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!)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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!

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