gomertopia

Mark Lee’s Fav Third Day Shows

In this post on the Third Day blog, Mark talks about his top ten Third Day shows. He lists the 2004 Great Gomer Gathering in Houston, Texas, as his third favorite show. I started to put my comment there, but it started to get a little lengthy, so I decided this would be a better place.

That "sea of orange" in the audience was quite a sight! I'll never, ever forget it. I sent KSBJ email after email telling them that this was going to be the first Great Gomer Gathering, and could they help us surprise Third Day with a "sea of orange" by having everyone, all 14,000+ audience members, wear orange. How awesome that would be!!! Third Day would take the stage and be totally amazed at the love and support from the audience. It had been my fantasy for years (still is) that there would be tons of people at every show wearing Gomer shirts. This idea was just an exaggeration of that fantasy. I had no idea it could be as awesome as it was! At the concert, Dan and I walked all around the Pavilion, up on the grass hill, just looking at 12,000 or so people dressed in orange (there were about 2,000 hold outs). This may sound silly, but I cried. It was so beautiful! There was so much love poured out to this band I loved, our chance to give back a little of the love Third Day had given to us for so many years. Later, Third Day's manager told me that when Tai exited the stage he told her, "It don't get no better than this." Mission accomplished!

Of course, now I have the problem of trying to figure out what the Gomers can do to top that! Any ideas?

Happy Anniversay Gomers!

Wow, has it really been seven years since we started our Gomer family? Time flies when you are having fun! Our official anniversary is May 8, but I wanted to get the party started now! And what a party!

We have the new Third Day CD we can be listening to now, three months before it even hits the stores! (Just go to the online store at ThirdDay.com, pre-order, and you can listen now! When you do, you will also get bonus track that you can't get anywhere else called "Shake".) We have a brand new ThirdDay.com, with all kinds of fun new things to do!

And a brand new online community at Gomertopia! (Read about it here.) If you like Facebook, MySpace, or any of those other online communities, or even if you've never ventured into anything like that, you've got to come check out the new Gomertopia! This is a place for you to have your very own webspace and to get together with other Gomer friends. Sign up today and let's get this Gomer anniversary party going on Gomertopia!

The other exciting thing is that presale tickets for Third Day's big Music Builds Tour, with Switchfoot, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, and Jars of Clay go on sale to WIRED members the day after our Gomer anniversary, May 9th, at 10 AM locally (locally meaning at 10 AM in whatever time zone the city of the show is). You'll need to be a member of Third Day's fan club to get in on that presale. You can get more information here: www.ThirdDayWired.com

So with all this going on, let's put on our Gomer shirts and orange party hats and celebrate! Woo hoo!!! Orange cake anyone?

Happy 7th Anniversary Gomers!!!

Come On Home, Gomers!

I told you all about the new Gomertopia before it was opened. The time is here to come join! We have a lot of your friends and fellow Gomers on there already! So come join at www.ThirdDay.com/Gomer ! We're waiting for you! (Even if you don't consider yourself a "Gomer", come join us anyway! We'd love to have you!)

New Photo Album! Orange Elves at the Christmas Offerings Concerts

Third Day just finished touring with Jars of Clay on the Christmas Offerings tour. The shows were wonderful! And we Gomers, always showing our support for Third Day, wore orange Santa hats to the shows, to celebrate the season Gomer style! To the left, you will find a new photo album full of pictures of the Gomer festivities during the tour.

If you have photos of Gomers gatherings during the Christmas Offerings tour, especially photos of Gomers in orange Santa hats, please email them to me, so I can add them to the album. (Most of the Gomers in the photos must be wearing orange.)

Mama Gomer Interviews on HearItFirst.com!

Find out what I have to say about Third Day's Gomers in this video here.

Welcome to the New Gomers.net!

If you've been to Gomers.net in the past months, you probably have been wondering why the home page still advertises tickets for the fall tour from last year. I have just not been able to update the site. Well, technically I could have, but there were things in the way. This is what happened. Last fall, I got a new laptop. Problem was that I never found the disk on which I burned my downloaded copy of my website building software, and I wasn't too keen on buying the new version. So today, I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy the new version and finally get the site updated. (It was getting really embarrassing being so far behind the times!)

As I was looking at the software, and finding out that the version I had been using was so antiquated that my site would not have translated into it, but that it was okay, because I could buy the version before that for a hundred dollars less, and my site could be opened in that version (take a breath, it's a long sentence), I had a flash of brilliance! Or at least a better, much easier idea dawned on me. (Thank You, Lord.)

Happy Anniversary Gomers!!!

Today is the sixth anniversary of the day Third Day 's Gomer fan family was initiated. We started on the Third Day message boards on May 8, 2001. Propelled by a nudge from God, I started a little thread called "What Are We?" in which I asked what we, as Third Day fans, should call ourselves. Actually, I thought it would just be a name for us as Third Day board members. The hundred or so of us that gathered there every day had grown quiet close, and we really did (do) feel like a family. Other bands and TV shows and such had fanbase names, so I thought we should have one, too. We just wanted to have a way to identify ourselves as a group. We never realized it would become a huge worldwide family of 30,000 Gomers, many of whom have never even been to the message boards!

When this started, our ultimate Gomer fantasy was that we'd be at a Third Day concert, and the band would say, "We want to say hello to all the Gomers out there!" That was it! And we thought that was a long shot at best. We never dreamed that the Gomers would become an official part of the Third Day website, that we'd be on their DVD's, that there would be Gomer gatherings all over the world, or even that the band members themselves would become Gomers! We had no idea that God would use us to raise thousands of dollars to help His people through organizations like World Vision and Habitat for Humanity. All that has happened in the last six years, we could never have even dreamed of any of it. And this is just the outside of it all, the part everyone can see.

The inside is the important part. The heart of the Gomers is the real blessing. God has indeed given us a worldwide family. There is a real love here. So many relationships have formed, friendships, marriages, even babies being born, within the Gomer family. And all this has shown us the love of God through His people. He has bonded us together, and the seed of this is the music and ministry of Third Day. Without their loving and giving nature, we would have none of this. So today, on our anniversary, we need to stop and thank the men who gave us this family. Third Day allowed us to form and to grow. They continue to bless us with their interaction, their gifts, and the tools we need to grow and prosper as a family. Today especially, let us come before the Lord and ask Him to doubly bless the men of Third Day and their families.

Happy Anniversary Gomers!!! (For more about the history of the Gomers, go to the History pages of Gomers.net)

Do You Have Any Questions?

We are doing an interesting thread in The Zone on the boards. It's a chance to ask the Moderators anything you've ever wanted to know about the Third Day message boards and how it is run. We're getting some interesting questions. It made me think that maybe you have some questions about Gomer things you've been wondering about, like how do you sign up for a Gomer name, what does "yesly" mean, why do we wear orange, and things like that. So fire away! Ask your questions, and I'll answer them right here in separate posts. I look forward to your questions!

Join us for the GuluWalk worldwide or sponsor our team!

Saturday, October 21, 2006 is the date of the worldwide GuluWalk. This walk is to raise awareness about what is happening to the children in Uganda. It is also a fundraiser.

Quote:

Originally Posted on www.GuluWalk.com Our goal is to have 10,000 people each raise or donate $100 by Saturday, October 21 — GuluWalk Day. Reaching our goal will mean $1-million for the children of war-torn northern Uganda.

You know that the crisis in Uganda is very close to the hearts of Third Day. They have been talking about it all year at their concerts. Tai went there to see for himself what the children are going through, and it broke his heart. You can read more about Third Day's involvement with this on the advocacy page.

On October 21, as part of our Gomer Gathering in Houston,

Gomers as Ambassadors

Sometimes as I'm reading the Bible, things hit me that could be for the Gomers, as well as for Christians in general. Today I found a couple of verses that really hit the nail on the head. This is the first.

2 Corinthians 5:20a (NKJV) - Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us

It says we are ambassadors for Christ. I found two definitions for the word ambassador on dictionary.com that I think apply to us. The first I think speaks more to us as ambassadors for Christ, and it blows me away. It says: a diplomatic official of the highest rank, sent by one sovereign or state to another as its resident representative. Put yourself into that definition. Say to yourself, "I am a diplomatic official of the highest rank, sent by God to live in this place as His representative." Wow. God put me here to represent Him, and I am to let Him live and love people through me, as though Christ Himself were here doing it. That's heavy.

The definition that better suits the Gomers is much simpler: an authorized messenger or representative. When we attend a concert or a Gomer gathering, we Gomers represent Third Day as their official fan family. Listen to this little bit of an interview with Tai Anderson. The interview is about the benefit concert Third Day did in Houston with KSBJ in September of 2005, to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. What he says is something we've discussed many times, that the Gomers are ambassadors for Third Day, and they would like us to reach out and touch audience members that they themselves cannot reach. Download tai_on_ksbj_91205_shortened.mp3 (It's small. 41 seconds, 408 KB)

Now of course, when we reach out to people with love, we are ultimately ambassadors

Making Friends

I feel I need to amend the prior post. In it, I said, "Once you find people you have things in common with, and start talking to them regularly, you will find yourself making friends." I'm afraid that sentence doesn't take into account the fact that it may take some time and effort to truly make friends on the boards. It's not something that happens as soon as you start posting. I want to make this clear, because we have had people come on, post a few times, and then get their feelings hurt and leave because they think no one likes them or pays them enough attention. So let me give you a quick primer on how to make friends on a message board.

Love is all you need, part II: Putting It into Practice

The Third Day message boards is a unique community. Relationships are made there that span the world. People meet and get to know each other by talking about everything from the temporary to eternity. There are deep discussions about serious subjects, and silly chats about nothing. With the variety of forums, it's very easy to find a subject you are interested in discussing, and others who want to discuss it with you. Once you find people you have things in common with, and start talking to them regularly, you will find yourself making friends.

People are developing close, lasting friendships on the boards every day. And not only friendships, we have also had three couples who have met on the boards and gotten married, and three more engaged!

Board friends are traveling to meet each other and spend time together in "real life" (usually somewhere where there is a Third Day concert). Because we know each other so well already, it's not like meeting for the first time. When we get together, it's more like a family reunion.

The Gomer family began on the boards, and it's where we grow to love one another.

Which brings me back to the prior post, about training ourselves to love others as Jesus did. The boards are the perfect place for that.

Something for the Statistical Among Us

On the boards, we were talking about how long it has taken us to get to 25,000 Gomers. I decided to see if there was a trend. I thought there would be a larger number of Gomers added each year, but I was wrong. (I put the tours in parentheses so you could get an idea of what was going on at the time.)

• First year (May 8, 2001 - May 7, 2002) = 1500 Gomers all together, 1500 Gomers added first year. (Spring Come Together tour)
• Second year (May 8, 2002 - May 7, 2003) = 2281 Gomers all together, 781 Gomers added second year. (Fall Come Together tour and Come Together and Worship tour)

Happy 5th Anniversary!

The Gomers turn five years old today! On May 8, 2001, the idea of the Gomers was born. We have been a family ever since. What started with a hundred people that loved Third Day, has grown into a family of over 25,000. (Yes, we passed the 25,000 mark on May 1, 2006!) We have members from countries all over the world, including England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Switzerland, India, Japan, Thailand, Puerto Rico, Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Singapore, the Philippines, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, and the United States. (And those are just the people I have talked to personally through emails. I'm sure there are more countries represented than this.) We are from different backgrounds and different denominations, but our love for the Lord and for Third Day's music has brought us together. As we begin our sixth year, I pray that we continue to grow closer to the Lord, and to each other, and that this family of Gomers will reach out as His hands to do the things that He has gathered us together in love to do.

We've Added to the Family!

Every time Third Day goes on tour, our Gomer family grows! At the beginning of the spring leg of the Wherever You Are tour (February 16, 2006) we had 23,400 Gomers on the Gomer list. The tour ended on April 15, but allowing a few days for those that went to the last show to join, as of midnight on April 18, we had 24,935 Gomers registered on the Gomerlist. That means we added 1,535 new Gomers to the family in two months!

To show you how exciting this growth is, the first 1,500 Gomers took one year, to the day (from May 8, 2001 - May 8, 2002). The 1,500 just previous to the tour (21,900 - 23,400) took six months, three weeks. This growth explosion is due to the band telling their audience about the website and what a Gomer is, the slides about Gomers before the shows, and to all of you making new friends at the shows. It is also due to the generosity of the band in keeping all of this free, something for which we Gomers are sincerely grateful.

Anyone want to make a guess as to how many new Gomers we will add during the fall leg of the tour?

How to be a Gomer at a Third Day Show

Third Day's Wherever You Are tour is in full swing. From the reviews, it looks like everyone is loving it! If you haven't bought your tickets for the show near you (or within about 6 hours driving distance) the pictures and reviews of the shows will persuade you!

So what does a Gomer do at a Third Day show? It starts with planning. Well before the show, we are getting together on the boards, in the tour forum for our show. There we talk about meeting for dinner before the show (if it is a reserved seating show), or about what time we are going to meet at the venue to stand in line (if it is a general admission show). Sometimes, contrary to what Tom Petty says, the waiting is not the hardest part. We bring games and Frisbees and CD players to the line and have a party! We bring lawn chairs, and blankets if it's cold, and food! We get to meet a lot of new people in the line, and we have a great time together. The time goes by quickly.

Everyone wears their orange Gomer shirt (or their new black Gomer shirt). If you don't have time to order a Gomer shirt before the show (you can only get them online) make your own! Get a plain orange tee shirt and put your Gomer name on it with a Sharpie, iron-on letters, or fabric paint. Get creative! Show us what you can do.

We also wear orange . . .

What is a Gomer?

There are probably some of you reading this thinking, “I know what Third Day is, I’m a big fan. But what in the world is a ‘Gomer’?” Well, you can read the long of it here, or the short of it here, so I’ll tell you the medium of it here.

Basically, a Gomer is someone who is a huge Third Day fan and joins the family of fans here on the website. It’s free, it’s painless, and it’s fun! All you have to do to be a Gomer is to