Alright Horizon people. This is your final warning. We are meeting at our new facility THIS SUNDAY! You will need directions and about 10 friends/family/co-works/people you just met to bring along (because it’s a monumental Sunday). Not only does this new place rock, but Malachi 2 is going to rock even harder this week. Be there, or miss out. There are no other options.
I just inadvertently stumbled onto some really stupid and petty online mudslinging. I’m not going to say who was doing it or who it was about because I don’t want to add to the drama, but a guy I know who is very close to my age and also leads a young church was the one getting trashed. He was being called a goat herder, a false teacher, and a heretic among other things. In case you’re not hip to the lingo these are all very bad things that shouldn’t just be thrown around.
I sat at my desk for more than 10 minutes before I could do anything. I was sick to my stomach, I was angry, and most of all I wished that their was something I could do to defend this guy. I can’t imagine that I would have felt any differently if I was the one getting trashed all over the world wide web. It just made me sick.
After thinking long and hard about the whole situation, and with the realization that this is more common than I know, I have decided to share my personal challenge with you all for your consideration. Here’s what I’m asking myself:
I’m not just talking about those times when people put this kind of thing out there for the world to see, but I’m also talking about the condition of our hearts. I may not blog about it, but do I feel these feelings?
The bottom line is this: THERE WILL BE NO MUDSLINGING IN HEAVEN. If you’re in Christ, we’re all on the same team. If someone is out of line with scripture, call them on it (but do it in a Biblical manner, not on your blog or YouTube). But, if someone is out of line with your personal world views or opinions or the blessing they enjoy is eating at your heart, it’s probably time for you to get over it.
My Discipleship Group at Horizon is reading through the book of Psalms this week. If I was being honest I would have to say that I was less than enthused to start this long book full of poetical chapters. I’m not much of a poetry guy, even though I am a song writer, so it’s a bit of a challenge for me. But, I believe this time through God has allowed me to realize some things about these Psalms that I never had before. I thought I would share one this morning.
Even people like King David had major upswings and downswings in their relationship with God. As the author of many psalms, David never ceases to express his true feelings; no matter how good or bad. Sometimes you can sense his frustration with God and His plan. Other times you get the feeling that he is going to explode with appreciation. This isn’t because he’s got a polar personality. It’s because he is being honest with God. I think on some level we all need to learn that being honest with God is okay. He already knows the desires of our hearts and every thought we have, yet we try to conceal our true selves in those times when we struggle.
This week, try to be as honest with God as possible. You won’t be revealing anything new to him, but I think you’ll be surprised what it will do for YOU and how you relate to your creator.
Well, after a week like last week I’m not really sure where to start. So many things happened and so many lives were changed. Not just in the realm of my church, but in God’s Kingdom. I could run down the list for you, but just the things that I know about personally are far to expansive to list; so I’ll just say this.
God is always preparing His Church for something. It could be a for a huge blessing. It could be for a huge obstacle. It could be for a huge opportunity. But, no matter what it is we must always realize that God is preparing us for something. We should stand at the ready, with our sword in hand every day ready for whatever he is preparing us for.
Think about the brave men and women who are a part of our country’s armed forces. When they train and prepare and dedicate themselves to serve they don’t always know where it’s going to take them. Yet they still train diligently knowing that they are preparing for something.
In light of what I have seen God do over the last week allow me to urge you to prepare themselves for whatever direction God is taking you next. You may not know where that is or what that means yet, but God has a plan.
I wanted to update everyone on Horizon’s facility struggles. If you’re lost, read my previous post: “Important Information about Horizon”.
Yesterday, God answered our prayers in a huge way. Not only did we find a place to meet, but this new place will be Horizon’s first permanent campus! That’s right. Not only did God bless us with a place to meet, but it’s going to be a place that we can make our own and use seven days a week. The facility is located in the community of Wilder, KY and we are very excited to see how God will use this space to enhance and expand what we do at Horizon.
The only thing left for us to do is finalize some paperwork and prepare the space for our gatherings so please continue to pray for these things, as they must happen very quickly. Thanks to all of you who have been praying and/or fasting this past week for our situation and God’s direction for Horizon. We know our family of supporters stretches far beyond Northern Kentucky and we are thankful for every last word lifted to God on our behalf.
Please continue to hep us pray as we prepare Horizon for great things.
Because many of the readers of my blog are also great supporters of Horizon I wanted to keep you all in the loop about the current situation of our church so you can join us in prayer. Below is the message I sent out to our community this morning.
Hey everyone. I wanted to inform you all of some very time sensitive information that was just confirmed this morning.
The facility that we currently rent as part of UK’s extension cooperative has decided to discontinue their agreement to allow us use of their building. Because of their policies and our rental agreement they are only required to give us two weeks notice which means that this coming Sunday (Oct. 25) will be the last Sunday we will be allowed use of the facility.
One of the greatest things about our church is that our church and our mission and morale is not tied to any person, place, or thing. This is our chance to live our the words Paul spoke to Timothy in his second letter (Something we preached through no more than two weeks ago) when he stated that the Gospel is not chained by our situation. Our momentum and passion is threatening Satan’s work and there is no doubt in my mind that this is nothing more than a ploy to distract and discourage us, BUT WE WILL NOT BE DISCOURAGED OR DISTRACTED! We will press on and seek the direction that God is taking our church and follow him wholeheartedly.
Our Leadership Team has already begun the process of searching for a new facility and we hope to have solid plans by Sunday. In the mean time we would like to ask every one of you to join us as we pray and fast for this search and God’s leading for our church. Feel free to conduct those things in any way that you feel is appropriate in your own life.
Stand strong church. Satan has already been defeated and God is still on the throne. We will move past this speed bump to greatness for the Kingdom of God.
No matter what your connection with Horizon is I hope you will join us as we pray and fast as we seek God’s direction for our church. I am confident that God will prove this to be more of an opportunity than an obstacle.
A couple weeks ago my wife and I were playing with our two year old in his room. We were doing puzzles, stacking blocks, and racing cars. Normal Friday night stuff in our house. As we all played on the far side of the house, with little attention to what was happening on the other side of the house, we heard a crash in the kitchen. We were all on edge.
As his typical response goes my two year old son exclaimed, “What was that?” Jenna and I only sat silently listening for any other noises. When we didn’t hear anything else I asked my son what he thought the noise was and he immediately piped up and said, “Jesus!”
I really have nothing clever to say about this one. It’s funny enough to stand alone.
Apparently links from my site are not displaying correctly in some feed readers at the moment. If you are reading a post with a link in it and would like to check it out please visit my actual blog site and the links will work fine.
Hopefully, I’ll have things sorted out shortly. Thanks for your patience.
Two things for all you faithful blog readers out there this Friday.
#1: Go to my friend Mike’s Blog and read this post about what’s happening at his church this Sunday.
#2: Pray like your life depended on it that God would put people at ACC this Sunday who need to hear this new vision they will be casting, and that it would melt their hearts because some people’s eternal lives DO depend on it.
Don’t give me that, “It’s not MY church,” junk. If you’re a part of the body of Christ then THIS IS YOUR CHURCH and a win for them is a win for the kingdom of God. Let’s get behind our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ this weekend and pray for a church that we may not attend personally, but spiritually we are a very important part of.
Alright, here’s the deal…at Horizon I would guesstimate that more than 75% of our regular attenders are smart phone or iPod touch users. Because of this I am VERY excited to say that starting this Sunday we will be taking advantage of one of the most significant technological breakthroughs in recent church history called YouVersion LIVE.
In case you’ve haven’t heard, YouVersion started as a free online Bible created by the guys at LifeChurch.tv where you could offer insights and perspective to the world as you study scripture. From there they have created apps for many different smart form platforms and many people, including myself, now read their Bible almost exclusively through YouVersion. It’s a great tool for everything from deep study to casual reading and browsing.
So, to ramp it up a notch they decided to launch a platform that would put this same idea of sharing to use during a church service. With YouVersion LIVE churches and organizations will be able to upload outlines for each service that include things like: Bible references, notes (with a special place where you can take your own and email them to yourself when you’re done), twitter feeds, polls, questions, links, videos, online giving opportunities, and prayer request forms. I’m sure I’m missing a few, but you get the idea.
Point is, this is a HUGE breakthrough in the way the modern church will be able to rely information and Biblical teaching to people. If you have a smartphone or even a phone with internet access you need to check it out and encourage your preacher to utilize this great tool. If you’re a part of Horizon, check it out now because it will be available to you every Sunday from this point forward.
Joel is the Lead Pastor at
