update

I appologize for not posting earlier. I wrote a big long post a few days ago and just as I went to publish it I got kicked off line. I lost the post and was pretty frustrated.

Update: The drive back home was long but good, 11 and 1/2 hours each day for two days. The driving is a bit different up here in Maryland. Imagine a bunch of people who drive like Chad mingled with a few people who drive like me.....well, more like me on crack. So my driving skills have reawakened after being dormant for a few years while in Texas.

I thought I would take a few weeks just to chill, but that is not the case. I have jumped in with both feet and am already going like a fat boy at Golden Corral. I have already had some great meetings with key people in the church and am working on a roommate situation. I hope to be living in an apartment or townhome in Towson by the end of the summer.

We just layed out the sermon series for the next 9 weeks, which covers the rest of the summer basically. I think they will be good. I won't preach until the summer is over and that is cool with me. It is good just to try to get to know people and build some relationships.

I will start visiting Link Groups this week and see which one I need to plug into. We are gearing up for Launch in the fall and things are getting exciting. Next week I will go to a GCM (Great commission ministries) conference and see if we will partner with them as fellow church planters.

God is doing some cool things as well. We found out the other day that they guy who was going to back the magazine with 26,000 dollars (which we would pay back to him by selling advertising space) decided to just give us the 26,000 dollars. CRAZY!!! So now all the ad space we sell for the Relevant Magazine in the fall will help to fund our current and future church planting opportunities.

I am helping out with the Relevant Magazine deal. I am going to begin to help sell some ad space. I will also help with the design and selection of the articles that will go in our 32 pages of the magazine. Horizon gets its own section at the back of the magazine. I will probably submit two articles and see what happens. They may make the cut and they may not. I will let you know if they do.

So as you can see, things are already busy and I am not on staff yet. I will be on staff, I guess officially, in June. All of this has happened since I got home 5 days ago. I still feel a bit out of place because I don't know people that well yet. I am also still figuring out how Horizon functions in terms of their decision making and leadership style. Needless to say, I have much to learn and haven't even scratched the surface yet. But I am excited and feel like this is where God wants me.

I am currently playing with the idea of a part-time job. This wouldn't be for financial reasons. I am brainstorming right now about how a pastor at Horizon (or any church) stays in touch with people on a regular basis who don't know Christ. It may take a part-time job for me to do this. I don't know. Any ideas would be appreciated.