Well, the last 6-18 months of my life have pretty much been a blur of activity with everything moving towards the goal of being prepared to launch Horizon Christian Church in September of 2008, and Sunday evening I finally got to see exactly what that will look like. Sunday night was our facility open house and it was the first time we had actually set up all of the equipment, media, and lighting that we have been purchasing and developing. It was pretty exciting.

Horizon peeps, you don’t want to miss our first couple weeks of services. Not only are we in the middle of a really cool series called SHIFT, but just to have the time to appreciate all of our hard work we have done together before we publicly launch on the 21st will be awesome. Plus, it is amazing how this space has been transformed by all of the elements that are being used. I think you will be blown away to see how it has all come together!

Horizon right now, but this is probably the coolest. Starting this Monday, September 1, we will be starting our first series of emphasis together called SHIFT. This series will be 21 days of shifted focus for everyone in the church. We will be asking everyone to spend at least 30 minutes each day shifting their focus to specific things we have outlined in our daily focus guide.

The study will be on the books of Joshua and Nehemiah, as we hope to draw parallels between their callings from God and our calling to start Horizon Christian Church. It will be a neat time of unified and shifted focus for our whole group, but it’s not just for Horizon partners. If you would like to join us in this exciting initiative then please go online and download the daily focus guide and email me to let me know you will be participating.

This weekend has been a great weekend for Horizon. On Friday we had the opportunity to spend the day helping the new students on NKU’s campus move into their dorms. It was a long, hot day of hard work, but it was really great getting to meet a ton of new people. We were also able to give out over 700 magnets to the students with local pizza numbers on them. From an advertisement standpoint this isn’t much publicity for us (our logo and website were on the bottom corner), but we just wanted to do this to show the students that we want to help them in their college transition; whether they ever visit out church or not.

Friday night we spent some time at the BSU with their leaders and members and had a great time getting to know this vital campus ministry a little better. We are so thankful that they were willing involving us in the activities that they already had planned, and for giving us an avenue to reach out the the NKU students. Brian and his team are great.

Awesome stuff!

This Friday is an exciting day for Horizon. We having our first of many days of service at Northern Kentucky University. We will be spending the entire day helping new NKU students move into their dorms, and then that night we will be hosting a welcome event at the BSU in the center of campus. Hope to see all of you Horizon people out there, and if you’re an NKU student come join us around 6pm at the BSU.

After reading a series of posts on Mike’s blog about the local church I was inspired to take a few minutes out to thank some local churches who have really stepped it up to spread the gospel message to the world. These are churches that are supporting Horizon in our new church efforts. I am very thankful that there are churches out there that share our passion for reaching the lost so much that they have freely given of their financial resources to help Horizon do just that. Check out their websites for more information, and pray for these churches who are steppin’ up to advance the kingdom of God!

• Bethlehem Church of Christ (Winchester, OH)
• Garden City Church of Christ (Columbus, IN)
• Harvest Pointe Christian Church (Goshen, OH)
• River Valley Christian Church (Louisville, KY)

I’m a simple man. It doesn’t take much to get me excited, and last night was a perfect example. I arrived home at about 9:30pm from Louisville to find two huge boxes waiting at my door. It was the first round of custom printed envelopes and letterhead for Horizon. This wouldn’t normally get someone excited, but I was just tickled. I guess it’s because after over a year this church is becoming more of a reality every day.

Every time we break a small barrier down, or have a simple milestone pass I get excited; much like I do as a father when my son does small yet monumental things. Now just imagine how God feels when we have those small victories in our life. Things that other people might not think are a very big deal, but for your life and situation might be a huge leap of faith or step in the right direction.

I think we should take time in our lives to be proud of even the small steps we take to become closer to God and His will for our lives. Don’t let others dictate what excites you about your progress.

This week I have become Mr. Mom. In transition my wife has started a part time job, that requires a month of full time training. So, I’m adjusting my schedule to become Mr. Mom for the family for the next month. It’s actually been great to spend some extended alone time with my son. I mean until now,there have been very few times where we have been alone together without mommy.

One of the greatest things is that while mom’s gone we get to play and wrestle like REAL men. He was even showing off his new found wrestling skills to our group this weekend when he tackled me and started biting my ankle to force me into submission. Because of this he has found a new favorite game, and I like to call it, “Climb over Daddy”. We’ll sit on the floor together and he will time after time climb over my legs, then turn around and do it again. My thought is that he is proud of the fact that he can easily climb over me and is trying to impress me, and I have to admit he does every time.

As we were playing this game this morning I got to thinking. Don’t some of us try to do this same thing? Sometimes we take on more than we can handle, or try to do impossible things alone just to prove to someone that we can. While I can understand why my son loves this game, I don’t understand why we as adults do this. Even though I have done this very thing before I don’t understand it.

We serve a God who is there to help us, and with His help we are able to do a lot more than we can ourselves. So why do we go it alone so many times?

Man, this past weekend was just awesome! Horizon had its first official event as a church with all of our groups together in one place on Sunday evening. We had a cookout and sand volleyball blowout, and it was just as good as it could be. The weather was nothing less than absolutely perfect, and I had a chance to meet a lot of the new people that have been exploring our community groups. We had 30+ people at the event and I was really excited about the potential that these groups are showing for connecting people through real relationships.

Of course we had some sweet volleyball action, but we also had some chill time to get to know each other as a large group. It really was an evening that God guided from start to finish. Thanks to EVERYONE who did ANYTHING from bringing a cooler, bringing a volleyball, making food, or cleaning up. You made it happen!

If you would like to see the complete album of pictures from the event, courtesy of Brian McCartney then follow this link to his Facebook page.

This week is a pretty exciting week for me. It combines two of my favorite things, old friends, and fireworks. Since we live in Cincy full-time now I’m going to be able to get up the North American Christian Convention. Not just will this be a great place to meet new people and spread the word about Horizon, but I will also get a chance to see some old friend who live across the country.

I also have the chance to travel to the church where I grew up to preach and present details about Horizon. I haven’t been there in about six years so it will be a nice trip down memory lane.

Also, with it being forth of July weekend I am going to get to play with fireworks all weekend. Pray that I don’t get burned! Make the most of your week and enjoy the day.

For me, this week has been all about space.

As many of you know, Horizon has struggled to find a space to meet in. We have been searching, and searching, and searching some more, but have come up empty. We’ve tried schools, colleges, fire houses, parks, civic buildings, etc, but nothing has worked out; that is until this week. We gave ourselves a goal to find a space to meet in by the end of the month, and after MUCH prayer and then some MORE prayer, God delivered. We will be meeting in a shared space in Wilder, KY right off of the AA Highway. It is a space that we will share with the Northern Kentucky Real Estate College, and it is one “God sized” deal, meaning that we can actually afford it. We will begin our services in this location in September so spread the word because we are going to flood this region with our message.

This week has also been about personal space. My wife and son took this week to head down to Lake Cumberland with some family. I even though I already miss them, and they’ve only been gone for one night, I think it was a good idea for them to escape for a while. Church planting is probably more taxing on the wives and kids of planters because of the burden we all carry for the project so I am glad that they could go have some fun that won’t be interrupted by any talk or thought of church planting. So, for the next week I will have some REAL space on my hands. Space that I haven’t had in say, 9 and a half months. I’m really going to soak up all I can to be as focused as I can be on them when they return.