Last week I began a series of posts looking at things I’d have done differently if I could start over. On Friday, I mentioned I would trust my gut more, and one of the examples I used was times in hiring decisions where I ignored concerns.  One detail I should have mentioned is that in the 12 years since we started the Ithaca Vineyard we have hired more than 10 people, and the vast majority have been amazing people who were amazing to work with.

Speaking of details…I think one of the reasons our church has grown and done well the past 12 years is that Liz, James & I really work well together. It is important now, but in getting the church off the ground, those relationships were key.

For example…I tend to be a big idea person (did I mention I’m moving to Dublin, Ireland to plant a church?) So, I present my big idea and James first question would be “well how does it impact this person, or that person”…”what about the people who are already at our church, does this make things better for them.”

I take my idea to Liz…her questions tend to be, “how are you paying for this?” “How many people is this going to take?” “Have you thought about…”

Now my first response when they would do this was to put my hands over my ears, scream “nah, nah, nah, I can’t hear you,” and run away. Okay, I never did that, but I wanted to a few times.

Of course, the impact of their questions, was to make all of us take a more thorough look at what we were doing & generally come up with much better decisions. Over the years as the church has grown, we have some great people in leadership who have added their voices to that process.

Here’s the thing though…details make my head hurt. I listened to a lot of music in the 70s & 80s. And now, when I hear a song from that, it is rare that I don’t know most of the words…at least well enough to sing along. But if you ask me who sings the song…or the title of the song, you will hear me say “um,” and “I think it might be” a lot.

I think there were a lot of things that would have worked better earlier on for us as a church if we hadn’t gotten bogged down in some of the details…or if we’d had a person who could say, “hey that is a great idea, but let’s work out the 5 things we are to have in place before we start this.”

When we started this church, God was faithful to bring a great team of people who each contributed their unique gifts & talents…I do wish I would have looked/prayed for a detail person…just one of those details I overlooked.