We're having parties, and a specialy party I went to....

First off I would like to apologies for not posting anything last week. With Thanksgiving my birthday(Nov 20^th), and now my wife's birthday tomorrow(Nov. 30^th). I am a little swamped and to top it all of I am attempting to finish all of the requirements for ordination in the United Methodist church as well!

OK enough excuses and down to the update....

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Well, Friday before last (i think that is right) I went to a gathering of the Vineyard Central network of house churches...that my good friend (becoming better each day) Aaron Klinefelter invited me to go to. It was made up of tons of people that were all friends and have the same passions that The Waters has for growing Christ centered community with each other but most importantly with those in the world that do not know Christ. The food was wonderful...and my wife loved the chocolate fondue flowing fountain! (I wonder if The Waters should invest in several of these as an Evangelism tool, heh heh just kidding…kind of, ha ha) But it was amazing to greet and get to know lots of people from all over the US and of course Cincy. that have the same passions and are actually doing what we are on the very starting end of birthing. I did not get to ask all the questions that I really would loved to ask these "bigwigs" but my wife and I could not stay long, but introductions were made with lots of people and I will be keeping in contact wit several of them to get any insights and thoughts they may have. A Special thanks to Aaron who's calling in life is to connect those people who need to be connected for the continued growth of the Kingdom! lots of great people doing lots of really cool and innovative stuff in this world! Wonderful time wonderful...... I think the closest thing I could call it would be a church picnic of great friends that also just happened to be a part of a house church network, heh.... Aaron has posted a little about it on his blog and given you a chance to read about others blog accounts of the party too!

two people/websites that I got out of the whole thing were these:

Bill Bean: Bill runs a website that sells books! He is just as cheap most of the time as Amazon...but where he can really help out is in bulk book buys....This is what he does for a living (as much as I could gather from talking to him...sorry if I am wrong Bill) And so I can not encourage you enough to buy your books from Bill in the future so you can support a great guy, instead of Amazon and growing the money piles they already make!

Bean Books

The next guy I did not get to talk to much (but I wish I had) was Jim Henderson Jim just finished a book called A.K.A. Lost Jim's website Off The Map (OTM) has been a huge blessing in my life...finally I found a group that thinks and lives like I do...it is so refreshing to find those people in the world that are a lot like you...to remind you that you are not alone and that God indeed is ding something among his people...not just among his one single lonely person, heh... (I know that is not the case with The Waters with all the support from FUMC...but finding your own kind is nice. I would encourage you to go to Off The Map below....it will give you all great insight into why The Waters is in existence and how we see this organic network of churches reaching the "A.K.A. lost". please go to the site and watch an interview!

Off The Map
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And as if that was not a perfect tie-in to the next update about The Waters parties I don't know what is. You see, when I went to the party the only reason I went was because of my relationship with Aaron. I trusted Aaron and he let me know what to expect before i came...and yes, it took a little bit of me jumping out of my comfort zone and especially tiffany (she had not met anyone before this party...and just had to trust me)...but I went, and I had a great time and I got to know lots of great and wonderful people! I joined for one night a community of people who gathered in the name of Trinity, to enjoy fellowship and Christ-centered-community.

This is exactly what our desire is for The Waters parties. We want to throw 20 parties by the end of March '06...so that we can start the process of developing Christ centered communities and organic churches that enjoy fellowship, communion, and discussion (not preaching) about what The Bible says about humanity, God, and relationship!

so, we had a party planning meeting and we had at the very least 25 show up to hear why and how they can be involved in throwing these parties to start developing relationships with acquaintances and such and see over time if they would be interested in weekly gatherings where community is grown and shared with the world. During this "meeting" we found out lots of great ideas for party themes, found out the level of support that these people were willing to support The Waters with, and started the thinking of people who in their lives could they invited to these parties that might not be Christ followers or church goers who possibly would enjoy a supportive, loving, and growing community in thier lives and in the life of their family!

So, needless to say.......now is the crunch time for the prayer!

I am currently in the process of gathering all the support data and forming out with one of the party coordinators where to start and who to contact for what to get the parties started! So, great news on that front....

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Well, that is about it for now...... I am preaching on Sunday 11th @ FUMC...if any of you would like to come hear a sermon about Advent from Revelation....it should be interesting and fun! heh heh.... until next time I give you my full gratitude and love for your support of The Waters and ask your continued support of it to allow it to become the movement the Christianity was meant to be all along!

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Oh, and I got harassed for typing long blog posts at the VC party I went too. I took the suggestions to heart...but man that is hard...... I love to talk.....and more often than not...I talk too much...so lets just say in the future i will try to be shorter in my posts...or I might look for some way to making it look smaller, heh..... until next post...God bless yall and please KUTPs!!!!!!!

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William Wallace: "There's a difference between us. You think the people of this land exist to provide you with position. I think your position exists to provide those people with freedom. And I go to make sure that they have it."
--Braveheart

UMC Young Adult Summit conference and The Waters parties planning meeting.....

Each day that passes is another step closer to watching God unfold the vision of The Waters making this ministry a reality! It is such a privilege to be a part of the Florence UMC and watching the members of that tribe come alive and catch the flood of passion that I and others have for working with God to see The Waters become a reality...and unleashing the movement that Christianity was meant to be! I thought I would share a few of the insights I gained from the first ever Young Adult Summit of the entire UM Church in Nashville that I just got back from on Saturday. Then I will share a little from the parties planning meeting that was held on Sunday....

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This summit was put on by the General Board of Discipleship of the United Methodist Church. That is a big list of words that just means that they tried to have at least three people from every conference in the US represented at this summit to discuss and learn how to better do/be ministry to young adults. And I am one of those "Young Adults" so I though that I might have something to say and so did the KY conference director of Y.A.'s too since he invited me to come it was a privilege to represent the conference I serve in and lots of fun to meet and see how other conferences ad churches were ministering to YAs across the nation! Here are a few of the things that I really got out of the conference....(but I must admit w/o being cocky, I sometimes found myself teaching at it more than learning from it..but that was part of why we came together is to learn from each other) So here are a few insights I got from the conference:

• The Wesley Project rocks! The Wesley Project is one that several people a part of Emerge are using the words of Charles and John Wesley's hymns and giving them new life with new music. It was wonderful...and much better than the recordings on the web...but they give you a good look into what they are doing.
• Post-Modern Worship can be a little weird...and a little bit fun..and a little bit deep...but all still good and can be extremely meaningful to several different people!
• Young Adult Ministry must not be broken down into age categories..but in life transitions: 1. Graduate from High School, 2. Graduate from College, 3. Enter into the working world, 4. Marriage, 5. Children.
• Here are a few things that the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the UMC have learned about ministering to YAs:

1. YA ministry is not about having a meeting, planning events, or being trained to serve on a church committee.
2. YA ministry is about engaging the culture of YA life. The church must be willing to tackle the hard questions, the tough issues and the real world matters.
3. YA ministry is contextual. It is a ministry that is born out of the needs and lie of the YAs in question.
4. YA ministry is a ministry of God going into the neighborhood and meeting YAs where they are and help them to discover who God wants them to be.
5. YA ministry is a ministry of trail and error. Some things work and some things don't.
6. YA ministry is a holistic ministry that operates better in a church that is holistically healthy.
7. YA ministry is a ministry that must change about evey 2 years as new young adults emerge.
8. YA ministry is a tool that can help the entire church be relevant.
9. YAs often feel that they are not taken seriously or appreciated.
10. YAs can teach a congregation by example to overcome church conflict.

(isn't it funny how everyone of those statements could and should be speaking about ministry of any church to all people not only young adults? These are what The Waters is attempting to be with the help of God!)

• YAs are a generation that desires customization..and personalization
• 3 Myths of YA ministry: 1. YAs leave the church after High School and then come back to the same church they left in their 30's, 2. To minister to the YAs you must have a budget and staff to reach them, 3. Your church needs t develop a contemporary worship service to get them to come! (man this is one of my most disliked myths, heh)
• The needs of YAs are:

1. A Place that is Authentic: they want more than saying that an experience is real, they desire TRUE reflection of self and that that is a welcomed aspect to be in community. That authenticty is so much more deep than numbers to show case to adults the "health" of a church. When did we ever come up with the fact that having large numbers meant that we were a healthy church? Do we care if those attending are truly having life transformation from the presence of Christ in their lives and in their community? How do we judge effectiveness by how well the people in the church are growing into deeper disciples and are (with God) making disciple-making disciples?
   
2. A Place that is Relevant and reflects the culture around them: They have not compartmentalized their lives. Barriers do not exist...so God, work, family, etc...is all one part of a sing life lived...not different areas in their lives...God is seen in their family life, and work, and passions, and recreation, etc...
3. A Place for wrestling: They desire to have a safe and non-judgmental space for allowing them to wrestle with meaning and application and growth! They do not desire to have spiritual truths and neatly packaged Biblical answers shoved in their mouths. They are not looking to be told the answers...they need and desire to find them on their own...or in community...but that the community is wrestling together...not one person giving the answers.

• A Parents faith is no longer enough to allow them to hold on to their own faith..they need to wrestle with it.
• We must never under estimate the power and effectiveness of stories. The Biblical Narrative and our own personal stories...and this will help bridge the gap of generations...because stories are universal...but they must be shared in a supportive community...and the presentation is key.
• Questions about God and the bible are OK and should be encouraged! God can be found in them!
• So in summary Churches who desire to reach YAs must:
  

Create spaces where YAs feel comfortable in pushing the envelope, asking hard questions, and seeking God as an Authentic and relevant part of their lives and life stories!

The Summit was very good considering that I went to it thinking that I was not going to focus The Waters on Young Adults, but that the Young Adults would be reach through this ministry and I found out that this ministry will be perfect for Young Adults as well as anyone else who might not fit the age group for "young adults". heh...

it was also during this conference that I (and probably more likely God) challenged me/myself to understood just want I meant what I said this statement, "I desire for The Waters to become a movement of Christianity, that eventually it would be the one creating culture and this culture would be Christ centered." I then took that to the ultimate extreme and thought to myself,

"Wait a second we must be in the world and not of it!, Can (and would it even be a good thing) for the church to be the culture creator? Would that be going back to the problems that a forced Christian culture has caused in the past? I love the culture in this world...ask anyone I can't get enough of it! If the church was the creator of the culture would it look like one big huge commune? Even a movement needs to move! But does it need to move into? Over to? Out of? etc..."

Yeah it is scary in their that crazy mind of mine...but all that thinking came to this...I think it would be better to say that we desire for The Waters to be not creating the culture that we live in...but to transform it...or recreate it into the image (i.e. grace, fun, creative, forgiveness, loving, etc...) of Christ! A movement of transformation of lives, culture, and the very world we live in. (and I realize that will probably take more than a week or two..but it sure will be fun!!! heh heh....

(please understand these are not exact quotes...I have elaborated to them as I added into them mostly my own thoughts and insights.)
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The Waters Party Planning Meeting

We had a planning meeting @ FUMC last night and it was a huge success! we had a great turn out and I was very please at the support and general acceptance of what our first thoughts of The Waters can start to be. I ca never remember what I have shared here on the blog and what I have not...but we desire t throw parties in homes so that we can start to grow into deeper relationships with those that we love and care about that might enjoy true community and friendship, and eventually possibly be willing to join a weekly group that talks about the Bible and the community they have found themselves in. So we thought a great way for people to get to know each other and to start to form deeper relationships and a community is for us to throw parties to start the development of relationships with co-workers, family, friends, etc...that might not go to church or have a supportive community. So this meeting was to share once again the purpose of The Waters and to share the excitement of what we are "being", and to allow people to show their support by choosing to serve in several different ways at these parties, and to join together in coming up with ideas for themes for the parties and general ways that would be help in inviting others to come to the parties and to start to develop the friendships and community that we eventually desire to build.

We found a ton of support from everyone that attended the meetings and a good wide rage of support for each area that we needed servants to help with! It was a huge blessing, and I believe that hopefully they left the meeting more blessed and excited about The Waters and God's moving us into being the church to those who need God and community!

A special thank you for all of those who attended the planning meeting and we will be in touch will all of them as we compile the information and start the development to the parties of the course of the next few months.

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Well, I continue to make friendships with those who live in Cinci, and Northern KY who are interested and willing to be a supportive structure for The Waters and I will keep those meetings up and going through this week with one on Thursday and another one on Friday night!

Other than this I am trying to finish my ordination process questions, bible study, and sermon to send back to the New Mexico Annual Conference so that hopefully I can become an Ordained Elder in full connection in May/June of '06.... So needless to say everyone please KUTPs for The Waters and everyone involved, heh.....

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"Albus Dumbledore: Dark and difficult times lie ahead, Harry. Soon we must all face the choice between what is right... and what is easy"
--Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Greenhouse and growth of an organic church (this is a LONG ONE!).....

Well, I finally get to share the insights from the Greenhouse intensive conference that I went to last weekend. There is a lot to share and I am not sure if I can or will fit it all into one post, but I really want to try to do that so that all the info can be found in one place. And I will not be able to share all of the information because I think that would not be honorable to those who put the Greenhouse conference together. So my advice is for anyone who is considering organic churches to attend a greenhouse event and even though I did not totally agree with the theology that was mentioned...I loved the presenters Neil Cole and Paul Kaak and 90% of what was shared I believe to be spot on and I agreed with and can be found in Neil's book Organic Church, Growing Faith Where Life Happens! So, with no further adieu:

• What you need to start an Organic/Simple church: 1. Drink Coffee, 2. Play chess and Checkers, 3. Listen to and love people! (I love this understanding!)
• "The Gospel says, 'Go,' but our church buildings say, 'Stay.' The gospel says, 'Seek the lost,' but our churches say, 'let the lost seek the church.'" --Howard Snyder from Radical Renewal: The Problem of Wineskins Today.
• Luke 19:10 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." So if this is true then it is God that is the seeker not the lost.....I wonder how this would change the term "seeker service"?
• Their working description of what "church" is: "The presence of Jesus among His people called out as a spiritual family to pursue his mission on this planet."
• The DNA of every church should be the same: D: Divine Truth (the dynamic and living presence of Christ in His Word) N: Nurturing Relationships (love for one another is to be a constant pursuit of the family of God. This is the most basic of Christ's commands.) A: Apostolic Mission (our mission is to go into the world and disciple the nations for their good and God's glory.)
• you can not have one of these without the others, it should be found in every cell of church life, it provides a pattern for diagnosing the health of a church's life and practice
• In most US churches these parts of DNA have become compartmentalized, for example, this is a missions committee and a nurture/growth committee, etc....
• Mark 4:1-32 is a huge insight into the Kingdom and what Christ's church should be!
• You have to start with a sower in the field, you have to start with the right seed (and that seed must be the Word of God), you have to start with the right soil!
• The one ground that produces good fruit makes all the other 3 bad soils worth the effort, 30x's, 60x's, and 100x's
• How it grows (Mark 4:26-29) shows how it grows...God does the growing!
• Paul Kaak in his simple/organic church uses the following questions for the discussion time of the Scripture reading in their "services" A. What did you like best about what you read? B. What did you not like? C. What did you not understand? D. What new things did you learn about God or his kingdom? E. What Idea or phrase do you want to take with you this week? F. What are you going to do about it?
• Neil in the first few weeks of starting a simple/organic church has those attending to commit to 7 weeks and each week he reads one of the seven signs of Jesus in John's gospel (2:1-11; 4:46-54; 5:1-18; 6:1-14; 6:15-25; 9:1-41; 11:1-46) and then at each gathering he asks these questions, 1. What does this story tell us about the way people are (or about human nature)? 2. What does this story tell us about what people need? What does this story tell us about Jesus?
• A church planting movement is: 1. simple reproducible strategies that release common Christians for uncommon work, 2. Witness and multiplication that is nature and spontaneous (i.e. no need to persuade people to witness to others...they do it naturally), 3. Reproduction occurring at every level and in every unit of the church life, 4. Interdependence among the churches, not unhealthy dependence nor self-centeredness interdependence, 5. The churches must be self-perpetuating (will continue to live with out the need of outside infusion of resources)and self-propagating(she will naturally start birthing new groups that will in turn do the same and birth new simple/organic churches.
• Their highest goal is not to plant a singe plant/church, or a single fruit-bearing plant/church, or even a field full of fruit-bearing plants/churches, But their highest goal IS the health and fertility of the land so that it will produce generation after generation of fruit=bearing plants/churches! And of course the highest goal is that Jesus would reign as King in al the Earth!
• some contrasts between institutional approaches and organic approaches to church planting:

Institutional approach--------Organic approach
seating: rows only-----------circle(s)
Environment: Anonymous--------Intimate
Leader Source: from institutions of higher learning-----from the harvest
Cost: Expensive----------Inexpensive
Goal: Deeper knowledge------deeper relationships
Church Posture: "Yall come!"-----"We go!"

• Lost people are not dirt or dirty....they are soil!
• Oikos Witness (Oikos is a Greek term that includes the meanings of a house or household, and many places in the Bible it refers to the fundamental natural unit of society...one's family, friends, neighbors, and associates (Acts 10:11; Philippians 4:22)
• God has places us in particular oikos contexts to that we might find him (Acts 17:26,27)
• For every Christian, mission begins with those who god has put in their lives (oikos) it is our stewardship and responsibility to grow it)
• The keys to growing your Oikos and eventually sharing Christ in it are: 1. time and availability, 2. A life that is open and being renewed day by day, 3. Hospitality, 4. Spiritual Intuition, 5. Generosity 9this has two sides thought...while you are busy inviting them into your home...make sure that you allow them to invite you into their home! (i.e. Zacchaeus story)
• The key to spreading the gospel may not be in your "Christian" oikos, and it is more likely to experience expansion through the oikos of a new believer!
• Where can you find good soil: bad people, poverty, young people, those searching for God, uneducated, etc...."Bad people make the best soil...because they have a lot of fertilizer!" <--one of their saying, heh.
• But you can even find good soil in the bad soil, by some of these examples: go on a ride along with a police officer, and ask them where the most domestic abuse occurs, or what neighborhood or restaurants have the most calls, check the local paper for bankruptcies or foreclosures and call them to let them know you care and pray for them, look up the 12 steps recovery programs and help them anyway you can...and you can find better soil if you go to the ones that smoking is allowed, heh.
• 2 kinds of lost people: moths and cockroaches. Moths will be drawn to the light and cockroaches will run from the light! Just show up with the presence of Christ in you and you will see who is before you. Our significant is most shown in the darkness!) I love this saying...because it is very true in my life...I "feel" God's presence much more when I am living in and around non-Christians!
• The busier we become the less compassionate we become
• The church must be conceived in heaven before it is birth on earth!
• So.....the bride must woo the groom to give birth to a new church...so spend time in prayer wooing the groom!
• Jesus’ missional methodology POP: Practice Of Prayer (Matt 9:37-38) The workers came from the harvest!, Pockets Of People (Luke 10:1) Identify these pockets of people for example, places like, cheers, or the coffee house in Friends (the TV shows), Power Of Presence (Matt 10:7-8) Where you go the king goes and where the King goes people bow!...watch the end of the last Lord Of The Rings Movie and you will see the kind of bowing I think they are talking about), Person Of Peace(Luke 10:7-8), and a People Of Purpose. (Matt. 10:11-13)
• Person Of Peace explanation: Read Luke 10:-8---"When you enter a house, first say, 'Peace to this house.' 6 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. 7 Stay in that house...Do not move around from house to house. 8 "When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you." This is the key person in birthing new organic/simple churches! This person is: 1. Responsive to the Word of God and is very interested in it for their lives, 2. has Relational Influence and are well connected to others, 3. and have a reputation (god or bad it does not matter when God get a hold of their lives if they have a good or bad rep...both will glorify God) Biblical examples of Persons of Peace: Matthew, Zacchaeus, Lydia, Woman @ the well, Gerasene demoniac, Ethiopian Eunuch, Cornelius, Philippian Jailer, etc...
• Assume that everyone has their own Oikos and will continue the Kingdom through it!
• Don't plant churches, plant the Gospel...and God will do the rest!
• How to share Christ in a relationship in your Oikos: the example of Christ: Jesus did three things when meeting lost people: Commendation, Confrontation, and Comfort! So lets take the woman at the well, Commendation (Jesus gave her the gift of conversation when no one else would), Confrontation (Where is your husband?), and Comfort (He gives living Water and tells her worship will occur not only here or only there...but anywhere!)
• if you don't acre then don't share
• If we want to grow relationship with others for God, then the key to it all is to LISTEN!
• Lost people do not want to be preached to; they want to be listened to!
• Listen for their pain, passions, and purpose, and in the midst of these find connection and develop relationship with them!
• Don't force anything onto the organic/simple churches....Let it happen indigenously with in that culture!
• Make the Kingdom be about Jesus...not a model...allow the organic/simple churches t have their own flavor...but stay in it's roots the same nature (i.e. Water, ha ha ha)
• We need to spend more time scattering the seed and reaping the harvest, not on the growth...read Mark 4:26-29 again...the growth happens because God does that part the worker does the other two...what would Christian book stores look like if we spent more time scattering and reaping than of growth?
• Life grows in stages so do not force the reaping of the harvest...we must think in phases and a process!
• 96% of churches in America today will never birth a daughter church........most Christians hear this statement ad agree sadly and it is sad...but what if you turned on the news today and heard Katie and Matt say, "96% of all women in the US can not reproduce as of today!" We would all be freaking out! We would be asking, 1. This is not natural to not be able to give birth what is going on here? And 2. What will happen to the human race?....these are the same questions the church should be asking....and it should be just as shocking!
• Lost people are not drawn to our churches, we have lost our relevancy, and so church shopping has become the way life for most Christians! So....we start selling our churches and start the sells job, we have the best, sermons, children's program, music, etc... (there is not much different between church goers and non-church goers
• We need to lower the bar of "church" and raise the bar/standard of what it means to be a disciple!
• A strong church is made up of strong disciples(2 Tim. 2:1), a motivated church is made up of motivated disciples (2 Tim. 2:3-13), and a reproducing church is made up of reproducing disciple making disciples (2 Tim, 2:2) (italics added by me)
• the best context for growing a disciple is in community (2 Tim. 2:22, 23)
• Te challenge of 2 Tim. is that we need to influence that expands: in space (beyond the driving distance from your church) and expands in time (beyond your life span "to the end of the age".....so for us to expand these areas...WE MUST INVEST IN PEOPLE!
• As a part of all of the Organic/Simple churches everyone is highly encouraged to be a part of a LTG: Life Transformation Group. These groups are made up of 2-3 same gender groups who read the bible together, hold one another accountable, and prayer for each other and those people in their Oikos that do not have a relationship with Christ. The LTG is the embryo of a Simple/Organic Church...it is the discipleship making component.
• LTG often last around a year and should constantly be reproducing and forming new LTGs.
• Reminders for getting new Organic/simple churches started: 1. Make it your goal to embed the DNA in the community from the very beginning, 2. Don't wait to get people connected into LTGs, 3. Keep the leadership that is modeled simple and reproducible, 4. Identify the emerging leaders to begin to invest in as soon as possible, 5. Don't worry about getting it "perfect"...........maybe for a long time!

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Ok, how’s is that for an intensive weekend recap? heh.... I know there is a lot of stuff in there and I know that most of you will not ever read it all and see if it will soak in...So I encourage you to attend a greenhouse event near you....you can find out more about greenhouses in your area and buy resources from www.CMAResources.org and like I said almost everything from the greenhouse is in Neil's book Organic Church, and I would recommend it to anyone who is thinking about these ways of being church.

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Currently I am deep into the planning of the block party planning meeting this Sunday (13th) @ 6:00 pm. We hope to get a lot of input and find out the amount of support and commitment that people are willing to give towards The Waters and a very important meeting for everyone who is interested in to attend! It should be lots of fun and hopefully, not just another meeting to go to...I am trying to make it be well worth everyone's time and energy.

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The first ever The Waters' budget will be turned into the finance committee of Florence UMC and I hope and pray that it will be passed and supported and then t will be the job of the stewardship committee and ultimately the church to meet the increased needed budget for the 2006 year to support The Waters1 Tons of prayer will always be needed for this endeavor!

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I am also leaving this Thursday to attend the Young Adult Summit in Nashville to find out how I can give some input into what would be effective ways to minister to and reach young adults as an entire UM church...so that should be interesting and I hope to share a little more about what we are doing here and see if we can find any others that might have the same passions and desires for what God is doing here and how we can help the United Methodists to do the same in their own communities and lives!

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I hope to discuss more soon. I have lots of other meetings with lots of other people that I am forming relationships with and joining their network/Oikos...it is exciting and fun to top it all off...but I have been felt lately that I need to spend more time in the Pockets of People places around here and perhaps develop a LTG-type of group. So please pray that God shows me where that place is.

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OK...well, I have spent an extremely long time developing this post and I am sure that several of you will not even get through it all, or will have to read over it over the course of a week, or even need to print it out and read it that way...what ever the case...please read this information and see if you can apply it to your ministry settings, and even in your own life? Who is in your Oikos? When is the last time you listened to them...and then commended them, challenged them, and comforted them? Are you looking for new people to be a part of your Oikos? Thank you for your prayers and please keep them all coming! And know that I am praying for you too! (Who ever reads this blog, heh)

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

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"Hub: Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love... true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn't matter if it's true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in."
--Secondhand Lions

The excitement builds...with a nervous level head of course....

Well, I have been to so many conferences as of late that I am having a hard time digesting them and applying them to The Waters. As soon as I have some time I plan on going over everything that was taught and really creatively attempt to bring the best of all that we have learned so far to further the vision and purpose of The Waters. I still need to share the second day of the Multi-Site Conference with you all and the three day intensive Greenhouse Story 1 conference I attended this weekend. So at the end of this post look for day 2 of the Multi-Site conference wrap-up.

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I continue to make several contacts that are living and growing organic cell churches in this world. I met with several people @ the Greenhouse conference that most were not in the United Methodist Church, but there was a laity couple that were there...but very frustrated with how to bring the organic/simple church model into the United Methodist Church. And while it is a challenge I do not see that it is an impossibility, but a challenge that could really be a a true benefit to the United Methodist church bringing it back to it's Wesleyan roots of Bands. But it will take a lot of discernment from several players with-in the UM church. I think it is very exciting..but I also am running into people that are frustrated with the polity of the UM church and how it has dealt with risk taking leaders and churches especially with church models that might not fit exactly into the traditional (traditional in the sense of the last 100 years) understanding of "church". This is not a problem...but a challenge to grow a re-newed understanding of "church" from the fist century model to the original Wesleyan model. So, we will be looking for creative ways to bring this organic way of being and doing church into the world that we live in.

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I also have continued to meet with more people in the Vineyard Central network of churches in the Cinci. area...as well as a new pastor from that network that is trying to get something started in the eastern part of Northern KY! So, great contacts to have and grow. And besides even though I have only met most of them one time...I feel some great friendships coming on, heh....Check out the VC's website and you can get a small glimpse of what a possible way The Waters could look similar to:


www.vineyardcentral.com

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I also got a phone call today from Bryan Sims (a leader in Spiritual Leadership Inc. That will probably start a coaching relationship with me and The Waters this upcoming year to promote leadership, spiritual, and "the starting process" development of The Waters! Bryan teaches Incubator groups all over the country with SLI and remembered that there was another UM pastor in West Virginia that had the same passions and vision for a Organic/Cell church and wanted to put me in contact with him! Well, excited to know that there might actually be another United Methodist in this world that might be looking at the model and challenges of doing these kinds of ministries with-in the United Methodist Church polity, and discipline. Well, needless to say we met over the phone and were both encouraged beyond anyway we could imagine! He old me that there is only one other women in Seattle that is looking at the same ideas we are looking into for the Organic church way of being church. So, we will continue this relationship and grow together in prayer, and help formulate each others vision for what God desires in both of our regions. Great great great!

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Oh, and after going to the Greenhouse Conference I realized the importance of leadership developing out of each of the Organic church attendees. So, there is a huge challenge of how to meet the UM polity standards of the leadership with in a network of Organic/cell churches....and then I thought about how my brother was excited at one time about the Lay Minister certification that the General Conference of the UM just passed this last General Conference...I really believe that this certification will allow this primary understanding or leadership development to occur...so I have put some phone calls into those responsible of the development of the Lay Minister certification..so please be in prayer for how we can use this new form of minister/pastor in the UM church to allow this vision we have to be brought into development! Great news...that needs a lot of prayer!

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Today I sent a letter to all those whose names are on the map to invite them to the November 13th planning block party meeting @ 6:00 pm in the sanctuary...so next is a sending of an email to as many of these people as well and then a phone call the week of to make sure we cover as many ways as possible to contact everyone, and give everyone an opportunity to make sure they show up so that we can start to form the parties in the Union area and start developing the relationships and friendships that will become the basis for the Organic churches with the purpose of promoting Christ centered community in this area!

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This week will also be the week that the Waters 2006 purposed budget will formed to be brought to t he Florence UMC budget on November 11th. This is extremely important that we are following God's desires and leading for the financial support needed for The Waters to become a reality, and to give the existing Florence UMC the opportunity to financially support God's dreams and desires to reach everyone who needs a supportive Christ centered community in their lives to transform them into lives with significance! Please poor prayer into that other aspect of The Waters!

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OK second day of Multi-Site Conference wrap-up....

I thought that since I am so very tired right now that I would share the two breakout session insights with you and then a few more thoughts from a few of the main speakers. Please know that this stuff is from the Multi-Site Conference and not the Greenhouse conference..that will have to come later...Thanks for understanding.....

Here are a few insights to be able to creatively communicate creativity:

Going through the way they develop the worship experience for each week:

The Message -- the central place of creativity
The Meeting -- the place where the teaching team leads everyone else into what the possibilities could be for use in the worship experience!
The Moment -- The one moment in the worship experience that is the goal and everyone will leave knowing this
The Method -- This is when the support team tells everyone everything that they will do for the worship experience from lighting, to songs, to sermon manuscript...via email and blog
The Mode -- This just explains the way how they get this info out to all of the multi-sites, and the key to to keep it really simple for everyone involved!
Then they
Render -- which a term that graphic artists do to make sure the entire worship experience is finalized and actually happens!
Review It -- Go over how the worship experience an find out what and how they could make any changes before Sunday morning.
Redo it -- start the process all over again!

the second break out session I went to was all about marketing or in other words 5 Ways to Spread The Word:

Word of Mouth: This is the best form of marketing..and what The Waters is totally based upon!
Word of Mouse: Use the computer to spread the word via blogs (sound familiar, heh?) email, E-invite cards, etc...
Word of Mail: This is a great idea, and one we plan on putting to use with The Waters...in this idea they actually create a personal invitation that the existing church members to take write a personal note to people they may know in the area of the multi-site church, and they even put a stamp on the envelope of the personal note to make it as easy as possible...very useful for a ministry idea like our that will be key to developed relationships
Word of Mouth 2: This time it is not talking about getting the word out...but this time it is talking abut feeding people and then talking to them to get the word out..for example throw parties and feed people and then develop relationships with others.....hmmmm once again I think that maybe we are going in the right direction? hmmm heh heh....
Word of Mass: This is mass mailings, or TV ads, or Radio Ads...and these are by far the most expensive, and least effective...sadly (that word "sadly" was their word so don't think I am saying this...but I totally agree with them, heh)
Signs: This last one was added from a former CEO that had joined their church and he told them they they can never underestimate the power of signs. So they spend tons of money on reality signs that they put up the day of the worship services and then they take them immediately down because they were being stolen...now this might be applicable to any of the Organic Churches that might be meeting in homes to put the sign up and down each day that the worship at that house, but of course this would not work for those Organic churches that would meet in a Starbucks, or Barnes N Noble, etc.....and besides if these organic churches are developed through relationships then signs would not be the key to our "marketing" and our "marketing" would be relationships and friendships!
Other: And they also talked about how important it was to be active in the community and of course put up signs and the community events, heh....

Ok main talks:

• Don't do "membership classes" do "fellowship classes"
• 2 Questions every asks when visiting a church: Who is in charge? & Who can answer my questions? and the campus pastor is that role.

two great things that Greg Surratt @ Seacost Church told us about were how they decide what they are going to put their time and energy into through this simple matrix:

I can not draw on this so it might be a little hard but I will try:

(side note...Ok well, the drawing did not workout so I will have to draw it for yall larer and then put it up for everyone!) thanks for understanding!)

1. Add a multisite worship at our current location
2. Add a multisite within 10 mins of our current location
3. Add a multisite in another country
etc...

Now they write up all the things that they have been brainstorming for what they know they feel God leading them to do and they look for the one that is High impact and low regret! And so after placing them all on the chart they want to do the ones that are Easy and have a big payoff for the Kingdom, they want to do a few that are hard and big payoffs for the Kingdom, and of course the others. So I thought it was a great resource to deciding anything in a church!

The other useful tool that Greg taught was how to help develop leadership qualities with-in every Christian and especially the leadership of the multi-sites and small group leaders:

the next one I will not be able to draw but I will try to describe it. He would draw a circle on a piece of paper and he would explain that everything inside this circle was their Christian life and everything outside was on the outside was the parts of their life that were not Christ-like. Then he would read to them John 14:6 "Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." so he would put a small circle in the center of the other circle and explain to him that this is the life every Christian strives to live, because that is the true life...i.e. Jesus. So he would mark six sections between the small circle and the outside circle, and ask where this person felt he was in his life in the following 6 questions:

Are you worshiping weekly in community?
Are you connecting regularly?
Are you growing daily?
Are you Serving unselfishly?
Are you sharing your faith effectively?
Are you giving Generously?

So how are you who are reading this post doing in these areas? Do you need to work on some of these areas? I invite you to look deep in your life and answer them honestly between you and God, and share them with someone who can help remind you to keep all these areas as close as you can to Jesus in the center of your life!

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OK, I need to go to sleep, so please please please, KUTPs!!!! And, spread the word for The Waters!

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Maximus: What we do in life echoes in eternity.
--Gladiator