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How to prepare your congregation for the new year 🎇
Preaching beyond New Year’s Resolutions
Contrary to popular belief, not everyone in your church will have a resolution about their finances, marriage, health, or family come the new year. Some don’t make any at all.
Yet the trend tends to be to preach on goals and ambitions for the new year — how to better manage them, what to avoid, what to focus on, etc. — in an effort to be relevant.
We’re not saying that’s a bad thing.
But the real topic that we should be checking in on is how we can recalibrate our relationship with God going into the new year.
If we start out with a mindset turned towards spiritual health and growth, all those other goals (or non-goals) tend to sort themselves out along the way.
Expand your idea of what it means to set goals
Though many set goals for the new year as the new year makes its debut, others may have an on-the-go approach to resolutions. Maybe they set goals quarterly, or monthly. Some may even go week by week.
Expanding your idea of what it means to set goals can speak to a wider range of people in your community, and avoid forcing round pegs into square boxes.
From there, you can lean into what it means to set spiritual goals and how financial goals tie into that pursuit.
For example, if someone feels called to stop engaging in Bible studies and instead learn only directly from the Bible, there are a number of ways to accomplish that.
Helping your flock see the possibilities of expanding their relationship with God can help set them off on the right foot in the new year ahead.
Recognize the potential for financial hardship after the holidays (without being presumptive)
It’s true that overspending is a common issue around Christmas time, especially in the United States. That said, preaching in a way that shames or breeds guilt can do more harm than good.
The focus should be on how not to end up in that place again next year, not hammering in the mistakes of the current holiday season—we all make poor financial decisions sometimes.
Offering encouragement and guidance instead of condemnation alone is more likely to inspire real change and reflection.
What do you typically respond best to? The odds are that shaming and blaming don’t make the list.
Helping your community feel empowered to do better and rebound after hardship is a far better way to discuss the issue of poor financial decisions.
Action Items:
Talk about money the way the Bible talks about money
Give, save, spend. That’s how the Bible talks about money — in that order. In a worldly view, it tends to be the exact opposite. Society is more likely to spend, save, and give last.
Reframing the order to better align with Biblical guidance can help put things in perspective and shepherd financial decisions through a clearer lens.
Embrace the Philippians 4:17 mindset
As Paul said: “Not that I desire your gifts; what I desire is that more be credited to your account.” Meaning not the gift itself, but what happens between God and the giver is the true value.
This mindset helps reframe why we give, leaning into transformation vs transactional giving.
Provide practical ways to address financial hardships
Condemning someone for being financially irresponsible does not accomplish much unless we also provide a way to remedy the situation—and we don’t mean the answer to be “give us money.”
The answer should be something along the lines of “Think of your money as one of the ways God wants to sanctify and change your life.”
And with that thinking in place, there is more of an opportunity to attend courses on financial management, join accountability groups, and walk away with actionable insights.
The New Year should be about recalibrating our spiritual lives, and that includes understanding where we went wrong the year before and what we can do differently in the year ahead.