Gomer FAQs -- Please Read!

**Corrine** · #1 03-08-2003

If you are new to the Third Day message boards, this is a good place to start. If you are not new, read the FAQs anyway. You just might find something you didn't know about.

**Corrine** · #2 03-08-2003

What is a Gomer?

If you are new to the Third Day boards, first let me say Welcome!

Next, let me direct you to the place where you can find out all about Gomerism, like what it is, why we chose the name, and what all it means. Just go to The Official Gomer Website at www.Gomers.net . When you have read all about it, if you still have questions, feel free to ask. I am here to help.

Basically, a Gomer is one of Third Day's "psycho fans" (according to Mac Powell), and it's all just for fun! Everyone is welcome, there are no rules or conditions for joining. You just need to be a Third Day fan!

How do I become a Gomer?

Simply go to www.Gomertopia.com and register!

What is a Gomer name?

We Third Day fans are a family. For fun, we use "Gomer" as our last name, our family name. The Gomer name you come up with will be your "first name." You can use your nickname, your message board screen name, or anything you'd like. Positive names are preferred. My favorites are names that speak in faith about the person, such as HearingHisVoice Gomer, or Close2Him Gomer, but there are also names about hobbies, and everything else.

How do I get a Gomer name?

When you go to www.Gomertopia.com and register, you will become a Gomer and have a Gomer name.

Can I have any name I want?

Yes, but each name, like the Gomer who owns it, is unique! It is possible to have the same name as someone else, if you spell it differently, such as CloseToHim Gomer and Close2Him Gomer.

How long will it take before my name is registered and on the list?

It is instantaneous!

What is the significance of the Gomer numbers?

There really is no significance, other than your place on the Gomer Names List. Like everything else about Gomerisim, the number is just for fun.

If you would like to see your number, you will need to go to the page of the list your name is on. To quickly go to the page, cut and paste this address into your browser: http://www.thirdday.com/cgi-bin/gomer/browse.py?page=0 . At the top of the Gomer list page, it will tell you that it is page 1 of ___. (The first page of the list is actually called "page=0" in the URL, so page 2 of the list will be page=1.)

So if you just now got your Gomer name, and you go to the list page 1 and it says "Page 1 of 50" then to see your Gomer name and number, you will need to type 50 into the above URL where it says page=0. Thus http://www.thirdday.com/cgi-bin/gomer/browse.py?page=50 would take you to the end of the list, where your name is.

**Corrine** · #3 03-08-2003

What do Gomers do?

What do we do as Gomers?

We are a community. We pray for each other. We learn about the Word together. We discuss playing music, movies, books, Third Day, other bands, current events, and everything in between.

We go to concerts together (not just Third Day concerts). We meet for dinner. We do fun things like laser tag or barbeques together. The more we get together, the more we enjoy each other's company!

Gomers are here to support Third Day and their ministry, and to have fun. We meet before the shows to pray for the band, the audience, the crew, and for it all to go God's way. We pray for their ministry when we are not at the shows as well. We also support the band by telling others about their music, and thereby helping Third Day to tell people about God and His amazing love.

**Corrine** · #4 03-09-2003

How do I explain what a Gomer is to people who ask me?

First of all, tell them that Gomers are fans of the greatest rock band there is: Third Day!

If they ask you about the name, tell them that it is the name of a Third Day song.

If you want to go deeper, you can tell them that the name means so much more.

In order to prepare for this, go to www.Gomers.net and read the explanation page, and the page about "The Prophet and the Prostitute." And re-read the first three chapters of Hosea. All of this will give you the background to tell others about the story of Gomer. It is pretty much exactly the same as the story of the prodigal son, the parable that Jesus told.

Then put together a couple of paragraphs about how God loves us so much that even when we are the lowest of the low wallowing in sin, He comes after us. Explain that like Hosea had to pay to buy his own wife back from slavery, which was a result of her sin and rebellion, (Hosea 3:1-3) God paid to buy us back from the slavery of sin, with the life of His only Son, Jesus.

Tell them that there is nothing they can do that will cause God not to want them back, He loves them that much! You might want to tell them that Hosea not only bought his wife back, in a day when they stoned to death any woman that was caught in adultery, but he forgave her, cleaned her up, and took her on a honeymoon. And he loved her, truly loved her!

And all of that to show us that God loves us just the same when we turn away from Him. He wants to redeem us (buy us back), clean us up, and spend the rest of eternity loving us.

There are two scriptures I really love in Hosea. The first is 2:23 "Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; Then I will say to those who were not My people, 'You are My people!' And they shall say, 'You are my God!'"

I'm sure there are a lot of people who have gone through their lives feeling like they have not been given much mercy. God wants to pick them up, set them on their feet, and take care of them. God loves us and wants us to be His own, even if we don't feel worthy, or look worthy to the rest of the world.

The other is 2:16 "And it shall be, in that day," says the Lord,
"That you will call Me 'My Husband,' and no longer call Me 'My Master.'"

That is so very awesome when you realize that it is the God who created the entire universe saying that to you! He wants an intimate relationship with us, we who are just specks on the earth! He wants to lift our chin in His hand, and brush the tears from our face, and to make us look into His eyes and see what true love really is. And to realize that only He can give us the life we need, through His Son, Jesus Christ.

That was, by the way, the original reason we wanted Gomer shirts, when this whole thing got started. We wanted people to ask about the shirts so we could explain God's love to them.

**Corrine** · #5 03-09-2003

How do I make my Gomer name show up under my screen name in my posts?

Once you have registered your Gomer name, you can make it show up to the left of every post you do, right under your screen name. You will notice that many people use this "member status line" as a sort of bumper sticker. You can use it for whatever you'd like, but you can only use up to 25 characters and spaces.

Go to "User CP", then to "Edit Profile", then down to "Custom User Text." Type in your Gomer name (or whatever else you'd like to put there) and click the "submit" button at the bottom. (Do not check the reset box. That will change it back to "Third Day Gomer".)

You can change your member status line as often as you'd like. Have fun with it!

**Corrine** · #6 03-09-2003

Do I need a Gomer shirt?

You don't really need a shirt, but I'm sure you'll want one. The shirts enable us to recognize each other when we meet in person. It is so much fun to meet other Third Day fans that you know from the message boards. You will want to wear it to every Gomer Gathering you go to.

The Gomer shirts are orange so that we can easily spot each other at concerts. The other reason they are orange is so that the band can spot us from the stage. They do work very well!

How do I buy a Gomer shirt? What size should I get?

Please be advised that the orange Gomer shirts will not be available for purchase at the shows. You need to purchase them here at the online store.

They run a bit large, and shrink very little, so take that into consideration when you buy yours. (If you can wear a large, but prefer an extra large for roominess and comfort, order the large. It will be just right. The sizes are true to size, but a bit roomier.)

They ship the Gomer shirts pretty quickly. I've gotten things I've ordered in about 3-5 business days. For a little extra, they also have next-day shipping.

How do I put my Gomer name on my shirt?

The Gomer shirts say "Property of ________ Gomer" on them. The idea is to write your Gomer name on the blank. The blank is a white, rubberized, rectangle. You can use a Sharpie marker to write your Gomer name right on it. Sharpies come in all colors now, so you can get pretty creative with it. The name will fade a bit, after a couple of washings. If yours fades, just retrace it with your Sharpie.

Some people have gotten pretty crafty in putting their Gomer names onto their shirts. Some have used shirt paints, some have used sew on letters, and some have taken the shirt to a monogram shop to have their name stitched on. Use your imagination! Show off your creativity!

Don't forget that in order to put your Gomer name onto your shirt, the name must first be registered at www.Gomertopia.com.

**Corrine** · #7 03-09-2003

Where can I get other Gomer merchandise?

We have Gomer merchandise. There are lots of different things at The Blue Gomer Store and The Orange Gomer Store to help you show off your Gomerness.

Each store has different stuff, so be sure to check them both out.

**Corrine** · #8 03-09-2003

What is the history of the Gomers? How did it all get started?

You can find a more exhaustive history of the Gomers on the History page of the Gomer site. Here is a short history of Gomerism:

On May 8, 2001, Corrine (aka Mama Gomer) started a thread entitled "What Are We?" in which she asked what we should call ourselves as Third Day fans. Green Bay has it's CheeseHeads, Jimmy Buffet has his ParrotHeads, Star Trek fans are Trekkers, Skillet fans are PanHeads, POD fans are Warriors. Third Day fans needed a name as well. It was discussed, and names were tossed around. John? (aka Unquestionable? Gomer) suggested Gomers, after the Third Day song "Gomer's Theme." It was the only Third Day related thing we could find that actually sounded like a name, and we liked it.

Some people didn't like it, and some wanted to know what else it meant, besides being a Third Day song. Corrine did a bunch of research in the Bible and other places on "Gomer" and what all the name meant. She wrote reasons why we should use this name, and how it meant that God doesn't give up on us, and even when we mess up, He comes after us and loves us. (Read it all on the explanation page.) Still some didn't like it. We spent a lot of time defending the idea and fighting for it before it was excepted by most.

Someone suggested we make t-shirts so that we can recognize other Gomers at concerts, and to be a witness so that people will ask us what a Gomer is so that we can tell them about God's love for them, even when they've messed up. We liked two slogans. "God loves Gomers," and "I'm a Gomer. Are you?" We went with the second one, because we figured that would make people ask us about it. Ryan (aka Superman aka The Mandalorian Gomer) started designing the shirts, and came up with a website to show the designs so we could all vote on them. Larry (aka Larry0513 aka Veggie Gomer) was going to help him with the selling and distributing of the shirts. It didn't work out though, and Ryan had to give it up.

Razar (aka Gillette Gomer) suggested we each make up a Gomer name, something fun to call ourselves. He thought that since we were a family, and Gomer was sort of our last name, that we should have Gomer first names, as well. That idea greatly added to our little Gomer community, and that is why he is number one on the List. Byron (aka River aka Baldy Gomer) opened his Gomer Names Shop to help folks who couldn’t think of Gomer names on their own. He had quite a gift for coming up with great names! Larry kept track of all the Gomer names with his idea of the Gomer Names List. That gave us validity, because it made Gomers more visible. And we could watch the numbers grow. It gave us a great way to keep track of how many people we had in this grassroots movement of Gomers. Later, Larry couldn't do the list anymore, so Corrine took it over.

In November of 2001, the members of Third Day started to become Gomers. Some of them posted their Gomer names on the boards. That was so awesomely cool! You can read about it in the post below this one.

In December of 2001, Corrine set up the official Gomer website with the explanation of what a Gomer is, where we got the name, and the store to sell Gomer shirts, which at the time were your choice of white or gray, and said "I'm a Gomer. Are you?" on the front, and had the Third Day boards address on the back with the phrase "Where Gomers Come Together."

February 1, 2002, Third Day’s "Come Together" website premiered, complete with the Gomersville forum. The website also had a fan page with quite a few fansites listed, along with the Official Gomer site. At the bottom of the fan page was a paragraph about Gomers with a picture of the official orange Gomer t-shirt! The Third Day online store started selling the orange Gomer shirts so that Gomers can recognize each other at concerts, and the band can see the Gomers from the stage. The shirts say “Property of ________ Gomer.” The blank is so that the owner of the shirt can easily write their Gomer name on it. Having the names written on the shirts also makes it easier to recognize one another.

When the Third Day Come Together Tour started, Mac Powell started asking from the stage if there were any Gomers in the audience. As a result, our numbers tripled! We started organizing, at Third Day's suggestion, prayer meetings before the shows. It was such an awesome thing for Gomers to be part of the goings on at the shows like that. In some cities, Gomers met before the show for a group dinner and many laughs. And the members of the Paul Colman Trio, and Bebo Norman, who were touring with Third Day on the Come Together Tour, became Gomers.

On February 27, 2002, all Third Day message board members began to officially be known as Gomers. The member status changed from “Member” to “Third Day Gomer," as per the band.

On September 3, 2003, at 3:33 P.M. Atlanta Standard Time, Gomers became an official part of the new www.ThirdDay.com! It was the fulfillment of a goal we didn't even dare to dream of two years ago. We got our very own page and URL, www.Gomertopia.com. On that page are some simple explanations of what Gomers are all about, and the form for people to fill out to become a Gomer and get a Gomer name. That also opened the door for people who were not members of the Third Day message boards to become Gomers. Now all Third Day fans can have Gomer names and be part of the family! Just for the record, before Gomertopia went online, we had 2,500 Gomer names on the list, with Christian artist Jeremy Camp being #2500.

I am not sure if the order is exactly right, but that is pretty much the history of it all. We all need to thank the first Gomers (the first 100 or so names on the list) who fought hard and stood up for the whole concept. It wasn't easy, but we didn't give up. And we need to thank Tai Anderson and Tim Fruth. They made us "real."

And mainly we have God to thank for the Gomer movement. He is the One Who started the whole thing, and the Power behind it all.

**Corrine** · #9 03-09-2003

Do any of the members of Third Day have Gomer names?

In November of 2001, Mac Powell did a post on the boards that he signed Mac Gomer. Wow! We were floored that one of the band considered himself a Gomer. Here is his post:

Quote:

Originally posted by MacPowell, Band Member, on November 7, 2001

Hey ya'll ! We're in the studio in Greenville, SC right now and we've been checking the message boards. We are so fired up about the new record and it seems that most of you are digging it too! Please, keep the comments coming.

Last night we were at an in-store event at home in ATL and it was so awesome to see you guys show up! There were over 2000 fans there! Ya'll ROCK!!!!! Hope to see you guys on the road soon. We're going to be in Knoxville today and in Grand Rapids, Chicago, and Nashville in the coming days. Hope to see you guys. We love you and ask for your prayers! Mac Gomer

Then some of us from the boards were talking to Mark Lee about what his Gomer name should be during a Yahoo chat. He later posted that he would like his Gomer name to be Bedhead Gomer. (You need to see the Third Day Offerings DVD to understand the significance of that one.) Here is his post:

Quote:

Originally posted by MarkLee, Band Member, November 28, 2001

My Gomer name
For those of you who were fortunate enough to be in the Yahoo! chatroom with me earlier this month, there was some discussion as to what my Gomer name could be.

Well, let it be known, that I, -Mark Lee, guitarist for this here band, Third Day, will from henceforth be known as.........BEDHEAD GOMER from now until perpetuity (or when I change my mind!)

Signed,
-Mark Lee

Witness:
Stephanie Lee
Witness:
Clovis Rex Lee

FURTHERMORE, if possible, I'd like to be Gomer #17 on your Gomer list. It's my favorite number, and, well, I think I'm entitled.

Get to it, MAMA GOMER!

Next came Tai Anderson, just a few days after Mark.

Quote:

Originally posted by TaiAnderson, Band Member

PEER PRESSURE
All you Gomers seem to be having a lot of fun. Can I play too?
I'm a big Third Day Fan. I have all their records. I suffered through Mac's toxic waste incident which left him with white hair for a season and I even have a guitar pic from the band. However, the jerks won't sign it for me. They've probably lost their focus on their ministry. Did you see that post about them going circular??? But Anyway.

My mom always asked me if my friends were all jumping off a cliff would I jump too?? The answer is ....yes, if they had a neat name for the club.

As I take the plunge to the land of Gomer where connections are fast, comments are pithy, and Third Day is always in heavy rotation, let it be know that heretofore I wish to be known as...

Big Bottom Gomer.

Tai Anderson

per bedhead gomer's stunning example.
Witnessed by Shannon Anderson and Murphy the Dog.

February 22, 2002, David Carr became Doyle Gomer. (He likes the movie Slingblade.) He didn't post it on the boards, so I can't give you his exact words here.

In April of 2003, Brad Avery became Loser Gomer.

**Corrine** · #10 02-08-2004

I know some of you are missing seeing any thread that is older than 30 days.

To be able to see all the threads, simply go to your User CP then to Edit Options then down to where it says Default Thread Age Cut Off You may specify a time period from which to display threads. Threads older than the age you specify will not be shown. Default Thread Age Cut Off: Make the pull down menu say: Show all threads

That will enable you to see what you've been missing.

**Corrine** · #11 06-25-2004

The Gomer list only has buttons that take you forward and backward. You can't skip ahead. So to find your name on the list, you will have to follow these directions.

If you would like to see your number, you will need to go to the page of the list your name is on. To quickly go to the page, cut and paste this address into your browser: http://www.thirdday.com/cgi-bin/gomer/browse.py?page=0 . At the top of the Gomer list page, it will tell you that it is page 1 of ___. (The first page of the list is actually called "page=0" in the URL, so page 2 of the list will be page=1.)

So if you just now got your Gomer name, and you go to the list and it says "Page 1 of 200" then to see your Gomer name and number, you will need to type 199 into the above URL where it says page=0. Thus http://www.thirdday.com/cgi-bin/gome...se.py?page=199 would take you to the end of the list, where your name is.

Likewise, if your name has been on the list for some time, do the math to figure out what page your name is on (50 names to a page, if you are #210, your name is on page 5, which in the URL is called page=4) and use the URL above to go there.