Second OG still happening...just a little later, 3rd OG's 1st party next Monday, and website coming along....

Well, the 2nd OG is dealing with last minute vacations and family time until the summer ends...so they still desire to meet and experience the experiment, just on their own time...and that is great....they are supposed to happen naturally and organically...so no big deal....

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The 3rd OG 1st party will be happening this coming Monday night...so I am excited to be able to report next week how that went...please be in prayer that everyone invited can come! Even a few people that I have just met this week might be coming to it!

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I have had a few emails from the guys doing the website and they are very excited about the way the site is coming along....

(side note....It is always a good thing when when the guys designing your website are excited about it)

Most web design people have to do what companies tell them to do...and most companies are not knowledgeable about design...and then the design companies sometimes would not even want to pt their name of the site they created...because it is so bad...but here is my philosophy when it comes to hiring website professionals to do work for you (this might be all across the board...and I am guess it is):

LET THEM DO THEIR JOB! What makes a CEO or a group of people think that they know design better than the company that does it for a living? They have gone to school for it. They continued the read the magazines and books on the subject...so let them have fun!

I have told them (DD Inc.) over and over again...as soon as this becomes work then drop it and come back to it. I want them to have fun designing and working on the site....sure I want them to be challenged, but not with having to deal with me...but challenged to make them better at what they do. I am telling you IMHO (in my honest opinion) if they can pull off the looks that I have seen so far in a live website...then they really should be nominated for a Webby Award...it is going to be that cool and functional. Very exciting!!!

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Well, that is about all for now...

other than that I am reading books galore to get a grasp on worship, communion, and where Th3 Waters fits into the history and practices of the UMC!

PLEASE keep up the prayers! Thank you and God bless you!

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Ricky Bobby: Dear Lord Baby Jesus, I want to thank you for this wonderful meal, my two beautiful son's, Walker and Texas Ranger, and my Red-Hot Smokin' Wife, Carley
Carley Bobby: [raises hands] Woo!
Cal Naughton, Jr.: Mhmm!
Walker: [Along with Texas Ranger] Ow.


Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby

I really liked this movie..but this prayer time was a running joke about Ricky Bobby only praying to baby Jesus because that was his favorite Jesus.... it just cracks me up. I was reading The Emerging church by Dan Kimball and talking with John Choi Friday and I was reminded of the consumeristic church of today. So many churches have become consumeristic. They feel like they must compete with the world around them and so it becomes about how good the worship service is to those attending, instead of how good it was to God? Decisions are based upon what the congregation would like or want...when in reality it should be about God and that is where we should put our time and effort in designing worship to make the worship of God the key and how can we provide time and space to allow for that worship to occur at the core of people's lives? Baby Jesus indeed....because they might be some things in the life of Christ that you migt not like...but those are things that challege us and convict us...and invite us into a deeper relationship with God and with others. How is your worship of God?

Did someone press the pause button?

I know some pastors that would say that their greatest enemy is people's priorities, but I say it is just time and life. When churches and pastors plan, most set up dates and times for events to happen....but most never plan on life or a lack of time getting in the way.... well, we planned on filming the first few videos for Th3 Waters a few weeks ago and life and time got in the way...so now we are waiting on one more person to get the first filming date set and ready to go!

and.... when I thought we would be birthing the first OG by the end of this month, it looks like the summer has taken its toll on the birthing time... we have had several people tell us that they loved the OG and just have not been able to come back since they came the first time. So, we are very happy with this, because it really has given us a lot more time to think through the process of how to birth and allow the process to occur. So, what would seem to most people as a "set-back" is really God's way to taken care of it all!

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We are planning on having our first Core Leadership Team (CLT) Aug. 24th! This will be a meeting that Bryan Sims will come in and get us started with a year long process that will be a modified incubator that SLI and the Kentucky Annual Conference has been doing for years! I explain the CLT as the same as a board of directors if Th3 Waters was a non-profit organization (it is of course, but a church, as well). The buck will stop here when it comes to Th3 Waters, to a certain extent...because ultimately it will stop with Florence UMC, of course. Anyway this is a huge step to make sure Th3 Waters is a ministry that will go on way before we are "go"!

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It looks like we will be have a second party for another OG sometime this next week...so please be in prayer for all those that will be invited to this OG...

It also looks like a third OG will be starting their first OG parties this month (August 21st)! So tons of prayer is needed for the leaders, and all of those that will be invited... pray that they too will have enough time and life to come in and experience community that we all so desperately need. This OG (of all the OGs so far) looks to be shaping up to be attended mostly be normal people! So there is some very cool stuff going on...but desperately needs prayer!

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Other than that I would appreciate prayers for me. Anytime anyone does something new and different they automatically are sticking their neck out. Yes, I am sticking my head out and yes I am leading people into places and thoughts that they have never known...all for the sake of following God...but....the thoughts of failure still creep in and affect me every-now-and-then. There is so much that I get excited about and can not believe that is happening already and tons of amazing things that I never dreamed could happen in the UMC...much less the universal church...but there are times and days that time and life get in my way too, and when that happens doubt creeps in as well.

That is why it is so important to surround yourself with people (Community) that are willing to suffer and sacrifice with you to accomplish what God has in store for the future! I think God each day for people that are willing to join me in sticking out their heads for their God whom they not only believe in, but would join Christ and be willing to suffer humiliation and what seems to most to be failure...all for the price of following God with all of who we are! Thank you everyone for joining me in this experiment....from the other pastors, my wife, and especially those who are helping become the leadership of Th3 Waters to those who attend Th3 Waters....you are truly a blessing more than anyone could ever imagine to ask for....but alas....there is nothing that will stop me from giving God all that I am for the purpose to glorify him, and bring people into a relationship with Christ....it is worth the risk...and it is worth my life! Love to live, and live to love! Form, Shower, Flood!

...being blown away by God in words, time, and life! God bless yall!

In Trinity, D.G.

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Cleveland Heep: When I saw your faces, they reminded me of God...
-- Lady in The Water