Posts
Marquee Man Strikes Again
Last week at my community group a friend mentioned that she saw this sign on the East side of Cincinnati, and I was in such disbelief that I had to find out if it was actually true. So, I did a search and I don’t know if this is the exact sign, but the wording is exactly as my friend said it was. I’m so disturbed by this sign that I’m not sure what to say. All I think to do is apologize on behalf of the marquee man who thought that he was conveying a Biblical truth. Ridiculous!
And We’re Off!
I know my blog has been slow in the last week or so, but believe me I have good reason. I don’t think that I’ve ever been busier that I have been the last couple weeks working toward Horizon’s official launch. We got off to a great start with 30 in attendance after a long, hard, complicated week of high winds and no power. This delayed EVERYTHING, but God still put it together and showed up in a big way on Sunday.
Though it has been a stressful time of 70 hour work weeks, and crazy deadlines it has also been a very encouraging time. I got about thirty phone calls, no exaggeration, on Sunday afternoon from people telling me that they were praying for us that morning, and the whole week leading up to Sunday. You have no idea how much that kind of support will encourage you until you experience it. It was humbling to know that there are so many people in my life that care that much about not just my family, but our ministry at Horizon.
Thanks to everyone who has supported us in our endeavor to start this church. We appreciate your prayers.
Rock me Like a Hurricane!
Well, last night the meaning of those words we’re truly realized as Northern Kentucky was pounded with winds equaling that of a category one hurricane. If you know me, you know that I have an deep desire to avoid natural disasters. I don’t ever want to live on the coast where there are hurricanes and typhoons, I never want to live out west in the flat land of tornado alley, and you will certainly never find me living in the shadow of a volcano. You would think that in Midwestern America one could find refuge from all those things, but think again.
My family, along with like half a million others, were without power for nearly the entire day. My one year old son was pretty freaked out when the sun went down and we had no power, but in his defense so was his 19 year old uncle who was waiting out the insanity with us. So, last night at about 9:30pm we all decided to give up living like primitives and make the drive across the river to my other bro’s house where they were they had TV and AC.
Then, just as we went to walk out the door, with a pop and a bang the power came back! You would have thought we had won the lottery we were so excited. The funny thing is that we knew the power would eventually come back on, but we couldn’t handle the uncertainty of when.
Obvious and profound spiritual parallel for this week of my life: Waiting on God’s timing is hard to do, even for ministers, but when He makes things happen they seem perfectly planned form the beginning.
One Long Week
Sorry for the blog silence, but it’s been a long couple weeks for everyone at Horizon. Deadlines are here and things are getting done, but as you can imagine it is a crazy time. We are preparing to having our second of two practice services this coming Sunday, and we are still busy tweaking almost everything in hopes to get things just right.
I don’t ask for this much, but if you could make the time to pray for our team and everyone involved in the days leading up to our launch on the 21st we would really appreciate it. We understand that now more than ever the devil will be active, trying to undo all our hard work, and we have confidence that prayer will pull us through. If you would like specific things to pray for, go to our website and download the SHIFT daily focus guide. Even if you are unable to do the daily reading, there are specific prayer focuses for each day leading up to Sept. 21.
More details will come as they happen!
One Year Later
Exactly one year ago today I became a father. I was totally blindsided to how much Reed would change my life, but our little family has changed forever. He struggled through his first few weeks of life, anbd gave us all quiet a scare, but he’s made up for lost time and become a true boy.
I can’t tell you how much my life and my sense of life has changed in that year, but I can show why. Here are some pictures. I think they will show you why it’s so easy for me to be a proud papa.
Here’s cowboy Reed’s picture that was on his birthday invitation. Yes, he is a great shot. (In case you can’t tell, this is a doctored picture. I didn’t give my one year old a set of six shooters and ask him to point them at the camera! You would be surprised how many people can’t tell.)
Here’s Reed with his favorite birthday present; a foam sword. He didn’t put it down all day, and he even tried to sleep with it, but mom slipped away with it when he finally dozed off.
Here’s Reed driving Grandpa Sam’s boat. He really gets a kick out of steering wheels. It’s even more fun because it makes mom nervous.
Here’s Reed in a small shopping cart at Hobby Lobby. Even though it looks like he’s playing, he’s actually mocking a kid in the next isle over who was throwing a royal fit. Ahh…to raise a mockingbird. He pretty much looks like a giant.
Coming Together
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!
21 Days of Shifted Focus
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.
Baby Strollers and Monster Trucks
Last night my family took a trip to the local mall to get my son’s one year pictures taken. Admittedly this is NOT my favorite thing, I would put it up there with a root canal, but the even was worsened when we put our plump little boy in his stroller and discovered that the tires were almost flat. We have one of those cool strollers with real tires on it, and I have loved it, until last night. We struggled through the trip and today I found myself with the job pumping up the tires on the stroller.
So, my son and I took a trip to the local gas station to use the air pump this afternoon and as soon as I pull up and get the stroller out of the back of the SUV a HUGE, jacked up, knobby tire, larger than life, Dodge monster truck pulls up behind me and proceeds to wait to use the air pump. Of course this truck was loud and macho in itself, but along with that the driver had a painful look of disgust on his face as he waited for me to fill up the stroller tires. I was pretty sure he was going to get out and ask for my man card right there, but I eventually finished and went along my way without incident.
I don’t really have a point to go along with this story other than to say this:
Sometimes in life you will be pumping up stroller tires, and other times you will be driving a monster truck. But in no matter which role you find yourself in you should pleased, because you are still yourself.
No More Olympics!
Well, last night marked the end of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. I really got into these games with all of the awesome stories from Michael Phelps to the Redeem Team, but most of all I just love sports. I guess we will just go on wanting for another two years until it’s time for the winter games in 2010. Until then, I’ll be waiting!
Weekend Update
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!