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