Heading 2 - A R I Z O N A

Hello, friends. I am writing here to formally announce that Kimme and I will be leaving the Maryland area for Arizona sometime late this summer. Over the past year, we have sensed that God may be leading us elsewhere... and with that, we began to really pray about this. Just where was God sending us?

Ironically, about this same time our six year old son, Joshua, announced to the family that he was praying that we would move to Arizona. All of this was coming from a kid that had never been there, so we found it odd that he persisted in saying this for months. Coupled with this prayer for God's direction came something that I have put on the table for some
time: that being my education. I have always sensed that God wanted me to continue my education, perhaps with a Ph.D. so that I could teach on a college campus someday and interact directly with students in that capacity. Well, we started praying about that, too... I finally decided that I did not want to go back to seminary for this degree. Instead, I wanted to earn a degree from a secular perspective so that I might be able to have legitimacy within the evangelical
community (with a degree from OBU and NOBTS) as well as the world at large. So, I began to research various programs around the country that offered something that might fit the bill. Guess which one fit best? Arizona State University!

So... early this year Kimme and I traveled to Arizona to find out if this was where we were supposed to go. I met with the chair of Religious Studies there and spoke about what I wanted to research there: the emergent church culture, and or church planting as a missionary movement in North America. I was completely surprised when he said that he felt that would be a great thing to work on there at ASU! I walked out stunned, and joyous at the same time!

And of course, the question remained... would I still be planting churches? You bet! It's what I do. So, would Arizona be interested in a church planter that sought to go back to school? You bet! ASU has the largest enrollment of any school in North America with over 60,000 students. The effectiveness of the Baptist Student Union? Around 30 students... that's like .0001% of the enrollment. So, with the idea of reaching students while being a student, Arizona Southern Baptists were interested in speaking with me further. In time, excitement has really grown for this new church plant (which looks surprisingly similar to Horizon's original vision. ;) ) For the first time in Arizona Southern Baptist history, there are two
associations that have asked for the same funding for the same church plant. Both Estrella and Valley Rim associations have agreed to work together in making this happen. If that weren't enough of a confirmation, one of Arizona's most trusted and respected Christian men, Byron Banta, encouraged his church (Corona Baptist Church, Chandler, AZ) to sponsor this new work. Pastor Banta is truly an amazing man of God and Kimme and I are very honored to have him work so closely with us in this endeavor.

So, suffice it to say guys, we need to move. God is clearly moving us there... it's been an amazing few months watching all of this come together.

David Cowan