The 2 Things That Jeff and Jonny Absolutely Want To Accomplish in 2015

Today, Friday, January 2, 2015 – we are restarting our twice weekly blog posts on Mondays and Fridays. These posts will bookend the Wednesday 200churches Podcast episodes that have not missed a Wednesday in two years!

The purpose of these blog posts will be to provide ministry encouragement to pastors of small churches. This has been our focus from the start, and we want to get better at it, and reach more pastors with it, in 2015.

As I (Jeff) kick off 2015 with this post, I am forced to remember the year we have just ended. Four significant things contributed to this past year for me personally…

1) My daughter Alissa developed two serious chronic health problems earlier in 2014.

2) My son Joel got married in July.

3) It almost killed me, but I finished a Master’s degree in August.

4) Then, on October 18, my son Douglas suffered a traumatic brain injury in a rollover accident that took the life of one young man, and injured three others. His recovery would consume the next two months of our lives.

As of today, January 1, 2015:

• my daughter still struggles, but is doing much better, learning how to manage her health symptoms. 
• my son Joel and his wife are happily married, and just today left our home to begin their trip back to Detroit, 
• I still have a Master’s Degree, and 
• Douglas is moving back on his own next week, restarting his senior year and his jobs again at a reduced rate. He will completely recover. Thank. God.
  

Yeah, it’s a good thing we don’t know what 2015 will bring, because if we knew, we might run screaming into the darkness, right?!

I will leave it to Jonny to report, or not, on his last year. We have a blast doing ministry together. I can tell you that he continues to prioritize his family – his wife and boys – over ministry. And his ministry is that much better for it! I and our church are better for his ministry in our lives.

The Quality and Reach of 200churches
Jonny and I have spent much time talking about our church ministry for 2015, but we have also invested some time on plans for 200churches. We have two over-riding concerns:

1. How can we reach more small church pastors?

2. How can we get better at encouraging pastors with our 200churches Podcast and website?!

So many of your have communicated to us how encouraging and inspiring the podcast is to your life and ministry. We want more pastors to experience the same thing!

Just so we’re clear… our almost primal passion is to HELP small church pastors out there who absolutely need encouragement as they pastor their people in their small church. We care about the men and women who are hurting, isolated, lonely, and desperate in their local church ministry. 


Working together, all of us can help them – that’s how God has designed the body of Christ, to minister to each other and to build each other up. 


That is exactly why we ask you to share the podcast on your social media of choice, with your friends, in your pastors’ fellowships, etc. We need to reach more hurting, lonely pastors.

What about the pastors who are not hurting and lonely? Well, it’s just a matter of time, right? They will absolutely get to a point in their lives when they will need some major doses of encouragement – and we want to be there for them at just that time.

So – two areas of focus for us:
1) Continue to encourage pastors, but do it BETTER!
2) Continue reaching small church pastors, but REACH MORE!

So sometime today, how about you:

1) share the 200churches website with another pastor – however you want to. Let’s reach more pastors and in so doing, continue to build the KINGDOM OF GOD.

2) comment on this post and tell us how we can get better at encouraging you in your ministry?  What are some areas of life and ministry that you need encouragement in?

We love you men and women who pastor the people of God! 
What you are doing in your local church, no matter the size, matters HUGE to the advancement of God’s Kingdom! See yourself that way – see yourself as a ridiculously loved child of God, equipped with gifts to lead, teach, and shepherd God’s precious people. God loves you and is using you in His Body!

See you on Monday. Have a fantastic first weekend of the New Year! God bless you, Pastor!