We are two weeks into a brand new year. Blink and January will be gone.

Before we know it, Easter will be upon us, then the summer comes and the people leave, and hopefully in the autumn they come back and stay through Christmas, and then we celebrate another new year.

The days may go by slow, but the years pass quicker and quicker every year I’ve been in ministry. Which makes me anxious, because I’ll be 40 this year, and I only have so many more years to give.

I want to make the most of the time I have left. I want to finish strong. I want to make a greater impact in my last 40 years than I did in my first.

I’m sure many of you reading this feel the same way. At least I hope you do.

If so, I’d love to let you in on a little secret.

Your impact is directly related to your willingness to continue to learn.

So, is mine.

At the moment we start believing we know everything that we need to know, we stop learning, and our impact starts decreasing.

The lid we put on our leadership starts hurting everything we touch.

Our church begins to stagnate or decline. New ministries we start never seem to gain traction. There’s seems to be more conflict in our lives. We find ourselves trying to relive our past glory, instead of looking towards the future. Eventually even our spiritual life grows stale.

All because we stopped learning.

Don’t let this happen. Be willing to invest in growing yourself.

Take advantage of free resources like this blog. Listen to podcasts. Go to the library and read a book.

And don’t be afraid to invest financially. Smart investments will always more than pay for themselves.

Before I was ever on staff at my church, I was using my vacation time to visit other churches to learn from them. When our church outgrew our leadership, we paid a consultant to come in and help us figure out our next steps. When I’ve felt like I needed a better understanding of something, I bought a course, or I paid for coaching.

I’m where I’m at today because I’ve been willing to invest time and money into myself. And, I know if I want to continue to grow, I’m going to need to continue to do that.

The same goes for you.

The years go by quicker and quicker, and if you’re not willing to invest in yourself, the world will quickly pass you by.

It just so happens that the Small Town Big Church Membership group is currently open to new members. My friend, Jon Sanders and I, created this membership site for small town pastors who want to grow healthy churches. It includes video resources, monthly video chats, administrative and sermon resources, and a private Facebook community of pastors who want to grow healthy churches. It’s an investment, and I think it’s one that pays for itself.