What is your theme?

Nearly every year of my 26 years of ministry I have prayed and asked God to direct me to a verse that would be my verse for that year and therefore a theme for that year. Many of those years I shared that verse and theme with the church I was pastoring and it became the church's theme for that year. I generally challenege my congregation to find a verse for the year. Let God direct you to a verse. Sometimes the reason for that verse is obvious at the moment I am directed to it and other years the real meaning shows up later in the year.

I am in the process of wrestling through the verse/theme for this coming year. Something really hit me a week ago, that was a whole different direction than I had been sensing up until that moment. As I have been studying, praying and thinking the past 2 to 3 weeks I believe the verses and theme are going to be different that I thought 3 weeks ago.

One of my favorites was a few years ago with the theme "What's It To Ya?" The premise was considering the things that are important to Christ, "What's it to ya?" Does it really matter to you? We had a lot of fun using that theme in messages and worship. We had pens made up with the saying, we mugs with the saying and my worship pastor wrote a theme song for it. Using the mugs and pens prompted a lot of people to ask questions and opened doors for some great conversations.

A few other themes from past years that come to mind are "Yes We Can, Because He Will", "See a New Thing", "Remember the Lord" and "Live It". Each one has had some unique qualities and fun moments. Also some of them resonated with a congregation and sometimes there was resistance to the theme.

I will lay out the theme on the blog soon.

Here's hoping that you sense God's direction for you for this coming year.