I’ve been reflecting on 2019 and looking ahead to 2020 from the first week of December 2019. Some thoughts are yet to be fully developed. I’m comfortable with some things unresolved. Reflection shouldn’t always be about reaching resolution. As we look at 2020 as individuals, churches and organizations we should keep this in mind. Anyway, I thought it would be helpful to look back at the year past and dream out loud a little.
You might find some of the reflections helpful for you and those you serve with. Or, you might get an idea of what you can expect from ChurchMag. Either way, I hope this post will be helpful in some way.
The Unexpected
In March 2019 Eric broached me taking over ChurchMag. This wasn’t anything I had even thought about. I was happy contributing and being a part of the community. If he had asked sooner the answer would’ve been an easy, “No’. But, long story short: I took over ChurchMag as from 01 April 2019.
The lesson here is that there’s always the unexpected. It is important to plan, but we can’t script everything. In serving God, we should leave room for mystery and God’s working.
An Overestimation
I overestimated what I could handle and achieve in eight months. Other commitments like family, nine-to-five work and studies had their own demands. This affected the attention and energy on the ChurchMag side of things. I consider serving the Church through ChurchMag, the blog and podcast, as a great privilege. At the same time I feel, in a healthy way, the gravity and responsibility.
There’s a healthy sense of awe and appreciation of God’s mission we should all have. It doesn’t matter where you serve as long as you do it to His glory. Serve to the best of your abilities with what you have.
Having said that, I have a couple of regrets in things I didn’t get to. Despite this, the lesson I take away from 2019 is to set fewer and more modest goals. I’m not suggesting being timid. We can still be attempt great things for God in our dreaming and activity. At the same time we’re human and can only achieve so much.
Others
Reflecting on 2019 and looking ahead to 2020 something else I appreciate about ChurchMag emerges. It’s the community of committed individuals making it happen. And, we wouldn’t be where we without them. In 2019 I could’ve done a better job of understanding everyone’s skillset and contribution. 2020 is about unlocking that.
We’d love to grow the number and of quality contributors and contributions. I hope that in some ways we can encourage unity of the Church. While I hope to do a better job of inspiring the existing team and others who’ll join to be their best.
The lesson here: the better you help your team grow the more effective you will be in your mission. Do you have a plan to grow and grow your team beyond numbers but in quality?
Partnerships
I hope ChurchMag’s work and contribution to the global Church will inspire churches in communities and cities to build better relationships. May 2020 be the year you strengthen relationships with churches in your community and city at large.
One church working alone doesn’t have either the numbers or the resources to change the culture of a city — Mal Fletcher (Church of 2020)
Partnerships is something we’ll also be paying attention to. For sustained impact this is important. If you’d like to partner with ChurchMag in any way, get in touch.
Press / Merch / Resources etc.
In keeping with setting modest goals in a bold vision, ChurchMag Press and ChurchMerch will be relaunching. This is way overdue. The delay is getting ChurchMag Press going is my biggest regret from 2019.
ChurchMag Press had some helpful ebooks we hope churches find helpful. We’ll be relaunching those with some of the books there previously. We’ll also start working on adding titles. ChurchMerch will be coming back with some swag.
Another thing I’m looking forward to is making some of the great content we’ve produced over the years more accessible. We’ll be doing this by packaging it into different formats. This includes ebooks, pdfs, audio etc. Here kinda ends my reflecting on 2019 and looking ahead to 2020, for now.
The Bottom Line–For The Church
In the end, the big picture is continuing to play our part to see a thriving and effective Church. We continue to equip the Church in the area of technology, creativity and new thinking. We’d like to continue in helping the Church effectively wield modern tools and means in its mission. We’d like to encourage and enable others to be creative in communicating the good news. The other thing we hope to do is inspire the Church in its endeavor for sustained impact.
Eric and I also discussed some of this on this podcast episode.
We’d love to see you and your church or organization win. All the best for 2020. Godspeed.
Paul Steinbrueck says
Good thoughts, Blessing. I’ve been reading ChurchMag from the beginning and would be interested to see if I could contribute an occasional blog post or we could partner or collaborate on anything. Email me.
Blessing Mpofu says
Hey Paul, glad to have had you on the journey. Definitely will be dropping a note. All the best for your 2020.