The Friday Data Dump is Back

Random Thoughts gather while wondering where Elizabeth & I (& Méabh) should go while our 3 teenagers will all be out on the town to night. (actually, one of them doesn’t actually become a teenager until midnight…but close enough!) Books: It is hitting me more and more that shipping my library over to Ireland is [...]

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I Might Start Liking the Phone

I am an introvert. One of the things that means is I do not like the telephone. Caller ID, with the ability to screen calls was the greatest invention since the wheel (not that I’ve ever screened your call). More than answering the phone, I don’t like making phone calls. Much of that goes to [...]

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Finding a Sponsor

“I would never want to belong to any club that would have someone like me for a member.” Woody Allen as Alvy Singer in Annie Hall In the early 90s, Elizabeth and I went on a missions trip to the Philippines along with a number of other college/university ministry people from around New York State. [...]

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Invitation to Learn More About the Dublin Church Plant (& get a free lunch)

our first informational meeting will be Sunday, January 29 @ noon. reserve a spot below.   About two years ago, I had a very strong sense that our leadership here at the Vineyard needed to be praying about what the Father was calling our church to in the area of missions & church planting. I had just [...]

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6 months

This morning it hit me…6 months from today, Liz, Méabh & I step on a plane (Méabh will actually be carried on most likely), and get off the plane  the next day in Dublin. The girls will have another month in the states to go to camp, see friends/family, etc, before heading over to join us. [...]

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Comfortable?

I’ve been thinking about being comfortable lately. One of that issues that we deal with when we are in the midst of a transition is discomfort. When we move from a place where we understand how things work, and what our role is, we’d consider ourselves comfortable with our surroundings. When our situation changes, we [...]

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Raising Support

One of the things we’ve been asked more than once since we began telling people we’re moving to Ireland is, “how are you going to support yourselves?” As you might have guessed, it was one of the first conversations Liz & I had with each other as we began thinking and praying about this move. [...]

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Dublin Church Plant Stuff

When we first started the Ithaca Vineyard, I went to a number of church planter training and heard over and over again about how many people you would need to talk to if you were going to plant a church. My conversation with God, went something like this…”If you really want me to plant a [...]

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Great Way to Start a Week…

This morning Liz & I were going to have a weekly planning meeting at 10 am. We got started a bit late, and when I got into my calendar @ 10:11 am, the first thing I noticed was that I had an orthodontist’s appointment at 10 am. (And I live 20 minutes away). It is [...]

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Guest Post – Pastoral Search

The following is from James Cherian. James was part of the original planting team of the Ithaca Vineyard, and has been on staff in various roles since then. He is currently a member of the Pastoral Search Team (PST). ———– Usually, when I think of meetings and committees and group projects, I think of a [...]

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Our Pastoral Search Process

Last night our Pastoral Search Team (PST)  began the interviewing process to find the next lead pastor of the Vineyard Church of Ithaca. Our first round of interviews we are actually conducting via Skype. All 10 members of our  PST are able to be in the room with people who are not in Ithaca, and [...]

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An Update on Everything Else

Earlier this week I wrote a brief update on the Ithaca Vineyard’s search for a new lead pastor, and another on how things were progressing with our move to Ireland. I thought I’d end the week with an update of the various other things we’ve got going on…or at least as much as I can remember. [...]

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Dublin Update

Yesterday I gave an update on the current pastoral search at the Ithaca Vineyard. Today I thought I’d write about how everything with Project:Move to Dublin is going. This part of our lives fells pretty big at this point has several aspects to it, so I figured the easiest thing to do was address each [...]

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