Too many conferences...but well worth it!

I know that by now I should have posted about the second day of the Multi-site conference, but through some reading I found out that Neil Cole who wrote the Organic Church book is teaching an intensive conference on Organic Churches here near Dayton...so guess what? yep, I went from a two day conference near Chicago Monday and Tuesday...and then at the end of this week I drover here near Dayton and I have been meeting and learning from the author who wrote the book on Organic Churches...and this one is excellent...Still not exactly what we are looking at, but extremely close and lots of wonderful biblical backing for what we are sensing God desiring for us to be and do...so I am excited about what I am learning and I hopefully will be able to put up the best insights I have gained while here right here on The Waters blog! This is a wonderful conference and very great to hear that what we are thinking about is extremely effective and I believe very possible in a Tribe Extension model, but also in a United Methodist understanding. So, needless to say even though what we are dreaming with God to do is a very real challenge and some different thinking...it is still amazing to see how God is bringing us into a better understanding of what an unleashing of the Kingdom of God looks like and how we can join the passion of Christ for those who need a relationship with Christ! What a privilege, and an honor. I am so tired I will have to wait and share the insights of this conference and the second day of the multi-site conference with you later on. Thank you for your understanding and more importantly....Thank you for your love and prayers! KUTPs!

The Multi-Site Church Conference first day...

Well, today Gary and I arrived to Naperville, IL at a church named
Community Christian Church in the



"yellow box"

ready to learn more from the Multi-Site Conference put on by the Leadership Network. We registered, attended a preliminary main discussion talk that was a huge Q&A with the Sr. Pastors of the three churches that are putting on this event. It is interesting, and nice to hear the questions that others are asking about multi-site church models. Then Gary and I went to two different breakout sessions and Gary went to one that was titled "getting started with multi-site", and I went to one titled, "Building Distance Campuses".

The three churches and the Sr. Pastors that are putting this stuff on are:

Community Christian Church
North Coast Church
Seacoast Church

The Sr. Pastors

It just so happened that Gary had the Sr. Pastor of North Coast Church an d I had the support staff from the same church...and they both talked about similar things, heh.... but I think my got a little more specific info...but it was good for both of us...now what they are doing might not be directly applicable to what God is laying on our hearts..but this is still a lot of things we can take from them and apply them to The Waters and Florence UMC.

Some specifics that I can share:

• Every multi-site must be flexible and willing to change. The church from the get go and in the very DNA must be flexible to change any way necessary to make sure that the ministry will be effective. (i.e. restructure staffing, worship, leadership development, etc...)
  
• There is a central support system from the "mother church" to all of the campuses, that would provide curriculum, seminars, etc...
• They would not launch another campus unless they had a full time Sr. Pastor, part-time worship leader, and part-time admin assistant.
• They really believe that the different campuses must be regional in their focus.
• They encourage worship at al the locations of the church...so that they all understand they are the same church...just on different campuses.
• Some mistakes they made were that if the campus is more the 20 mins drive from the mother church that it takes a lot more time to develop and launch a a church and that they treat it more like a church plant.
• The risk of going into the red for a little bit of time to get into the black can be worth the risk if you know that the method will work.
• The Campus Pastor is KEY!
• Small groups and community are KEY!
• They use video feeds of the Sr. Pastor preaching at all their locations except the main location (which is recorded live Saturday evening and fed at the same time to three other locations, and then shown via DVD on Sunday mornings for all of their worship services and different locations.
• They use an amazing video series for their children's ministry called KidMo check this stuff out...it is amazing!!!

The last main sessions had a few good quotes:

• "Leaders like it big.....but people like it small" <--a great challenge for all churches and church leaders.
• The new Neighborhood is no longer where people lie it is: 1. Their Job, 2. Their passion (i.e. sports, children's sports, etc...) and 3. Station in Life (i.e. parent, single, grandparent, child, youth, college, etc...) The church must learn to be in the new neighborhood.
• Quality is no longer a luxury....it is an expectation.
• Quality = good enough....NOT excellence! (i.e. if you worship excellence, ten you will miss empowerment of others! When we make excellence key, we stop raising up leaders and start recruiting leaders....good enough will allow for leaders to rise up out of the church and continue a grow of the church instead of the programs. The story he told was that when we make excellence the key we strat to think that bigger is better and we start to have to hire out from all over the nation to fill a role of ministry (i.e. worship leader that can lead 4,000 in worship, instead of giving opportunities for leaders to emerge from the fellowship and lead 40 peopl ein worship and will grow them up! (probably did not do justice on this one..but it made sense, heh.
• Never aim at an age group demographic! Only aim at a mind set of people!
• People can fully allow and express differences and still love each other!
• Worship can be at a different: time, day, style, and location....and it still be the same church! Just do it for a few weeks and everyone will see the truth!

The funny thing is that so far I have not talked to anyone who is looking at doing what we are talking about doing! That is exciting and full of faith. I did talk to one of the directors of the multi-site church aspect of the Leadership Network and he gave me a few names so I hope to find these people and see what they are doing and if we can learn from them...so I am sure you will read more about them in the future....(I think if these are good contacts that this info would be worth the price of admission right there....heh)

Well, Gary is already in bed and I am here typing up this daily recount on this blog...so I need to get some sleep for a VERY long day tomorrow of lectures, Q&A, and then a very long and tiring drive back home! Please KUTPs!!! and know that we love and appreciate all of you!

Hopefully more this week from what we heard tomorrow!

================

sorry no movie quote this time...I am so tired, heh!...well OK here is one I have never seen but the quote sure fits well, heh....

Emma Peel: It's late, I'm tired, and I want to go to bed.
Strange Young Man: In that case, how would you like me to tuck you up?
Emma Peel: In that case, how would you like me to break your arm.

-"The Advengers" TV Series 1961-1969

Th3 waters.com, meeting follow-ups and work.....

With a name....comes.....a domain name.

It is common in the world of the internet for a company to have one name in the real world, but then their identity on the internet is different than the business. For example, Almost every average size town in the United States has a First United Methodist Church, and when you attempt to buy your domain name (i.e. the name you will have on the internet that you type in to get to a website) a lot of times people have already bought your name...so for example look where you go if you type in www.fumc.com (btw: I have been in this church several times, heh), and www.fumc.org, and www.fumc.net.....These are all FUMC churches...but each one is a difference site. So when I went looking for a domain name that is the same as the tribe extension name I found that all of the decent ones were taken...so then you have to start getting creative...with names like www.thewaters.net you get long term care facilities. And so you have to be creative on what your online name will be like dawaters.com or theH2Os.com and they are either taken and not being used or are so far from being a name that people could remember that it would not make a good name.....so we had to be creative and we came up with

th3waters.com.

It is common place now-a-days for a younger generation (including me) to exchange numbers for letters when they are typing...it means nothing different (just looks different) but can get a little confusing for those who do not know how to read it...but basically some numbers look like letters (for example, 3 and E, 7 and T, 5 and S)and several people are using them like that....so....the "e" in the word "the" has been changed to "3". Now this might be a little confusing at first...but this was the closest thing we could get that was not already taken...plus there are some wonderful theological implications to this number in the middle of the word, as well. (not to mention that in Hebrew all the numbers were letters..and just look at the Roman Numerals they are all letters) For example, Water comes in 3 different forms (liquid (water), gas (clouds/vapor), and solid (ice, snow)) and so does God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit)...so I kind of like the hidden meaning involved in the name...so long story short:

You can now get to the The Waters blog (previously known as the Tribe Extension blog) by typing in any of the following domain names:

www.th3waters.com
www.th3waters.org
www.th3waters.net

th3waters.com will also be the location of our website when ever we develop one to go along with the ministry! (yep...we are looking down the road with faith!)

=============================

Well, the amount of work is starting to pile up and up around me and it is kind of nice to tell yall the truth, heh... ask anyone in retail "busy" means "time goes by fast and they get off work at a time that seems faster than the normal day"...but this time it just means to me that we will get to start seeing some fruition from all the hard work that has been done up to this point and will have something visible to see for it. Not that we need something visual..but it does help motivate every one.

===========================

That visual aspect I am talking about are the house parties that we are planning. Sunday November the 13th we are planning on having a large group meeting with all of the people who's names are on "the map" and anyone else who would like to help with The Waters. At that meeting we want to share why we are having the parties, give them all opportunities to participate in The Waters in these parties, let everyone know the expected outcome of the parties, teach people how to invite their neighbors to the parties, and probably most importantly allow them to ask questions, and hopefully get them excited about The Waters and take some ownership!

I am currently in the process of developing what will be in this meeting and how to keep it all around 1 hour. This is an important meeting because in this meeting will be another opportunity to share what The Waters is and what we hope to give God through our service in it! It has the possibility to really gather people to be on board with this ministry or possibly have people not see what and why we are following the Great Commission and Great Commandment in this new and different way of living Christianity. So you can see that we need to make this meeting a successful one that shares the heart of God to be church and not just "do" church.

So, all of you who can make it please be at this meeting 6:00 pm Sunday Novermber 13th in the sanctuary of Florence UMC.

=======================

The meetings I spoke of in the previous post went very well, and I continue to make and create relationships (and in reality) it is God providing us a network of support and mentorship with those I meet.

the first person was Aaron Klinefelter. Aaron is part of a house/cell church network in Cinci. called Vineyard Central. He was wonderful to talk to and to get to know and has put me in contact with several people and websites that would be interested in what we are doing and I will be able to see how they grew a few organic churches in Cinci. (and elsewhere) and then we can bring into that mix a UM understanding using Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience. (not that they don't have these as well, but bring a UM view into the emergent discussion. Something worth a discussion on many levels...and who knows then we really would be going onto limbs that have never been climbed before) (you know I wonder how high this tree really goes...I know I would much rather climb a tree that go down a rabbit hole, heh heh.)

Aaron is a great guy so go check out his blog linked above and read some great deep thoughts.

=========================

Meeting with the Associate Pastor of Union Pres (Markus) was great we got to meet his wife and his wonderful little boy! We talked a little more about the possibilities of us supplementing each other and supporting each other! I can tell it is going to be a friendship that will be a close and growing one between us. Love you Markus....in the most mainly, heterosexual, Christian way possible!

=========================

I am now reading an amazing book that speaks wonderfully to my heart and (so far) I really agree with it...and I have only read the first two chapters, heh. The book is called



Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens

This book (so far) is summing up exactly what we are thinking with The Waters. This concept is not new to the church world in general (not to mention that it was very effective in the Early Church and then in the Methodist movement in England), but sadly most of the people who make up existing churches (including FUMC) these are radical new thoughts and ideas on what/who "church" is, and the question becomes not, "How do we "do" church?"...but, "How doe we "become" church? This is a great book and I encourage everyone to read it just like The Barbarian Way.

===========================

The next steps that we are talking about are the block/subdivision parties and the meeting on November 13th that we need to develop, organize, and start getting he word out about it.

Gary has given us an important opportunity to share to the church during both services This coming Sunday the 23rd to share for 7-10 mins where we are with The Waters and what is coming down the road. All of us are greatly needing your prayer this Sunday so that everyone can be as close as can be "on board" with our desire and passion for The Waters...and most importantly that they can allow this ministry to be a ministry that is dear and passionate in their own hearts and not just the "pastor's hearts". Please keep us all in your prayers!

May you all experience love, grace, and peace flowing from the arms Christ has wrapped around you!

==================================
Bruce Wayne: It's not who I am underneath, but what I *do* that defines me.
--Batman Begins

Baby steps into the elevator....(oh and WE HAVE NAMED THIS TRIBE EXTENSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Since the last post we have gathered all the names and houses in on the map of individuals that are active participants in the Florence UM Tribe and we are in the process of developing a contact list of households in two different groups the first group are those that live in the 5 quadrants that we have specified and then into subdivision groups that logically place the quadrants into subdivisions or street groups.

the next step is to have one large group meeting in the sanctuary sometime in early November to share what the purpose of the block parties are for, to get a judge on and offer different involvement levels of support for this next step to define the culture of Union by throwing parties to find out the needs of the community and to see if we can meets those needs.

So, we are finding a good date for a Sunday afternoon meetings and developing the contact lists in the correct divisions currently...and after this one large meeting we could have smaller quadrant meetings or even subdivision meetings.

This will also allow those individuals who love to entertain others to share ideas that they have done or could be effective in making these parties effective in the residence's involvement. (i.e. suggest what kinds or types of parties that we can offer and what kind of planning would be involved and implemented.

---------------------------

I have my first full day incubator gathering this Wednesday...and I hope to start to develop a good strong supportive relationship with others who are currently doing similar ways of tribe experimentation or planning on them in the near future. It should be an excellent arena for support, accountability, and brainstorming development. I am looking for to the meeting...even if it is going to be the entire day, ha ha ha.....

--------------------------

I also have a second meeting with the Associate Pastor of the Union Pres. Church who is interested in possibly partnering in this ministry tribe extension...and he just got back from a conference that he would be talking about and discussing with others who have the same passions and are or have been a part of something similar so I hope to have a great talk with him this weekend.

--------------------------

I also have planned a meeting date for a leader in the cell (house) church community in Cinci. He has a background in the UM and was very excited about talking to me and interested in this being an idea of an extension of an existing tribe. I am very excited about this opportunity as well.

-------------------------

I have been in talks with a creative marketing agency in Wilmore KY called Cre8tive Group....who is interested (and it is mutual) in forming a partnering relationship with us for the first 2 years of the tribe extension. they would basically be our marketing department for these years and would offer a huge needed option of marketing consulting work as well as the possibility of web development, print media...and what ever would be effective in a marketing understanding of the tribe extension. This costs money though...and that brings me to the next item.....

-----------------------

After speaking with our Sr. Pastor of the Florence UM Tribe..... the need for start-up costs is great...and the most logical place for the money to come from is a joint effort of the conference, district...and primarily the Florence UM Tribe! So...I am looking at the possible and attempting to foresee the future needs and costs of The Tribe Extension and developing a proposal to the Finance committee of the Florence UM Tribe to raise the current budget of the existing faith community to fund the ministry costs of the Tribe Extension. This is something new for me...and will probably involve even more fund raising from other areas than just Florence, the Conference, and the District....fun to dream with God and challenging to provide the opportunity of service and financial offering toward the Tribe Extension....lots of prayer needed in this area.....

-----------------

One other thing I would love for yall to read for this post is a write-up from the Barna Group.... It is describing a new book that Barna is coming out with titled: Revolution. I would encourage all of you to read this article that I will link to below and leave your comments about your thoughts on what is being said...and especially the challenges that are ahead of ministries like the tribe extension that we are living out. It sounds to be a great book and I look forward to reading it when it arrives on bookstore shelves.

Revolution write-up

(1st Start development Team this is the article I would like for you to read for our next meeting)

=======================

WE HAVE A NAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know lots of you might love to know that we actually have a name for the tribe extension and will very happy that I don't have to keep calling the ministry by what it is rather now by its name....

A little history:

When I first arrived to Northern KY....I started desiring to have a name for the tribe extension....Gary (the Sr. Pastor wanted it just to make communication easier...and so I started on the task....a few of the names I came up with were:

The Seedling (Isaiah 30:23)
Connection
Release
Significance
Trinity
The Catalyst
Revolution
Illuminate
Alive
Synthesis
Fusion
Union Fusion
Paradox
Crosswise

These are all really cool words that I love and I thought would be a great name to find one's foundation in....but after a few meetings with Gary...he suggested that the name be something that is very visual...he believes (and I believe rightly so) that we live in an extremely visual society...and that what ever the name is that it needs to be visual PLUS he wanted it to be inclusive to all people (not just something that would include only Christians or that only Christians would understand...and that would relate to all people beyond race, gender, country of origin, etc.......so I went back to the brainstorming table:

Living Water
Saturate
Saturation
Drinking fountain
washing basin

see a theme coming into view here, hew...... Well, I kept at it knowing and feeling that water was going to be an important theme and went looking for a specific verse that would use water and help me out.....

The Story
The Narrative
Rain
Cleaning Snow
Pure

And then it hit me....I knew how important it would need to be for it to include an entire biblical view of God's desired community of believers...and something that was visual...and so I did a word study for water in the Bible....and wow....I guess I never knew it...but water in one of the most important "objects" in the bible through out the entire biblical narrative...it is weaved in and out of so many stories and has an integral role in the development of a right relationship between God and his creation (i.e. the waters of the deep in creation, the Red Sea, The water from the rock, crossing over rivers all over the place into promised land, Baptism, living water at the well, washing feet, even flowing from the Tree of Life in Revelation....water is everywhere.....(and it did help that I have been fascinated with water my entire life...there is just something about it...heh heh)

So I took the name of the Tribe Extension to Gary and asked for prayer...he loved it.....
So I took the name to the leader of the prayer team and asked for prayer.....she loved it....
I told it to everyone that I cared about their opinion and asked for prayer....they loved it....
I then as the last step asked for the prayer team to pray about the name to make sure that they agreed with God and us that it is a good and right name to sum up the foundation of the Tribe Extension...and it would relation to the Christian and non-Christian alike....and the name became a reality that came from Biblical study, fervant prayer, and communal discussion....and so it came to pass that the Tribe Extension: an experimental United Methodist Gathering shall now be named:

The Waters!

Thank you all for your prayer and I invite you to join us in seeking out the Biblical stories that water plays a key role in them and share with us your favorite or if you like it as well. Please also read the article and tell us what you think....and lastly...please continue to support us in prayer! Thank yall and God bless ya!

=====================

Bob Wiley: ...baby steps get on the elevator... baby steps get on the elevator... Ah, I'm on the elevator.
[Doors close]
Bob Wiley: AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

--Bill Murray in What About Bob?

Where is my hat?

When I first started down this road of tribe extension and creating brand spanking new community for Christ...I had no idea that the wisdom of Barry Carpenter would be as spot on as it was at the time... I ask Barry who has lots of experience as a coach of other "planters" told e that the greatest difficulty I will run into is a lack of FOCUS. His words have been true ever since the start of this process through to today and I have a feeling will always be the case.

My role is primarily to help form and develop a new Christ centered culture and community in and around the Union community as an extension of ministries from FUMC...but I also have specific roles in FUMC that are a whole other hat that I must wear at specific points. And to top it all off....it is becoming a wonderfully exciting and challenging task of sifting through al of the amazing opportunities that God is placing before us...and through prayer discerning what direction f all the possibilities we should pursue and which others we should allow others to meet and grow in.

It is a challenge to know that this ministry extension that I am leading is and will always be an extension and never separate from the heart of the extension FUMC. and that my roles are in each place. (And they should and need to be) But I must not ever to forget how to keep my FOCUS and somehow form two hats into one. It is a unique challenge, and one that sure is fun...so to make a long story short...please keep the prayers for me and God's leading of the tribe extension and FUMC in these important times.

-------------------------------

Well, I need to take the time this week to decide how many houses and groups will need to be formed in the Union area (and possibly elsewhere down the road) with the current active families/individuals in FUMC and start the meetings with each group soon. This should not take long...but then the tedious work of forming a meeting and developing the meeting agenda will be my next big tackle.

--------------------------------

I am meeting with John Choi this Friday a good friend of mine for several years now who is currently getting his Doctorate in Hebrew Studies to start forming what we feel is a basic understanding of what is effective in reaching non-Christians in a transformational community. What would the feel of the group be? How will it look? Where should it meet? How would it form? How will it birth or such communities? How will it be structured if it even should be? How will it promote life transformation for Christ...and not simply weekly participation of one hour and then a new hat is put on after a gathering?

It is a challenge and one that is exciting...I hope to have a small glimpse of what questions we should ask and then start the first steps in sending the personal invitations to the friends we both have developed and see if we can start allowing God to guide our discussion and passion towards his desires for this world and our lives. Exciting yes...but in serious need of discernment and FOCUS.

----------------------------

I also plan on meeting sometime next week with a few people that have been "doing" house cell "church" for several years now and hope to hear some struggles and achievements for God so that it could possibly help our FOCUS to be on God and others. Very excited about this opportunity and hope to share more with you all in the near future.

---------------------------

I am also developing a God sized relationship with the Associate Pastor of Union Pres. and it really is looking as if God desires for us to do some bridging beyond denominations and develop a ministry extension of each tribe (FUMC ad Union Pres.) that is unified in passionately reaching non-Christians and growing effective life transforming communities with both Christ followers and non-Christians alike.

It is amazing when you honestly and prayerfully tell God that you ask for him to give you no expectations and allow him to guide you into a place that is so far beyond any box that we could ever place God in how he can show you glimpses of something so amazing that there is no way that it would ever be able to come from on of us. I guess one could look a what God is doing and say, "wow....that is so big that I am dwarfed by what is need to bring it to fruition" and then shut down....but then there are those crazy people like me and John The Baptist, and a few others in the bible (please don't misunderstand me I am not considering me equal to J. the B. but I do know there is a part of me that is crazy and insane or I would not have the feelings that I have) that would say, "Wow...this is crazy......OK you want what to happen and you want me to do it....well what the heck why not....if I die then at least I know that I will die having the time of my life and living every ounce of my being for God and for others!"

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I ran across a blog the other day and I think it is very interesting...the question that was asked by Rob Webber is this:

"...do you view God as the object of your worship or the subject of worship?"

I am interested in your thoughts...so please fell free to give your answer in the comments. I look forward to reading your view point. and please follow the link to the question where he talks more about it.

-----------------------

Well, thank you all again for your prayers and thoughts...and please never stop and remember you yes you are just crazy enough to join in this God sized dream of ministry extension...find your place and be barbaric in your following of God in his dream!

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"Buttercup: Farm boy, polish my horse's saddle. I want to see my face shining in it by morning.
Westley: As you wish.
Grandpa: [narrating] "As you wish" was all he ever said to her.
Buttercup: Farm boy, fill these with water - please.
Westley: As you wish.
Grandpa: [narrating] That day, she was amazed to discover that when he was saying "As you wish", what he meant was, "I love you." And even more amazing was the day she realized she truly loved him back.""

----The Princes Bride

(funny how the words "As you wish" sound a lot like "Thy Will be Done")