The seventh book I am reading in my one hundred book challenge (#100BooksOf2016, or#100Books if you follow along on Twitter,) this year is Brad Lomenick's H3 Leadership. I have felt quite challenged personally on my daily faith habits. Brad breaks faith habits into five areas and they are:
- Hearing
- Reading
- Studying
- Memorizing
- Meditation
First, where I feel I am keeping strong habits are reading and hearing. Taking on one hundred books in a year means that you have to keep a good two books a week routine. That keeps me focused on personal growth in many areas of my life. I also listen to a good rotation of sermons and podcasts. My three go-to podcasts are:
- Bill Hybels and Willow Creek services
- Judah Smith and Church
- The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast
I have a few others that I keep up with, but those three are my staples for my week. Where I am making some changes is in studying intentionally the word of God. I usually read books about the Bible, but I find that I wasn't spending enough time IN the Bible. Do not get me wrong I would read the Bible for curriculum ideas, passages that came up in podcasts, or for other kidmin related projects. After getting together with a good friend we made an agreement to read the word more this year. We keep each other accountable and that is a huge help. I am currently reading through the Gospels with my wife and I am reading through Genesis during the day for my own personal time in the Bible.
Here is where I struggle - memorizing. It isn't even a matter of not doing it a lot, it's a matter of being terrified of the word memorizing itself. I struggled as a kid in that area and how others responded to that have not helped my feeling towards memorizing scripture today. I know that is a poor excuse and I hope to get better. The first step for me is to not let the word terrify me before I even begin.
As for meditation and prayer. I think everyone would love to pray more daily and I am the same way. We have included more prayer in our kidmin services over the last year and a bit and I have gone to God in prayer more in my own life lately.
Faith habits are essential in life and I love that I can reflect on how I am doing and challenge myself and have others challenge me on how they are going.
“Faith is less like your arm and more like your heart. It is not supplementary to who we are but integral.”
Brad gives a great breakdown in the fifth chapter of H3 Leadership on how to help grow and foster faith habits. A great chapter for constant reminders on how you are growing in your faith and not relying on your own success, but relying on what God has done for us.
“The more one succeeds, the busier one gets.And the busier one gets, the harder it is to nurture spiritual vitality. ”
I would love to hear in the comments what you are reading and listening to that engages your faith habits and growth in the comments below.