Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Houston we have a problem...but it is a good problem...

Hello! Th3 Waters is going great! (I had to get that out of the way so no one freaks out, heh) But the first OG is going so well, that we are slowly becoming too large for really good discussion....so....we are going through the growing pains of birthing another OG! While each week we remind each other that we are not in existance for ourselves and that our purpose is to invite others to this community so that we will some day birth another OG....it is still hard. It is human nature to desire to continue to be with friends, but it is the nature of God to share this good news with this world as well. And the great news is that hopefully 1 or 2 times a month we will all get together every now and then do do some form of living out loud (IEEE mission work). So we will not always be apart!

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The website guys are finishing Th3 Waters' logos. I know I know...yes they are finished...but they will be sending me an entire booklet with the regulations on how it is to be used and they will give us some black and white versions...etc.... And they will also be starting to send me a few possible web design possibilities for the website soon! woo hoo! I can't wait!

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Apple just released a new update for the video editing software for the new laptop....GREAT news!!! So............ that means that I get to spend tons of time learning a new program and all the technical wording to do what I want the program to be able to do... I was just telling the staff I wish there was a basic video/filming class I could take around here (for free) to learn the basics and then go from there)...but I have plenty of friends that can teach me...it is just a matter of time to find out when I can meet with everyone!

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Our huge Th3 Waters meeting is this Sunday 4th @ Florence UMC in the sanctuary from 3:00 pm til 4:30 pm. We hope that this will be a time that everyone in Florence can ask questions, but more importantly really start to get involved in Th3 Waters! The participation at this meeting will be a huge impact on Th3 Waters....so I can not express to yall enough the need for prayer for this meeting...and participation and support form Florence! The OG that we will start to plan and form at this meeting will be the future of Th3 Waters!

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We have a new leader for Our prayer Ministry for Th3 Waters!!!!! Kathy Lee will be taking over for Val the Prayer Waves ministry! The Prayer Waves is a weekly email sent out to anyone who desires to be in prayer for Th3 Waters! KathyLee will be reading this blog and calling me to get weekly email updates out to anyone who desires to be in prayer for Th3 Waters! This transitions will be happening soon so if you want to be put on that list please just send me an email and I will be more than happy to put you on it! (dg@florenceumc.com) Thank you!

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Well other than that I will be gone next week in Texas. (Tiffany and I are being ordained in full connection with the United Methodist Church!!!!) It will happen on the evening of the 9th...so we are excited about it..but also a little stressed out because of how import the summer is to Th3 Waters because that is when we are starting to throw the parties for the OGs....I know that my presence is never needed for God to work...but it is still a prayer concern on the back of my mind...and to top it all off....we will be gone again two weeks after next week! So I will only be here for around the total amount of 2 weeks in June! So...Needless to say it will be fun...getting back into the swing of things! So...lots of prayer needed there for my part as well!

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Thank you all so much for your care and support and prayer for Th3 Waters! I can not tell you how much I love and cherish each and every one of yall! Take care, God bless, and KUTPs!!!!

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Nanny McPhee: How's the reading coming along?
Evangeline: Oh... alright. I still haven't gotten to the end of the story, though.
Nanny McPhee: There's no need. You are the end of the story.

Funny how this could be true of each of our lives with The Bible! Is it your story? Are you a part of the story of God in this world? Why not live your life as if you are?! There is no telling how your life can change this world for God...might as well try and enjoy the ride!

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

new logo!

Here is the final logo for Th3 Waters! The first one is the main logo...and the second one will be used if there is a need for the logo to be increased in it's length instead of it's height. Here you go 4 months in the making:



and the second one:



And all of this means that yes....the website is coming next! KUTPs!!!

Saturday, May 20, 2006

A few pictures, logo almost done, and mark your calendars June 4th 3-4:30 pm!!!!!

Well, this week has been a good week for Th3 Waters!

The logo is almost done...And it looks GREAT! I really wish I could show it to you..but the Design District Inc. guys told me that they want to do just a few more touch-ups and then it will be ready for viewing! I am serious....I really want to show it off. It has been in the making for three months now and they even showed me a few samples of what it might look like with the text on the side of the logo instead of underneath it..and it just looks great! The side text will just give us more options to be able to use the logo in different ways...for example the normal logo will be everywhere, website, videos, etc...but the text "Th3 Waters" and maybe a little more will be on the side of the logo when you need more room, for example like on letter head or envelopes, etc... I showed the almost final logo to 2-3 OG people last night (Friday night) and they loved it! So I am getting more and more excited about showing the logo off and getting started on the website! Look for it soon!

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I wanted to take a few pictures of the 1st OG and show them to you....but the best photographer Scott could not make it last night...so I used my little tiny camera...and it works OK, but in the dark or in artificial light it tends to be a little grain filled and dark...but I think it is important to show yall a little of the blast that is worship with Th3 Waters at an OG....And if I can remember I will take a few pictures today with the 2nd OG as well...but for now here are last night's pictures:



Well, there is not much more to tell you about other than we are gearing up for the big meeting this June 4th from 3:00 pm - 4:30pm @ Florence UMC. Everyone who desires to know more about Th3 Waters really needs to come and see where we are, where we have come from so far, and where we are heading into the future...so if you are reading this and care at all about Th3 Waters....please plan to come!


Until next time KUTPs!!!!

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

What's up Doc?

Well, Th3 Waters has just been having tons of fun! I have great news...the final logo for Th3 Waters will be finished probably within the week (not sure, but we have finalized the logo to the picture, and the text...now it is just a little fixing here and there and it will be ready for the world...or in our case the blog and maybe my business cards, heh. Soon it will be plastered all over the videos we will create, the website, and if we ever need to do envelopes and stationary, then there too! it is nice to get the logo taken care of because it will fuel the design and work of the website...that has already started! Thanks to Design District Inc. it will be coming and hopefully finished by the end of the summer. We are kind of shooting for the website to be ready to go by the middle or end of August.

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I will be attending a Vineyard Central Leadership training meeting this Saturday afternoon! I hope to be able to talk to several people and get a feel about how they have over the past 10 years formed their leadership and grown their house churches. I am really looking forward to this so we can take the next steps and really flesh out how we will be doing our leadership development once the other OGs start in August.


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I am also planning on taking a trip to the West Ohio Conference to talk to a few people on how to bring the "emergent Discussion" into the UMC. My good friend, my professor, District Superintendent Dr. Tom Tumblin has invited me so we are working gout the dates for that time of discussion. I am very excited about this meeting. I believe with all of my heart that what Th3 Waters is being has implications for the entire UMC. I have been told that by several people, but what we are doing just feels and looks right from the core of my being and through the logic (Spock like) mind of mine. It just makes sense, is natural, and bringing God into the very cultural of the world! It is filled with a humble excitement that is about to flood this world with hope, grace, and love found in authentic community! We are so blessed and honored to be the hands and feet of God through Th3 Waters! Please continue t keep all of this in your prayers!

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I am also attempting to look for continuing education opportunities. There are tons of conferences out there for church planting, church growth, creative worship planning, multi-site church development...but I have not found anything yet that is existing the way that we feel led by God to be. So I am wondering if I can find churches out there that I could spend part of a week @ getting to know the pastors and communities and searching them for application for Th3 Waters. I hope to talk to a few authors of books that I appreciate and see if they have suggestions on who to visit, so please be in prayer about that.

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Other than that we have a huge meeting Sunday June 4th that we are inviting the entire Florence UMC to attend if they are at all interested in Th3 Waters. We will get to have some time to answer questions and allow for me and maybe a few others to tell them what Th3 Waters has meant to them. I am hoping to send out more information to those who attended the last big meeting we had so they can be notified of the event and it is our desire to really get people serious about attending some parties that will eventually develop into OGs. This will be a very important meeting to let Florence know what we have done and what we are doing in the near future...and to beg...uh I mean invite them to help Th3 Waters to become what God desires for it to be! Please be in prayer for this event!

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Also Sunday 28th in both services Eric McAlister will be sharing about Th3 Waters and where we are headed and hopefully peak people's interest to desire to make it to the June 4th meeting! The more people we can have at this meeting the better! So pray for a good response from Florence UMC!!

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Well, that is all that is coming to mind right now. There are so many things I am doing that I have a hard time sitting down to share them....(and I have a hard time each week even finding time to post them on this blog, ha ha) but I hope and pray that this blog is allowing you to better be in prayer for Th3 Waters and the work the God is doing through us! Transforming lives in authentic community so that the Kingdom of God is unleashed! Amen!

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Red: [narrating] I must admit I didn't think much of Andy first time I laid eyes on him; looked like a stiff breeze would blow him over. That was my first impression of the man.

-- The Shawshank Redemption

What are people's first impressions of you or your Christ community? Do they see you, or do they see Christ? Join us on working out in our lives and communities the second option when it comes to impressions!

Thursday, May 11, 2006

Hind sight is 20/20 ever wonder what we have been doing for the last year?

First off in this post I would like to share with everyone what we have accomplished so far...so here goes:

  • We have completed the Culture Scan to find that our scan of culture is different than most church plants and that we must put our focus on the friends, family, and co-workers of those attending Florence UMC instead of a general demographics study of a particular localized geographic region. We have found that since the focus is on relationships, the geographic region is less of a concern than the already formed relationships of those who attend and worship at Florence UMC. (see the M.A.P. For more information)
  • We have completed the Prayer strategy found in the M.A.P. This includes forming a prayer team @ Florence UMC that focuses on specific prayers for Th3 Waters. They meet once a month to pray for Th3 Waters and there is a weekly email sent to anyone in the Florence UMC that is interested in praying for Th3 Waters. This group is led by one individual that in turn is developing a similar mentoring relationship with someone in this prayer group and they in turn will birth another prayer group to be in prayer for Th3 Waters. Currently this one group is meeting once a month and sending out prayer emails (prayer waves) Also in each of the Organic Gatherings we support one another with prayer and care.
  • We started the 1st Organic Gathering (OG) in Jan. ‘06 with 4 couples. Since we started we have grown to 14 and two children) all of these people have been invited to the OG and are natural friends or co-workers of those who started the OG from the start. One of the individuals who has started to join us came from us meeting in a Starbucks and he was @ the Starbucks for other reasons, and overheard us discussing the bible and asked if he could join us. (Of course we welcomed him, and proved the theory of purposefully meeting in public spaces not only for encouraging lifestyle worship, but also to be invitational as a community to the world!) So far only one couple are what we would consider “normal”, but this will increase as we continue to invite others to join the OG. We are currently praying for almost two dozen ‘normal’ people to invite to the Organic Gathering.
  • Grooming future Organic Gathering leaders from this first Organic Gathering through personal relationship and mentoring.
  • We started our second OG March ‘06. This OG is made-up of potential OG Discussion Leaders from Florence UMC. We have 12 people so far and 4-5 children. This is wonderful to help us deal with children in Worship, and everyone so far has seemed to really love the discussion. This OG has been even more active online with their discussion throughout the week then the 1st OG. It is expected that this OG will eventually become OG Discussion Leaders of join Th3 Waters Core leadership team.
  • We have developed a Leadership Growth Strategy through a relationship with SLI and have formed a coaching relationship with SLI and Bryan Sims, including working with a website called iteamwork.com to develop a performance plan that is dynamic and ever changing to always stay on track and focused on the next steps of Th3 Waters. I drive to Lexington to meet with Bryan Sims monthly for personal coaching. SLI will begin meeting with us in the summer to develop the core leadership team.
  • We have developed a logo and the deeper work of a website is in the process. This is extremely important for Th3 Waters, because the central hub of the ministry will be the Website. I have been meeting with Design District Inc. to create this integral part of Th3Waters.
  • Each OG has their own blog to continue the discussion each week after the OG. I create the discussion questions and facilitate the discussion.
  • I sent out weekly emails of prayer requests (What is up with your life), announcements, lists of Normals, and invitation to the blog to each Organic Gathering member.
  • We are possibly forming an all men’s OG to be launched when they can begin.
  • We are setting up summer parties for this summer to start the official OG’s with the normal friends, family, and co-workers of Florence UMC members, with the expectation of starting the first 8 week commitment of these OGs in Aug ‘06.
  • We have completed the written curriculum for the first 16 weeks of each OG and even have children’s activities for each OG.
  • We are in the development stage for videos to introduce each organic gathering discussion. The filming and editing of these videos will happen in the summer and will be available via video Ipod for the launch of the organic Gatherings in August.
  • The developed OG curriculum is developed each week meeting with a core pastoral team each Friday morning. We meet for about 4 hours each Friday to discuss the scripture and discussion questions.
  • I have stared and developed a strong relationship with other “emerging” church ministries in Cincinnati that is serious about supporting Th3 waters any way they can. (Vineyard Central Church).
  • Continue to develop strong relationships with Florence UMC members to make sure they have continued opportunities to support Th3 Waters financially, word, and work.
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Ok, it is just nice to think about what we have done over the course of one year...so ion the next post I will tell yall what is going on this and last week....it might be tomorrow, heh...(or later, heh heh)

Thank you all for your prayers and thoughts during this last year!!! These are the fruits of all of our labor, prayer, and passion for following Christ! God has chosen us to create a new comunity of Christ in this world.. what an asweome responsibility (not many people can ever say that they were a part of join God in birthing a new community for Christ!!!!)...and blast to live out into this world...and we had only just begun!!! Please stay faithful..spread the word of God's movement in Th3 Waters and Florence UMC.... God is doing so much...so lets continue to take our faithfullness to new levels and consider the importance of the covenant we have all made with God! Love yall and thank you for your pssionate following of God! Thank you thank you thank you!

In Trinity,
D.G.