Happy Birthday to the Faithmaps Community

I just realized that on Monday 16 May, after 40,703 messages (an average of 847 a month) and over 350 members the faithmaps online community will turn four years old.

I began this group in May of 2001 just after I had resigned from being a part-time pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church (where Brian McLaren pastors) after realizing that working 2 jobs with 3 children, a wife, and diabetes wasn't the smartest thing in the world for my health or family. Building faithmaps.org and starting this community helped me thru my recovery process (my health had taken a hit after doing 60-80 hours for ... I think it was 18 mos) and has remained an enriching exercise ever since. I've particularly enjoyed the sometimes online faithstories small groups we've started from time to time and the intimacy that has developed there. It's a wonderful community with some amazing people and it's expanded beyond my ability to keep up with it!

Happy Birthday 'mappers!

Regarding the faithmaps website itself, a friend of mine who's a professional web developer has redesigned the site and I'll put posting it sometime soon.

(More to come on this later, but I'm posting this today because next week I will be somewhere else and out-of-pocket!)