The following post is information that we will be putting up over at DublinChurchPlant.com. Wanted to post it here first.

Money.

There, I said it…Money. (actually “there, I typed it”)

If you found yourself here it is most likely because you clicked on the button on the last page that says “support us.” So I’m guessing you are not too shocked that the main topic of this particular page is, well, money. More specifically, it is about us asking you to consider giving money on a monthly basis towards our family’s effort to plant churches here in Ireland.

So here’s the story…our family (all 6 of us) moved to Dublin this past summer (July 2012) to plant a new church in the northeast section (Raheny/Clontarf) of the city.

Before moving here we had been in Ithaca, NY for about 18 years where Liz and I founded, and were both on staff (and getting paid) at the Vineyard Church of Ithaca. However, in the summer of 2010 we started sensing God calling us to give all that up, and move our family to Dublin…and so 2 years later, here we are.

While Elizabeth & I are currently in the process of looking for work here in Dublin, we are continuing to raise monthly financial support to help our family get established, settled, and in a place where we can begin planting a church in the next 12 to 18 months.

So we’ve been asking friends, family and people who have a passion for the country of Ireland to consider making a 3 to 5 year commitment to financially support our efforts.

Why 3 to 5 Years?
As we’ve thought and prayed about this move, our sense and our hope was that outside financial support would be a short-term, rather than an on-going process.

We recognized that it would take a period of time for us to get established in Dublin. It is a very expensive city, we came here without jobs, and we knew it would be at least 12 to 18 months before we even began to plant a church. So for the start of this process, the support we’ve raised would go to help our family move from NY to Ireland, and support us as we look for work.

As we begin working, (as I mentioned, we’re still looking at this point) and are able to financially support ourselves in that way, more of the financial support will begin to shift toward the actual church plant itself, in order to help it get off of the ground.

While this could change, the plan currently is that even once the church is established, we will remain bi-vocational (meaning we’ll be involved leading the church, but also have jobs/careers outside). So at that point there would be no need for outside financing, as our jobs will provide our income, and the church will not need to pay a full-time pastor.

Why are we doing this?
While you can find a lot more detail other places on this site, as well as over on my blog, the short answer is we believe that God loves Ireland and the people who live here. Sadly, the recent history of the church has not been good, and younger generations have been turned away from Jesus in ever-increasing numbers.

Our hope and desire is to plant incarnational neighborhood-based communities throughout Ireland that live out what it means to be a follower of Jesus and invite those around them into God’s kingdom.

We need your help.
We need people who will pray for us. And as you might guess after reading this far, we need people to support us financially on a monthly basis. (One time gifts of any size are greatly appreciated, and a major blessing to us…ongoing support is what keeps everything running.)

As you might imagine, asking for money is not the most fun thing in the world. However, we do it because we believe in the mission that the Father has called us to. We believe what we are doing matters. We believe in it enough that we were willing to leave secure jobs, and move to a country without any promise of employment while currently having raised only about half of the financial support we need. We have been are spending our own savings, and digging deep to help make it happen, because we believe God has amazing things planned for Dublin, and all of Ireland, but we can’t do it alone.

And this is why, despite wanting to do anything else, we feel bold enough to ask you to join us.

What do you get if you support us.

• You get to be a part of what the Father is doing here in Dublin in a very tangible way.
• You get to write off some money on your taxes (as long as you send the money through our online system and not to us directly)
• Our family will probably have a discussion around the dinner table about what an amazing person you are.

What now?
If you would like to make a monthly financial contribution of any size you can do that over here. You can also make one time contributions there as well.

If you would like more information, or would like to set up a time to talk further about financial support, please leave a note using our contact page.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and for considering joining our team as a monthly financial supporter!