New year offers spiritual resolutions

Diet plans and cigarette tossing will be on many minds next week as 2008 rolls around yet another chance for new beginnings and personal improvement.

And with the fresh season at hand, many churches find opportunity to stress resolutions of spiritual proportions.

Sunday and Jan. 6 will prompt pastors to recount the past year and encourage their congregation to look ahead to the upcoming year.

The Rev. James Bishop, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church north of Odessa, said he usually brings a New Year type of message around Jan. 1 to evaluate where the church is at and build upon it — and he also applies it individually.

“I don’t know if there’s anything such as turning a new leaf, but I do believe we need to look at our lives spiritually and see what you can you can do to make it stronger,” he said.

Bishop said he wrote a sermon series for Sunday morning and evening titled “Get it straight for ’08,” based on Philippians 3.

But just like the famous diet resolutions that aren’t continued year-round, spiritual intents also face the risk of waning when the excitement fades, Bishop said. He hopes ’08 will inspire more lasting spiritual maturity among the believers at his church as well as increased mission efforts and community outreach.

“You don’t want to go through the motions — you want to do these things because you love the Lord,” he said. “If we’re going to do anything for the Lord, it must be now because time passes very quickly and before you know it, it’s gone.”

Pastor of West Side Christian Church, the Rev. Don Swindell said the present and near future are crucial times for the security of religious freedom in America. As proof, he points to the ’08 elections. He believes Christians everywhere need to band together and return to prayer and Bible study — corporate and private.

“I believe it’s time for us to get back to the roots of our faith,” he said. “We need to get rid of the church mentality and get a hold of the kingdom mentality.”

Even though his church is a small one, Swindell said he wants it to continue in the same direction of supporting homeless shelters and service ministries in Odessa.

When it comes to spiritual resolutions, though, Swindell said he’s more for purposing in the heart and goals than making promises to God.

“A few years ago, I made the resolution to make no more News Year’s resolutions,” he said. “I don’t like to make commitments that I can’t keep, but we do need to have goals in our life every year.”

Swindell said he was reminded of words he heard frequently from a seminary professor: “If you aim for nothing in life, that’s exactly what you’re going to hit.”

The Rev. Joe Uecker, pastor of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in south Odessa said he sometimes mentions the New Year’s occasion or worldwide events in his first-of-the-year sermon. But a spiritual resolution is good anytime, whether that is Jan. 1 or July 1, he said — and only after proper evaluation.

“You can’t really make an intelligent resolution if you don’t know where you’ve been and where you’re headed,” he said.

Instead of having a spiritual life that dwindles shortly after the decision to change, Uecker said having someone else informed about the resolution will help.

“One way to help work against gravity is to tell someone about your resolution and ask that person to call you on that — to be accountable,” he said. “Accountability never hurt anybody.”

Generalizations are also a recipe for disaster, Uecker said.

“I think it’s important that you make it as specific as you possibly can,” he said. “This whole ‘I’m going to be better this year,’ that’s useless.”

“A spiritual resolution really depends on your desire to grow,” he said. “If you want to grow in your relationship with God, you’re going to do everything you possibly can, convenient or inconvenient, to do it.”