It’s been a crazy year.

At the beginning of the year I traveled to South Carolina, New York, and Maryland (ok, that one’s a short trip) to do some campaigning. I was hoping to find a job in a Presidential administration (assuming my candidate won, of course).

A side note (but a cool one) was that while campaigning I made my first trip to New York City.

Also at the beginning of the year I started attending Christian Masculinity 2.0 (which has had a major impact on my life) and launched this blog.

In March I was sitting in a Good Friday service at NCC, and I felt God renewing the call to ministry that He had placed on my life nearly seven years earlier. I stopped campaigning and started trying to figure out what was next.

In July, after much thought and heartache, I applied for and was accepted into the new one-year-internship program (i.e. Protege Program) at NCC.

During July, August, and September, I built a very large and robust new website for the House Committee that I worked for.

On September 7, I started working at NCC as a Protege, and on September 30, I quit my job on the Hill.

The fall was filled with retreats and conferences, but the one that had the biggest impact on me was the Catalyst conference in Atlanta. Craig Groeschel spoke on “It,” and he and the Holy Spirit rocked my world.

In November 2007, I launched http://polfeeds.com, a website aggregating news from Congress, the President, and the Presidential campaigns, and in the two months leading up to the election it received 94,834 visits. Along with this I built many Twitter accounts, some of which now have between 1,000 and 5,000 followers.

All in all, it’s been quite a busy year. What’s on tap for 2009? Stay tuned tomorrow for more.

An important part of setting goals is revisiting and reevaluating them. They don’t do any good if you just set them and forget they exist.

I posted on my Fall ’08 goals previously, but here’s the short version:

• Strengthen relationship with God through regular Bible reading and prayer.
• Be a better husband.
• Finish first draft of my book by May ’09.
• Support the men’s ministry at NCC.

So, how did I do?

Well, I have been praying and reading the Bible more than in the past, but neither of these are as regular or consistent as they need to be. This will be something that makes the list of goals for 2009.

Honestly, I failed at being a better husband. If anything, I have been getting upset more easily. Correcting this will be a big focus for Spring 2009.

First draft of my book? What’s that? I don’t think I’ve written anything on it since I blogged my Fall goals. Honestly, this one is on the back burner for now, and I’m okay with that.

As for the men’s ministry, while the group that I help lead is going quite well, I have done nothing to support the other parts of the men’s ministry at NCC. (Note that this is not to say that there is anything wrong with them, just that I haven’t done anything to support them.) This is one that I am not sure will happen in early 2009. My responsibilities at NCC have shifted, and I am not sure what effect that will have on my ability to do this.

Overall, I can’t say that I’m super-happy with my accomplishments this fall. I made only moderate progress on one of my four goals. This spring needs to be a time that I increase focus on my goals. I spend a lot of time working on things, but I have a tendency to forget the more important stuff.