"The Fountain"

I don’t have children yet, but I imagine one the most exciting and difficult things to do is to figure out a name for your child. A name is very important because it sticks with you no matter where you go. It’s who you are and how people identify you. Someone recently joked that naming a church was probably like naming a child. It is a holy task that must not be taken lightly because the name a church is given will go with it no matter where it goes. The name speaks about who we are and how people will identify us. I’ll be honest, we took a long time to finally set the church name. That was on purpose. We realized that this church does not belong to me or anyone else. This new church is God’s church and we knew that if the church was to touch lives, the vision also must be God’s. So, we took a lot of time to ask questions, pray, get to know our area, read passages in Scripture to articulate the calling God gave us, pray more, test names to see what people thought, and did I mention to pray? 

At Annual Conference and until recently, this church that used to have no name, was given a “code name”. It was known as New Church South Forsyth UMC. Not exactly an easy name to say, huh? Thankfully after much prayer, I am so excited to announce that the new church will officially be called...THE FOUNTAIN - A New United Methodist Church. 

Why The Fountain? During the beginning of July, God woke me up one night with the vision of the living water that Jesus offers. I read John 4 where Jesus offers this living water to a woman who comes to draw water from a well. She soon realizes that Jesus is offering a different kind of water than she can get anywhere else. The living water that Jesus offered could satisfy her from the very depth of her being. Jesus was offering a chance to experience a new kind of life that comes only from God and one that can bring life, purpose, hope, and can make her whole. Isn’t that what we all want really? 

In Psalm 36:9 and other places in the Bible, God is referred to as the “fountain of life”. It became very clear to us that our purpose as a new church was to simply lead people to the “fountain of life” so that all can experience the life, hope, purpose, and wholeness that God offers. 

Another reason The Fountain is a great name is the symbolism we see in everyday life. A drinking fountain is something that we gravitate to when we are thirsty and it quenches our thirst. A fountain in a courtyard is so beautiful that it draws people who are complete strangers to it and collectively brings them together at the edge of the fountain. If you think of a three-tier fountain, the water flows from the top and then overflows from one level to the next. There never seems to be an end to it. That is a lot like the kind of life and love that Jesus offers too. We are inviting people to experience Jesus at The Fountain!