Why "Ripple"?

Here's the story and the meaning behind the name.

During one of my seminary classes, Multicultural Evangelism with Prof. Leonard Sweet, we were given the assignment of creating a final project that would express our understanding of the material in any format that we wished to present. I already had it on my heart to move to Burlington and create a spiritual community of some kind (I didn't know at the time what that would look like: a new church start, a spiritual community resource, whatever) so I decided to design a website that would express the purpose of this hypothetical community. In the process of building, I came up with a name that would describe the central mission I intended to express: Ripple. At the time it also had a tag line: Disorganized Religion for the Spiritually Thirsty.

Well, fast forward a few years and again I was presented with a spiritual community in need of a name. My intention was not to impose my preconceived notion upon a group I was still getting to know, but when asked for ideas I explained my previous vision of Ripple. To my delight (and, frankly, surprise) it was met with, not only acceptance, but excitement! So I mulled it over a little longer and then presented it to a few other people. Again, an energetic response. Over and over it has been presented and almost always the response has been positive, very positive. So it seems to be sticking.

So what is the metaphor that Ripple represents? Truth be told, it is not limited to one metaphor. (which makes it more fun!) Below are two of the primary metaphors behind the name Ripple.

This can be found right on our website homepage:
"We never quite know how one small action, inspired by love to bring about peace, might ripple out and change the world. "

The other is the concept of ripples of peace starting from each of us when we are peaceful and flowing out to our families, then our friends, our communities, and into the world beyond. This is the basis of our Ripple Prayers (you can find examples of this on our website).

Because it is such a rich metaphor and is easy to say, to remember, and to use with young people, Ripple has stuck.

May the ripple effect change the world one small action at a time!

Peace Words

(read text below to know all of what was written in the picture)

Starting from Peace:

1) Faithful stories
2) Mission trips
3. Outreach
3) Trust
4) Music
5) Protest
6) Confidentiality
7) Taize
8) Worship
9) Healing
10) Drama
11) Relationship
12) News Articles
13) Learning
14) Mission activities
15) Communicating
16) Confidence
17) Leadership
18) Friendship
19) Loving
20) Food shelf/Soup Kitchen
21) Care
22) Donations
23) Life
24) Laughter
25) Nature walk
26) Kindness
27) Service projects
28) Compassion
29) Feeding
30) Joy
31) Rock Climbing
32) Self-Discovery
33) Other churches and other regional organizations
34) Peace
35) Helping the community
36) Love
37) Discipleship
38) Mission Trips to world countries
39) Helping others and making things that bring peace and comfort and giving to those in need
40) Being a friend
41) Friendship for life
42) Dealing with life with Christ
43) Holiday plays
44) Rope courses
45) Singing and talking on the road
46) Soul friends
47) Poetry Bash
48) Camping trips/ god camps
49) Respect
50) Meditation
51) Feeding the hungry
52) Art
53) Fun
54) Growth
55) Healing worships
56) Justice and doing good
57) Writing campaigns
58) Equality, brotherhood, and sisterhood