daily on a chapter of Scripture (consider Psalm 1, Romans 6 or 8).

• Restrict or eliminate time scrolling on your phone/social media.

• Write and create things yourself, without using AI.

In your ministry, how can you “be all the more diligent”?

• Pick one of your ministry areas and read 5 recommended books that will help you grow in it.

• Ask 3 trusted leaders, outside of your church, how they have grown in this area.

• Ask 3 trusted leaders from your church for prayer and input on how to grow in this area.

• Designate a journal where you record the rich nuggets from the above efforts.

Write your resolutions down in your journal and talk about them with your spouse and/or a trusted friend. Ask them to help you make them SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Review your resolutions frequently, asking God for His help to make progress in faith and fruitfulness.