Rethink the Website

Tonight we start our summer teaching series called Rethink. I'm excited about it! This evening we'll look at the idea of rethinking our faith (can you do that?). I am hoping that many of you will be challenged in your own faith through this 4-part summer series.

You might notice a few changes to the main website. We've scaled back the site just for the summer, with a new site hopefully launching towards the fall. We'll put announcements right on the home page, as well as on here. We left up the About Us stuff so that any visitors can learn a little more about Watershed before they check out a gathering in June, July, or August. We'll also keep the Listen page up since several of you download the mp3s.

Keep watching the website and/or Waterblogged for info about our June, July, and August gatherings, including locations and directions.

Summer Activities Anyone?

Some of us Watershedders are thinking it would be fun to schedule some informal gatherings on Thursday evenings when we are not having normal Watershed or staff meetings this summer. The dates that these special events might happen are: 6/7, 6/14, 7/5, 7/12, 8/2, 8/9, and 8/23.

I came up with a list of ideas, and I'd like your input. Click here to download or open the Word document with the survey form. Fill out what you think sounds the best, and email the form back to me. I'll also bring some copies of the survey to Watershed on Thursday.

Staff Meetings

Tonight's "Major Announcement" was the schedule of "staff" meetings. If you are on volunteer staff, or are interested in being on staff, then come to our meetings this summer on the third Thursday of each summer month at 7:30 pm. The specific dates are:

June 21
July 19
August 16

These meetings will not have times of worship through song or a 30-minute teaching from the Bible or any of the other elements typically found at a Worship Gathering. Rather our times together will be focused on the discussion of the "relaunch" of Watershed in the fall and how we can all play a part in its success. And of course praying together about these things!

We have assembled an email list from people who have submitted their addresses to us regarding staff stuff. If you would like to be on this list to stay informed of staff-related issues, then email me at erin.bird [AT] newcovenantbible [DOT] org.

Four Oaks Service Project

If you are the kind of person who loves playing with kids and getting involved in the community, we have an opportunity for you. We recently found out about a Mexican-themed event hosted by Four Oaks for underprivilidged and hurting children. They are looking for volunteers to help with games (pin the tail on the donkey, bean bag toss and more), serving food, helping with crafts, and just playing with the kids. Erin just spoke last Thursday about giving of our time and energy by helping out with children. They love it when we play with them because they just think we're cool!


Date: Sunday, May 20
Time: 11:30 - 3:00 *
Place: Smith Center (map)

*The event starts at noon, but volunteers need to arrive at 11:30 to receive instructions.

I realize the event is this Sunday, and the last thing we want to do is pull you away from your normal Sunday church service. So if you would normally be attending church at this time, please don't skip church to do this instead. But if you attend an early morning or evening service at your church, and are interested in participating, please let us know!

If you are interested, please contact Joe with your name and birth date at joeclark@joeclarkia.net ASAP, as Four Oaks needs to know how many volunteers are coming for planning purposes.

Gather.Grow.Give.Go in Proverbs 11

If you have attended a Thursday Gathering in the last 3 weeks or listened to the podcast of the messages, you know we are in a series about the vision of Watershed called "Gather.Grow.Give.Go".

Well, Andrea Sandoval just dropped off a sheet of paper here at my house with verses on it from Proverbs 11 that fit perfectly with the stuff we are learning from Ezekiel 47, especially this last Thursday as we talked about the fruit and the leaves in verse 12 and how those signify what we as Christians are to give. These verses are so good, I thought I should share them here on Waterblogged, so here you go:

verse 25 : "A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed."

verse 28 : "Whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf."

verse 30 : "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise."

If you have any other verses you know of our find in the Scripture relating to the images and ideas in Ezekiel 47, feel free to post them here in the comments.

All Scripture from the New International Version, Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

Major Announcement #3

Tonight the third Major Announcement was made as part of the Gather.Grow.Give.Go series. And here it is:

We are looking for a new location for our Thursday Gatherings! We'd like it to be somewhat centralized in the city, possibly free, and a room for childcare. Churches, bars, store fronts, whatever you find. If you have any ideas of where this place might be, please send an email to erin.bird@newcoveREMOVEnantbible.org.

Being Entish...

Tonight, during the "Grow" talk, I mentioned some Bible reading plans to help those of you not faithfully getting rooted in Christ through the Word. But I failed to have the website on the PowerPoint for those who wanted to go to the web and check those out themselves. So here's the link:

http://www.heartlight.org/devotionals/reading_plans/

Also, I mentioned ideas to help you remember to pray. I thought it would be fun to open up comments on this post and hear ideas some of you have to help you to remember to pray.

Going Deeper...

I got the following email from someone who missed last Thursday's Worship Gathering and caught up with the message via podcast. I thought it might encourage some of you to know that God is calling some of you (hopefully lots of you!) into deeper places with him. So that the attention is on God and not this individual, I've edited (with permission) the text so that the email stays anonymous:

Erin,

I just listened to the message you gave this last Thursday on Gathering. Something that always amazes me is God's timing. Just in the last few days I've felt a pull to go deeper with Christ. It's not necessarily a new pull, but a renewed one. I feel like I've been trying to do things to get to Christ but missing something. A friend put it best when she explained it last night: it's like I've been striving to get close with Him. I think I need to abide in Him and realize that His presence is already here.

When we go deep in the river that is Christ, he pulls us wherever he wants. I feel like I've been wading for a while now and wish that the river would pull me into the deep as it pulls those who are already there. What can I do to loose the grip on whatever my toes are wrapped around? Or maybe I'm wading in the wrong direction. Either way, I've again realized where I'd like to be and that I'm not quite there yet.

Tomorrow night's talk will be on "Grow" and we'll address for a bit what it looks like in the Watershed context to go knee deep and begin to go deeper in the river (to let our toes loose their grip!). I'm excited that God is not only working in this person's life, but yours as well!