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New year. New decade. New start.<\/h2>\nNew year. New decade. New start.<\/h2>\nBy Shane Bennett<\/p>\n
Yeah, it feels a little cheesy and clich\u00e9, but honestly the whole new year thing works for me. Fresh starts feel invigorating and hopeful. Things haven\u2019t been screwed up yet!<\/p>\n
Are you up for some new beginnings? I\u2019ve started reading through the Bible and I\u2019m doing a tiny bit of daily journaling. Some really big new stuff is brewing for me too, but you\u2019ll have to read the list below to get to it.<\/p>\n
Maybe you have so many plates spinning already that the opposite sounds good to you. Remember, Bob Goff is known to say, \u201cYou can quit anything on a Thursday!\u201d If you\u2019re reading this when it lands, you\u2019ve got a little lead time to mitigate the damage of the plate(s) you let clatter to the floor!<\/p>\n
If \u201cstart something new\u201d works for you, as it does for me, here are some ideas. I\u2019ll try to let you know the ones I\u2019m taking up, as well as the ones that I think you\u2019d be a crazy, faith-filled superhero to try!<\/p>\n
There\u2019s so much power in, \u201cWhat if we thought about this\u2026?\u201d Maybe you hang with Francis Chan, Malcolm Gladwell, and Elon Musk (seriously, how cool would it be?) and you never float out an idea that doesn\u2019t get a double eye roll and head shake. But if your tribe is a bit more ordinary, it could be that you are thinking of some things they haven\u2019t already thought of. Yes, you! And maybe God is doling out some chutzpah right now to enable you to suggest, \u201cWe could do something really cool. What about this\u2026?\u201d Something for your church, your community, or the world. We won\u2019t complete the Great Commission without some of us somewhere suggesting we do something substantial in a new place.<\/p>\n
And if you do get shot down? You won\u2019t be alone. Remember William Carey<\/a>, for one, famously feels your pain!<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t have a people on your heart, consider those among whom your friends are working or maybe a group your church is involved with. If you find no natural connection, go to this list of the 31 Largest Frontier Peoples<\/a>. Pick one, start to learn, and gather friends to pray.<\/p>\n This could legit change your life. It\u2019s one of the crazy, super-hero options on this list! Sit down over coffee with three intrepid friends. Ask God and each other, \u201cShould we bring Perspectives<\/a> to our town?!?\u201d It will mean a lot of work and some financial risk and you\u2019ll get stretched in uncomfortable ways. But dang, will you leave a dent. If you started scheming tomorrow evening, you might be able to pull off a class in the fall. I would be delighted to dream with you.<\/p>\n Pastors deal with multiple messes. Truckloads of poo, really. I don\u2019t want us to contribute to that. Nonetheless, you might be able to start the train rolling toward looking at fresh partnerships among unreached peoples. If you could use some help, let\u2019s chat. The cool org I work for, Healing Nations<\/a>, specializes in helping small to mid-sized churches connect with mission situations. I would love to kick some ideas around with you.<\/p>\n Pioneers<\/a>, Missions Catalyst\u2019s host organization, would also be a great starting place. And you may know others.<\/p>\n This could be a Muslim, a Hindu, a Democrat, a homeless person, a wealthy businesswoman, someone who\u2019s transgendered, or an old white guy. (If you\u2019re reading this and \u201can old white guy\u201d would be out of your normal sphere, I\u2019d really like to hear from you. I fear the Practical Mobilization tribe is, on the whole, more pale than I\u2019d like.)<\/p>\n Seriously, you\u2019ve been thinking about it! Do it! Just promise me you\u2019ll pay a little bit to get the text edited and the cover designed by a pro. This one is on my goal list for 2020. It all feels pretty vague so far, but I\u2019m asking God for the necessary direction.<\/p>\n I need to implement this one. I have a goal to raise the number of subscribers to the weekly email I write from 2148, where it stands today, to 5007 by the end of the year. I have almost no idea how to do that but am pretty sure that some people do and maybe they\u2019ve written down things I could learn from. If you have some tips or would like to be one of those new subscribers, I\u2019d be honored. Check it out here<\/a>.<\/p>\n At the risk of bringing the wrath of Greta Thunberg<\/a> on my head, I urge you to travel. Get out of Dodge. Visit a new neighborhood, a new city or a new country. Take some old friends and make some new ones when you arrive. If you do number five above at the same time, bonus points for you!<\/p>\n I sat next to a couple yesterday who\u2019d been on more than 50 cruises. They said they liked to spend a third of the year on the water. I hesitate to judge them, but this much is true: If they can do that, you might be able to swing eating at a new ethnic restaurant or visiting a refugee center in a nearby city.<\/p>\n Mission mobilizers tend to be an intrepid, hard-riding lot. We\u2019re willing to overlook a lot for the sake of the cause. Maybe we\u2019re no more soul-starved than the general Christian population, but we may be soul-starved while squawking endlessly about the purposes of God. The problems with this are not lost on me, at least right now, since I\u2019m writing about them. I fear I often overlook or discount them, though. Want to join me in changing that?<\/p>\n People need connection, community. Often it takes a catalyst, such as a person who will say, \u201cBuy this book. Come to my house. I\u2019ll make coffee. You bring donuts.\u201d It\u2019s not super complicated. First step could be to pick a good book. You can\u2019t go wrong with either The Magnificent Story<\/a> or Across the Street and Around the World<\/a>. Then ask seven buds to read it with you and talk about it over coffee (or a beer if inspired by the Inklings<\/a>!)<\/p>\n Get married! OK, odds are good this would be a bad idea for you; you are already married. I really just put it on the list so I could tell you I\u2019m getting married! After some grueling years of pain, brokenness, and regret I\u2019d never anticipated, light has broken on the horizon. By the time you read the March edition of Practical Mobilization, things will have changed considerably for me.<\/p>\n Let the rest of the tribe know which of these ideas you plan to implement (and the better ones you\u2019ve come up with on your own!) I can\u2019t really speak for all of us, but I\u2019d love a chance to pray you out of the gate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" New year. New decade. New start. By Shane Bennett Yeah, it feels a little cheesy and clich\u00e9, but honestly the whole new year thing works for me. Fresh starts feel invigorating and hopeful. Things haven\u2019t been screwed up yet! Are you up for some new beginnings? I\u2019ve started reading through the Bible and I\u2019m doing … Continue reading Start Something New… 10 Ideas for 2020<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-practical-mobilization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9032"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11594,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9032\/revisions\/11594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/missionscatalyst.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}2. Launch a prayer effort for an unreached people.<\/h3>\n
3. Provide Perspectives<\/em>.<\/h3>\n
4. Nudge your church toward the unreached.<\/h3>\n
5. Initiate a friendship with someone outside of your normal sphere.<\/h3>\n
6. Write a book.<\/h3>\n
7. Learn a lot about something.<\/h3>\n
8. Go somewhere.<\/h3>\n
9. Take care of your soul.<\/h3>\n
10. Start a small group.<\/h3>\n
Bonus Idea<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h3>\n