This past week I had the opportunity to present my dissertation at a seminar at the Irish Bible Institute as well as to some friends a few nights earlier. Since I had spent the time putting it all together, I figured I would record it and stick it up here for anyone who might be…
Tag: church planting
What’s A Parish-Based Micro-Church?
What Do We Mean When We Say Parish-Based Micro-Church?
What Do We Mean by Jesus-Centred?
There are a few phrases we frequently use when we talk about the Table, the church we are planting here in Dublin. One of them is “Jesus-centred”. I wanted to take a few posts and explain what we mean by that phrase and why we consider it so central (no pun intended) to everything. First, let me provide…
Thinking About Soil
I spent most of my life in Upstate NY. It was a place full of farms, orchards, vineyards, and corn fields as far as the eye could see. I grew up in a village next store to where Thomas Welch built his first grape juice factory and simply had to hop over our back fence to grab all the concord grapes I could eat (or use in a grape war against my brother).
The Most Harmful Thing I Believed About Church Planting
As the Table – Dublin is getting off the ground, I wanted to repost some of what I’ve written over the past few years…specifically regarding church planting. I’d love to get your thoughts. :: originally posted 23 April 2015:: Before planting a church in Ithaca, NY I spent about a decade starting and leading campus…
A Sort of Anniversary
Earlier this month marked the 20th anniversary of day the church we planted in Ithaca held its first regular Sunday worship gathering. I remember a few things about that day. It was snowy. Elizabeth showed up with Brenna who was 3 days old. There were 36 people in attendance. We took everyone out to Pizza Hut…
5 Years in Dublin – Intro
This July is the five year anniversary of our move to Dublin. I’ve been planning to do a series of posts this summer about that journey; how it came about, what the process was like, what the past 5 years have been like. Stuff like that. I decided to start now instead. In the next…
The Latest News on The Table
Over the past week we’ve been teasing some information about the next step in our church planting journey. We’ll be sharing more of the details over the next few weeks, but here’s the latest…
The Problem with Church Planting
I think the phrase church planting is extremely unhelpful. I am finding it to be more and more cumbersome all the time. We love the church. We think the church matters, and that is why we are working to plant churches. But here is what I am wondering…re-read the last sentence. How confident are you that what…
Learning, Unlearning and Relearning
When I first began thinking that a move to Ireland could be in our future, I sat down to write a list of why Elizabeth and I were unlikely people to move to Dublin and start churches. I didn’t get too far into that exercise before I began to realise that my basic assumption was…
Join Us In Dublin!
Would you like to make a difference in an amazing city? We are looking for people who would like to be part of beginning a missional community in the Clontarf area of Dublin. Our hope is to start missional communities throughout the city of Dublin, and across Ireland. Sound interesting? So, what does it look…
Sundays
I’m still in need of some serious deprogramming. I was out for pints with a new friend last week and during the conversation, he asked, “What type of church do you work with?” That’s when my brain started spinning. While it should be a topic I love talking about, the question is challenging for a…
Our Week in Madrid
Last week Elizabeth and I were in Madrid for a five-day assessment with Christian Associates. We’ll be sharing more about this process in our newsletter. It was a good time made possible because our 20-year-old daughter took time off from work to take care of her 3-year-old sister. After five days with Méabh, I think Hannah was…
It Feels So Good When I Stop…
I’ve met people in Europe who have told me that church planting doesn’t work over here like it does in the States where you just “put up a sign and people show up.” That’s funny for a couple of reasons. First off, that is not the experience of most church planters in the northeastern US….
Recognising What Our Words Communicate
Like all fields or industries, church planting has its own vernacular…words and phrases that communicate in a quick and vivid manner. A couple of weeks ago over coffee with a friend he to referred to a time in the church planting process where a ‘bait and switch’ occurs. Here’s what he was referring to…Often early…
And We’re Back
Last spring I stopped blogging. While I love writing, blogging had become a chore and I wasn’t enjoying it. The previous autumn I shut down my personal blog and focused on theWilsonsInDublin.com. It seemed like a good way to keep friends and family up-to-date with our lives on this side of the pond. It didn’t…
The Best Laid Plans…
This afternoon I was scheduled to take part in a video call with a group from the States. (This is part of a coaching huddle which I wrote about previously). As you might not know, unless you live in Ireland, while Daylight Savings Time began in the US last week…here it doesn’t start it until the last weekend in March.
S is for “Seriously?”
Over the past day or so I’ve been taking a bunch of assessments. Perhaps this demonstrate how odd I am, but I love these things. It was probably about 20 years ago when I took my first Myers-Briggs and discovered that I am an INTJ. There was a lot about me that just started to make sense, in that framework.
Starting off a New Year
Hope you had a great holiday season. Our family had a relaxing and very enjoyable Christmas and a quiet New Year’s week where our biggest accomplishment was messing up our normal sleep routine by staying up way too late. (The image above is a road down to the beach near our house, that as you…
Our Journey (part 4) – A Bit of a Curve Ball
“What do you want us to do with the next 20 years of our lives?”
I already knew the answer to that question. In fact I talked to several friends before we left on our trip and said, “I think the answer is continue leading the Ithaca Vineyard Church. But I need to ask.”
So we did.
Our Journey (part 1) – Minding Our Own Business
While we were back in NY last month, we went through some of the stuff we left in storage over there, and carted some of it back with us. One of the things Liz brought back, were letters that I wrote to her while we were dating. I was reading some of them yesterday (I’d like to think I’m a better person 24 years later).
A Week in the Life..
One of the common questions we hear is “What does life in Ireland look like for us?” I thought I’d write out a brief preview of the week ahead for us, as well as a brief recap on the past weekend, and hopefully give you a glimpse.
When I was on a missions trip to the Philippines in the early 1990’s the US missionary there took a few of us out as he ran his errands for the day (such as acquiring fresh drinking water). While we were out he said, “We spend half our day just doing things we need to survive”.
Thankfully high quality water is piped right into our home here in Dublin, but I thought it’d be good to give you a picture of what a “week in the life,” looks like.