Every Sunday, somebody in your church says yes to Jesus for the first time. The question that matters most is what happens on Monday. Ben Murray, lead pastor of City Hope Church in Wichita Falls, Texas, and author of Give God a Year, has an answer, and it starts with a dare. Ben is an ARC church planter who now coaches other planters, and he's one of the most consistent leaders I know. The part of our conversation I keep coming back to is why he put a deadline on discipleship.
The challenge started with Pastor Chris Hodges at Church of the Highlands, who would tell newcomers, "Give us a year of your life." Ben used that line for years, then changed one word. You're not giving the church a year. You're giving God a year.
Ben puts it this way: Christianity is not like buying a car. You don't test drive it. You're either all in or you're not. So go all in for 365 days. Get in a small group. Get water baptized. Show up at the growth track. Take a step, then take the next one. "I promise you," Ben says, "in 365 days your life won't be the same."
I asked him what a deadline does that "give God the rest of your life" doesn't. It makes the next step actionable. A lifetime is too big to start on. A year has a calendar. Every marketer knows a call to action without a deadline is just a suggestion, and your spiritual life is no different. Whether it's the gym, a diet, or a degree, you have to stick somewhere long enough for the process to work.
Some people hear "challenge," think "checklist," and get nervous about works. Ben is an achiever who likes a checklist himself, but he's clear that serving God is not rules and religion. The steps in the book come straight out of Scripture: baptism, a spiritual family, staying connected to the body of Christ.
We get confused about what works really is. Works is trying to earn God's favor with sacrifices and good deeds. Discipleship is obeying what the New Testament tells us because we already have His favor. As Ben put it, we're saved for good works, not by our good works. "I don't do good works to get saved. I do good works because I am saved."
Ben wrote Give God a Year for the person who says, "I don't really know God. I'm new to this." Twenty chapters, two per topic, built around five areas: faith, freedom, community, daily rhythms, and purpose. It's not the deep end of the pool. It's a roadmap for somebody wading in from the shallow end.
Take daily rhythms. Ben keeps it simple: fifteen minutes to start your day, five in the Word, five in worship, five in prayer. Reading the Bible every day matters more than how much you read, because you're building a muscle. He even walks new believers through patterns like the tabernacle prayer that pastors treat as old hat.
Here's why I love it for the pastors I coach. When you're planting or growing a church, you're so focused on people that building a discipleship framework from scratch is a burden. This book lifts it. I've learned to trust frameworks. When I was younger I was all passion, running in every direction at once. Get the rhythms down first, then customize and own them for your church.
At the end of every service at City Hope, a campus pastor invites anyone who just gave their life to Christ to stop by the next steps table for a gift. Inside the box is a copy of Give God a Year. That's what's next.
This year City Hope also ran its first church-wide small group campaign through the book. It galvanized the church and gave it language. Dream team members now tell people, "Hey man, just give God a year. Don't give up. Keep going." When Ben mentions the challenge from stage, hands go up: "That was me. I'm not the man I used to be."
I can already picture churches opening January 2027 with a four-week Give God a Year series and a full promotional push, then carrying it into small groups. If you want to gain momentum, grow your church, and go the distance in ministry, it starts with knowing exactly what to hand someone on the best day of their life.
And pastors, the dare is for you too. Ben is fresh off a sabbatical, eight years into a church plant, and he kept saying, "This is the long game." Don't just ask your people to give God a year. Keep giving Him every year you've got.
Everything you need to run this at your church is at givegodayear.org: the book, a free ten-week small group workbook, four free sermon outlines, and bulk bundles of 50 books for $400. Ben's advice is to skip Amazon for bulk orders. Go through the site, or email him directly at ben@cityhopefamily.com, and he'll get you a much better deal. Single copies of Give God a Year: A Yearlong Journey to Faith, Freedom, and Fulfillment in Christ are on Amazon in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook.
There's a lot more in the full conversation, including the fifteen years Ben spent at Daystar Church before planting, why his pastor kept telling him "not yet," and the ARC friendships that keep him going. Watch it below, or listen on Apple Podcasts, Buzzsprout, or YouTube.
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Keep believing and leading strong,
Josh Roberie
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