157: My Favorite End-Of-Year Journaling Prompts

As the year comes to an end, it’s the perfect time to step back and reflect. 

In this episode, I’m sharing my favorite end-of-year journaling prompts to help you process what’s unfolded over the past 12 months and get reset for a new year too. 

Whether you’re looking to celebrate your wins or learn from your challenges, this episode is for you.


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Transcript

Laurie Acker: 0:01

Hey, this is Laurie Acker, welcome to the small church ministry podcast. Hey, hey, welcome to the small church ministry podcast, where we believe that small church ministry is not less, but it is different. We teach ministry truths and skills for successful, fulfilling small church ministry where our impact is not measured by numbers. We truly believe that small churches offer a unique platform of ministry, that small churches can reach people, that large churches never would. We love small churches, and we're so glad you're here. Whether you are in a church under 200 under 100 or under 50, we see you and you are not alone. We are here to share hope and help for what's working in small churches around the globe. Now, I totally believe that you should love what you're doing, where you're serving, and that you can totally see God at work, right where you're planted, no matter what size church. So let's jump into today's topic, which is my favorite end of year journaling prompts. If you are a regular listener of this podcast, you may be like, where's the small church? Tips? Where are the small church tools that we're used to? Well, today's a little different. I think it is absolutely beautiful that today's episode falls on New Year's Eve, and we're going to take a little personal peek at our year and what's to come. But I don't want to start without mentioning my friend, ministry leader and coach, kleedra. Gross. When I met kleedra, one of the first things I heard her say, and she would say it pretty regularly. Is her frustration when people say Happy New Years, because so often we're living the same year over and over again. She's like, I just don't know why people don't say Happy same year. Like, if we're not going to make changes, like, why are we saying Happy New Year? It's not new for most people. And I want to say that is so true, and let's not be like that. God calls us to growth. God calls us to more, just abiding in Jesus and learning more and experiencing God more, it leads to growth and change. So in efforts to be about that kind of life. I wanted to give you this very personal episode of my favorite end of the year journaling prompts. And partially because I know that in small church ministry, we can get overwhelmed with busyness. There's a lot going on. Oftentimes, there's a few people who are doing tons of the work in small church ministry. And I think it's really important to realize and embrace the fact that our entire life should not be small church ministry. Mine is not, and yours shouldn't be either, because it's really easy to get into this mode of doing for Jesus, doing for God when He created as human beings, not human doings. God does not need workhorses. He did not put us on this planet only to serve other people. Now I know that as part of our calling as disciples and as of Jesus followers, but it's not all because He created us with deep needs for personal connection to him, to others and even to ourselves. When ministry becomes all about just giving our time, our talent, our resources, to bless and help others, it can be such a grind. But we also saw in the life of Christ himself that he enjoyed being with his friends, hanging out, sharing meals, living a life that was not 100% about pouring out. So we're going to talk about my favorite end of the year journaling prompts. In this episode, you're going to hear seven reasons why I think this is an important exercise, and also, I'm going to share seven of my favorite end of year journaling prompts. Yes, this is for you volunteers and ministry leaders in small churches. Now I'm going to talk a little bit about why journaling, because I know that some people are allergic to journaling. Some people have had bad experiences journaling. Some people don't like journaling. I usually have a love relationship with journaling, but I've definitely had a love hate relationship at times. I am not a consistent every single day journaling person, but I do journal on a regular basis. It has blessed me as I look back and also as I look forward, which is why this is a perfect time of year to build this in as well. Journaling can be a really powerful spiritual and personal practice that helps us grow and gain perspective in lots of ways. But I want to say before I give you my favorite seven reasons why I think this exercise is amazing before I say that, I just want to put this in your mind and in your heart. This is. Not a goal setting experience. This is not a check it off the list to say that I did this. This is a reflective create some space, set aside some time. This doesn't even have to happen in one sitting. And I'm going to give you some tips at the end on how to make the most of this experience. But first off, I want to share why I love end of year journaling, what it leads me to, what I've experienced, and why. I hope you'll do this too. Number one, what I'm talking about here in this episode, a reflective type of end of year journaling experience. The number one reason is reflection actually deepens our gratitude. It has the potential of deepening our gratitude, of recognizing God's faithfulness and provision in his presence, both in the good and the challenging moments and experiences throughout the year. When we pause to reflect, we notice different things. This is the thing about journaling. Journaling will bring out thoughts and feelings that we're not currently conscious of. That's one of the beauties of it, and deepening gratitude. I'd love that. The second reason I love this experience that I'm sharing with you today is it helps us gain perspective on growth again. We don't want to be happy same year people, we want to be happy new year. People, happy, new day, happy new week, where we're experiencing God in new ways. And so a journaling exercise like this can give us different perspective on growth. It it gains perspective on growth, and I am the first person to say what doesn't kill us makes us stronger. Is not always true. When we go through challenging times and growth experiences, I want to say it is not a given that it's going to make us stronger. We've seen it in ourselves and in others, challenges can make us bitter, can make us resentful, can stop our growth. It can even cause us to regress. So getting perspective on growth, it's really beautiful. It helps us not do those spiritual bypasses where we're throwing out quotes and quips and turning sunny side up when God is calling us to process something on a deeper level. A third reason I love end of year journaling is because it honors our experiences and our emotions. What you have been through this past year matters, the joys and the griefs So oftentimes, in small church ministry, we are so focused on other people that we don't honor our own experiences, our own emotions. Another reason I love end of year journaling, as I'm talking about today, is it clears some space to hear again, yes from God and the Holy Spirit. It also clears some space to hear from the quietness of our own hearts, our desires, our pains, our joys. A fifth reason I love end of year journaling is it is a chance and a set aside time to celebrate milestones and those lessons learned. Let's celebrate it. You know, when I take time to look past, look back over a year, I have honestly forgotten many things that I've celebrated, many things that I've been through. We have such we're in such a mindset of just moving on and moving forward, often times, that we haven't always given space to celebrate milestones and lessons learned. A sixth reason I love end of year journaling is because I have experienced this that my vision for next year expands when I set aside time for end of year journaling my vision for the future, even though I'm not trying it. As I mentioned earlier, this isn't a goal setting like let's vision, let's make plans. Let's check it off the list. But my vision expands for the future when I really look back at the past year, when I create time to hear from God, to kind of unpack my experiences, I automatically, almost naturally and organically, start visioning my next year, and that vision expands. And the seventh reason I love end of your journaling is it's just stinking healthy. It is so good for us. It's an experience that gets us off autopilot, where we can take some time to be reminded of our heart, of our thoughts, of our growth, of our humanity, of the fact that God put us here on Earth to. Experience Him, to learn about him, to learn about others, to learn about ourselves, for more connection and more being with him. So it's just plain healthy. Those are seven reasons. I hope they encourage you. I hope they inspire you to say, take some time to experience some end of your journaling, maybe in a different way. Before I give you my favorite prompts, I want to give you some tips for greater success, or greater, I guess, fulfillment kind of in this type of experience, please set aside some time to do this. Maybe you've got a whole day, maybe you've got an afternoon. Maybe you can get away and take a retreat, whether it's sitting at Panera or outside, if you're in a warmer climate or outside if you're in a colder climate, you just love the snow. But create some space, more time than you think. Again, this isn't a checklist. More time than you even think you need to do some reflection. And please remove, move the remove the pressure of any kind of expectation like the reason this journaling exists is so I can get to this end. No, no, not at all. Take away any of the pressure. That's why these prompts are going to help a little bit. No expectations. There's no right or wrong for your experience. In fact, every time I have a journaling, like a more set aside journaling experience, not just my daily journaling, but like an experience like this, every time I've had it, the results are really different. I experience something different from Jesus. Sometimes it's even frustrating, sometimes it's joyful, sometimes it sends me into a little bit of a sad space that has hope. But I really believe our experience of God should be as different and as broad and as as wide as God is like, we cannot fathom what He has for us. So let's take off the expect expectations that we have of this time and give that up to God. You may even want to, here's a little tip before you go into these questions or take some time to sit with it. You may even want to pull out last year's calendar, whether that's digital for you or on paper, because it may remind you the year feels like it flew by, but it's been a long year. Your experience, what you've experienced this year is more than just the last month or two, and that's what's top of mind. That's why this type of experience can give you a different perspective, can lead you to a broader vision for next year, because it feels like the year flew by. It's 2025 really. Tomorrow, tonight, at midnight, it's going to be 2025 where did this year go? So pulling out your calendar or having it close in hand can even help remind us, okay, here we go. Here are my top seven favorite end of year journaling prompts that I hope you will enjoy and learn from and grow from as well as you set aside some time to really reflect with Jesus by our side. Here are my top favorite end of year journaling prompts. There's seven of them. Okay. The first one is this, what was fun for me last year, what was fun for you? Now, maybe we're not used to looking at what was fun as we talk about small church ministry and feel responsible and have pressure and all these expectations for ourselves and hopes for our churches. But what was fun? Take some time to reflect on what was fun this past year. If you're not sure, don't feel like you had any maybe sitting and reflecting or taking some time, or asking Jesus to remind you, will bring some up. I think this is so important, because we spend so much of our time working, striving, achieving, trying to produce, that we forget that God gave us a playground, like this world is a playground. What was fun for you? Where did you find enjoyment? What made you laugh? Where did you experience God in that the second favorite journaling prompt I have for you is, who did I spend time with last year? Who did I spend the most time with, who did I invest in? Who did I hang out with? I always find this interesting, because it's different. Every year, if you really look at that emphasis, who did we spend time with? What was that like? What did we enjoy? What was difficult but a focus on the who? My third favorite end of your journaling prompt is, what did I do for the first time this year? Now this could be, who did I meet for the first time? What did I eat for the first time? Where did I visit for the first time? That could be traveling. It could be in your city. It could be in your town, what did I do for the first time? What hobby, what did I try for the first time? And literally, as as sweet as thinking about, what did you eat for the first time? It matters. I remember on one of our trips to Carlsbad, this came up. Carlsbad, California, is a place where my family has has been blessed and privileged enough to visit a few times over the past few years. But I remember eating pad, see you chicken pad, see you at a Thai food truck. Carlsbad, California has these beautiful little, I guess, summer market, like farmers market type things, and there's a Thai food truck that pops up, and I loved it. I just loved it. And what a little, tiny thing to remember, like in the scope of our life experiences, I love that dish at that food truck. I love it. That's something to journal about. What did you do for the first time last year? Eat, meet, places you've seen, hobbies you've tried. My fourth favorite journaling prompt end of year is about challenges, and the way that I usually phrase it is, what challenges did I process through this year? Again, I'm not a big believer in what does not kill you, makes you stronger. So I think it's really important to look at challenges and look at how did we process through that? It's important to look back at challenges because it's good to know that we survived. How do we know we're going to survive the next challenge if we don't look at what we did survive? Right? What challenges did I process through? And number five, how am I different than I was last year? The prayer is that all these experiences, whether joyful or challenging, difficult, hard, fun, celebrations, all of these experiences, I always want it to lead to growth. I want to be different than I was last year. How am I different? Now this doesn't have to be happy good growth, either. How am I different? I've had years when, honestly, my one of my differences is I trust leadership less. I noticed that in myself, because of my experiences, I'm going, Ah, this is different for me. I used to have a lot more blind following than I do. Now, what about a little more resilient? Or my emotional response? Time is better? Things that used to throw me and it would take me days to get over now take me hours in some ways, maybe you're different because of the people that you met. I know, for me that's so much a part of my life is learning from people that I meet, learning from others. How am I different than I was a year ago? That's journal prompt number five. Journal prompt number six is, what did I learn? This could be hobbies, skills, life lessons. I learning to make a certain dish, learning a ministry skill. What did I learn about myself, about God, about others? What did I learn this year? And my seventh favorite journaling prompt for end of year is, Do I have any unfinished business? Is there something hanging on, maybe one of those challenges that I didn't process through? Maybe there's a relationship that is struggling and it's unfinished because I didn't follow the little prompts in my gut that were saying, Go talk to that person, or maybe even let go. And doesn't have to be a person. Unfinished business could be commitments that you thought you were going to do or commitments that you need to let go of. Do I have any unfinished business? So I'm going to run through these seven prompts one more time. If you do want to see these in writing or pick them up, I'll give you a link at the end of the episode where you can find these, because I know sometimes we're driving or we're listening while we're exercising. So we do have a written copy of this for you as well, but my favorite end of the year journaling prompts, just to summarize, are what was fun for me last year. What was fun number two, who did I spend time with last year? Maybe it was an investment in a person, and maybe it was just like fun, like I was hanging out with this person a lot. Number three, what did I do for the first time? This includes, who did I meet for the first time? What did I eat for the first time? Where did I visit for the first time? What hobbies did I try out for the first time? Number four, what challenges did I process through this year? Number five. How am I different than I was a year ago? Number six, what did I learn this year? And number seven, do I have any unfinished business? I hope as you look through those prompts, you may even see why I suggest sometimes having a calendar out, because I forget what filled my year, unless I go back and go, oh yeah, that wedding happened this year? Oh, that's right, I visited that place. Oh, yeah, we have that ministry event. And I learned this sometimes having your year calendar out next to you can be good reminders of how the year went. And in every single one of those questions, you can add a part b of, how did I experience God in that or through that, the joys, the challenges. That's not a separate question. That's a part b2, you know, what did I do for the first time? Wow. How did I experience God in that or through that? I hope you love these questions. Now, I mentioned that one of the reasons I think this is so beneficial is because in the past, it has expanded my vision for the next year. And I want to tell you why that happens, why that's happened for me, because in each of these questions, when I think about what did I do for fun, where did I find fun? It helps me even think for the net for the next year, where am I going to build in my fun? When I think about who I spent time with last year, it reminds me of who I didn't or who I might want to spend time with this coming year. When I think about what I did for the first time, it triggers in my mind what I want to do a new thing I want to try in every single one of those questions, you can flip it to also be about the future the next year. How am I different this year? How am I different now than I was at the beginning of last year? Wow. How do I want to be different? What do I want to learn that unfinished business that you might or might not have, maybe that's something you want to look at for this year, saying, Wow. I do have some unfinished business. I want to resolve that bring God into this conversation as much as you want, as much as you are able. And I also just want to say if your experience of God this year has been distant or is distant when you sit down to do this, that is okay. I believe our relationship with God. There's no rights or wrongs here. He can handle our grief. He can handle anger. He can handle distance. In fact, sometimes on our own spiritual, spiritual journeys, we go through those dark nights of the soul. And so if that ends up being your experience for your end of year journaling this year, that's okay, too. I believe every experience we have, every emotion we have, every place where we are, it's always there's always an invitation to go to the heart of God. There's always an invitation to bring God in, to ask God, where are you? Right now, the book of Psalms is full of lament, even let's accept this and experience God through this. Because His faithfulness is there, his the consistency of who he is, his character. Is there. Sometimes we're not experiencing it or feeling the same. Sometimes we need to rely on the hope and belief of other people to get through certain seasons. And maybe you're in a season where you are celebrating and saying, woo hoo. God is here. The goodness of God, the goodness of God. Journaling at the end of the year for me has been such a deep experience. As I am part of small churches, as I believe in my small church, as I pour out to people around me, this journaling at the end of the year reminds me who I am, reminds me that I am a person and I'm not just a worker, reminds me that God cares about my being Even more so than he does my doing to help encourage you and make this experience really amazing for you. We put together a free resource pack about end of year journaling. It includes the seven questions as well as some extra tips for success. Thanks for being part of the small church ministry podcast. Your listening means the world to me, and I want to wish you a happy new year. My prayer, really, for all of us is that we do experience a new year. God does not call us to sameness. So let's keep growing and keep going, and until next week, be a light bye.