Alan Creech (1986) (2000)
Now wait a second - is that the same person!? It is indeed - our pastor/church planter. The hand on my neck in the 80's isn't my wife so I sort of cut her out of this one. It almost looks like I haven't gained any weight in the last 14 years - not the case, but I'm told I "carry it well."

The vision for doing something different was dropped into me a few years ago - and progressively keeps being pumped in via spiritual IV pump. That just means we keep evolving (yes Christians can believe in evolution!). I'm excited about getting this new faith community started and growing.

By trade I'm a Graphic Designer (not the technical kind - the ART kind). I've also got a degree in Anthropology - this helps me figure people out a little. I'm a fly-fisherman - let's go fishin! I love Thomas Merton (monk, writer, poet, mystic) - I read him and a bunch of old church Fathers. Church history gets a little funky after the 1500's or so. Oh, and it's fairly important that I am the husband of Liz (for 13 years!) and father of 4 wild children - Katey, Meaghan, Conor, and McKenzie - yeee haaw!

Liz Creech (1987)
–alright, I have a few things to say about this one! First, she's purty ain't she. Second, this is one serious keeper of a woman! Eveyone should be jealous of me - and of course, of her because she has me. She helps me carry this vision - annnd listens to me whine quite a bit - the medal! Bring the medal!

Oh, my gosh! I know my husband did not put that awful picture of me on this site. It was a bad hair, skin, clothes whatever day. I promise.

Being at home schooling my four wonderful, strongwilled, energetic and adventourous children, I sometimes take a break and go take care of the children I work with at Macaroni Grill where I am a server and Trainer Coordinator. I only work 4 days a week but it has been a great addition to the financial pot.

I love to read and can often be found at the end of the day in a bubble bath with my nose in a book when my husband isnt coming in and saying talk to me about something. I most definately am not a talker unless I have been home too long without adult stimulation and then I have a problem shutting up. I would much rather be outside taking care of the yard instead of being in the house doing all that boring house work that never stayes done with so many people living in a house.

I am 100% behind the vision for Vine & Branches. Behind my kids, my biggest job is supporting Alan. Not that I havent had my doubts, but God has wonderful things in store for us and I can hardly wait.

Matt McDonald (2002)
-Matt is a great guy. He's very sarcastic so don't get in a fight with him - he'll slowly cut you to pieces before you know what's happened to you. We love him though. He'll soon be transformed into the image of Jesus - come on boy!

This is me around my freshman year in college (actually it isn't but we'll get that photo up soon). Yes, it was the 80’s. I know, the hair gives it away. I was playing in a garage band, Risen. Gonna be the Christian Rock group that travels the world gettin’ everybody saved! Didn’t happen. The world is probably a much better place for it. We kinda sucked.

Now I have less hair and smaller ambitions. I’m a recovering worship pastor living in obscurity on a sabbatical. Spent several years doing the “contemporary worship” thing. But I’ve recently traded in my keyboard for some candles, a little incense, and The Liturgy of the Hours. I like mixing all that up & that’s one of the things I really like about what’s happening at VBCC. 

I’ve been in church my whole life. Raised United Methodist.  Became a follower of Christ at 16 & started going to an Assembly of God Church. Went to Central Bible College, Springfield, MO as a Music Major. But the A/G thing didn’t stick. I’ve lived mostly with one foot in the Pentecostal/Charismatic world & the other in the Evangelical world, afraid to commit too much to either because they both have their share of nuttiness. Helped start a Methodist church right out of college & fell in love with the whole church planting thing. 

Right now I’m making a living working for a staffing agency doing worker’s comp & unemployment – definitely not a career move, but it suffices for now. Outside of that, I love to cook (OK I love to eat, but cooking is required ‘cause ain’t no one else around gonna do it for me!). I also love getting outside (hiking, camping, etc.), watching movies, and I read a decent amount. One of these days the passion for music will be back & that will probably be my main love again.

I have a roommate, Joseph & a dog, Sadie. I love my dog. My roommate’s pretty cool, too.

 

Brian Phillips (2000) –we'll get an old one of him soon!
–here are a few snide comments before he has his say - Brian is a fine man; goofy, but fine. We've known each other for a few years and I'm still glad to say he's a part of Vine & Branches. He's a faithful dude - just don't ask him what he thinks, you'll get an ear full!

 

Debi Warford (197?) (2002)
–once again I'll take my hits before I'll let her say anything. Debi is a good friend and I must say she is very brave to be with us in this adventure. Oh, I have to say this - she and Brian are just friends for cryin out loud! We plan for Debi to be around till we send her to Ireland to follow in Patrick's footsteps - come start hangin out now if you want to go with her and be a part of Vine & Branches Erin!

That's me during my "Honeysuckle Rose" period in college. You figure out how long ago that was! These days I look pretty much the same - minus the braids and plus a few pounds and gray hairs. I still feel 20-something though. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I probably could be a mom to the 20-somethings now.

I have 3 passions: music, art, and Ireland. I hope to combine those 3 passions someday as a missionary in Dublin or Belfast, working wtih youth. My career dream would be to make a living from either singing or art. My art form of choice is calligraphy. I sometimes think it would have been very cool to be in a monastery in Ireland in say, AD 900, working in the scriptorium. In fact, that's what I call my (very part-time right now) calligraphy business - Scriptorium.

I've known the Creeches for 10 years or so and I'm thrilled to be a part of finally getting this vision going. I believe that the cell church dynamic is the closest to the biblical ideal. The intimacy, both with other cell members and with God is,...addictive, for lack of a better word. I don't know what I'd do without this in my life.

 

Robert Wilson (2002)
Dude there and Molly have actually moved to Tulsa, OK at this point (11-02) but we still consider them part of the extended vbcc family.

-That right up there is a genuine nut. I'm sure he'd say the same about me so I feel well within my rights. You'll really know what I mean when you read this book,, I mean bio below. Robert and his wife Molly are a welcome part of our community. We love them already. OK - he probably thought I was going to significantly edit the following rambling madness, but I figure it's more entertaining to leave it as it - waaay yonder too long but funny as hell - daaaaammmmnnn Robert!

Greetings, salutations, blessings on your head, and so forth. I am, of
course, Robert Wilson, one of the fabulous members of Vine and Branches
Christian Community. I'm not sure what sort of God-awful semi-candid (as in
"Hey, Robert, pose for a candid picture, OK?") photo Alan has posted up here,
but I promise I'm much more dashing in person. Anyway, I suppose I should
get on with my story, in the interest of time.

I was born naked, in front of strangers, at a hospital in Greer, South
Carolina, where I grew up and acquired a most entertaining Southern accent.
The incident of having come out of the womb totally nude with all those odd,
white-gowned folks staring at me did not have as deleterious an effect on my
psyche as one might imagine: I have been able to successfully suppress the
memory of that horrific event. The only after effect seems to be the
occasional nightmare about going to work in the buff by accident. Hopefully,
they will be able to fashion some means to clothe our little children in the
future, before they make their initial debuts on the stage of life. I'm
optimistic about this because I know the whole business is quite embarrassing
for the doctors and nurses as well: I'm told that, during the whole unseemly
event, they wore masks to cover their shame and hide their identities.

In any case, I matured rapidly, put the whole affair behind me, and soon
acquired a bachelor's degree in Church Ministries and Evangelism from Oral
Roberts University. Following that, a young lady named Molly Hallgrimson,
dissatisfied with the degree of bachelor thus bestowed upon me, insisted that
I marry her, much to my delight. We got married, went to the zoo for a much
too brief honeymoon, and then moved here to Lexington in a great big U-Haul
truck (ever seen the Beverly Hillbillies?) so I could attend Asbury
Theological Seminary. After much toil and suffering, I will be graduating
from ATS this semester with a Master's Degree in Theological Studies. In the
interim, I'm working for a temp agency by day and pushing magazines over the
phone for a telemarketing company by night. Yes, I'm a telemarketer, or a
telephone customer service representative, if you please. No, I'm not the
guy who called your house and tried to get you to pay out your life savings
for "magic" beans, maps to El Dorado, or billion-dollar collector's edition
Elvis plates. So if you've got a beef about your Elvis plates, it is no
fault of mine.

Other interesting tidbits include the following: I've got a Shi-tzu and a
Jack Russell Terrier and they actually get along (most of the time, except
for the Great Chewbone Vetrinary Emergency of 2001). I like Vienna Sausages
and Spam, and I will hear no nonsense about them being unhealthy. I refuse
to drive Chevrolet automobiles because the little vents on the air
conditioners always malfunction or break, which is annoying, and they
adamantly refuse to replace their cars with new ones when such things occur.
My dream vacation is a voyage to a tropical locale aboard a sail-powered
vessel: a relaxing clime where I can drink delicious, well-chilled fruit
beverages while watching the ocean beat itself against the sands like
Alexander the Great smiting his chest in lament that he could conquer no
further. Because of my bizarre, seventy-hour per week work schedule, I eat
one terribly gigantic meal per day, which I spend the remainder of the day
regretting. My favorite is Indian food, but my wife hates it. It is with
extreme discomfort that I tolerate this foible of hers. My favorite movies
of all time are Better Off Dead, practically anything by Savage Steve
Holland, almost everything with John Candy in it (except for Harry Crumb and
a couple of the newer ones), the old Richard Pryor movies, The Jerk, Monty
Python's Holy Grail, Pulp Fiction, National Lampoon's Vacation, and several
others. I enjoy Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Berlioz, Mozart, Alanis Morisette,
Gregorian chant, and that neat dripping sound you can make by thumping your
cheek with your mouth open and your lips in an O shape, but not necessarily
in that order. I also enjoy cheesing off Alan occasionally by writing bios
that are entirely too lengthy. He makes a really funny face when he's angry:
he tries to make it a very serious death-stare worthy of a true maniac, but
it's really more like the face Ralph Cramden makes right before he swears he
is positively ready to make Alice a permanent resident of the moon. When you
join up, you can try it too.

By the way, did you know they have really good coffee? Alan buys the good
stuff that you get to grind yourself with the little machine in the grocery
store. They also have salsa, usually, or plenty of other nummy treats.
After you've eaten a couple of bags of chips, some cheese dip, a leg of lamb,
and a couple of chickens, you can wash it down with a Diet Cola (you know,
Diet Cola cancels out all the fat, making it possible for you to eat like a
Roman at a banquet-feast without feeling guilty or needing to vomit
frequently as the ancients did: such are the wonders of modern diet
technology). Bring your hollow leg and some elastic pants because Alan and
Liz both cook like four-armed Italian geniuses.

Well, I suppose I better wrap this little introduction up at this point. The
long and the short of it is this: If you come to VBCC, you get to meet me,
drink the best coffee the little grinder machine has to offer, and smell some
really interesting incense that Alan scores from some Catholic guy, so
naturally you'll want to show. We don't pass bongs around or anything
though... so leave your bong at home I guess. Yeah, we roll dubies. I don't
care if the bongs do make for a cleaner smoke. Dubies are just more fun,
because you get to roll your own, and it is just fun to say "dubie." Ok, we
don't smoke pot, but if you put your face right next to the incense for long
enough, the oxygen deprivation from smoke inhalation will eventually make you
feel a little loopy. See you there!

 

Molly Wilson (2002) she and Robert are a set
-She looks sneaky up there doesn't she? Molly hasn't given us her bio yet - Robert was on the freakin' computer too long! She has a big job keeping him under control but does it pretty well.

Hello. Now that you know all about my husband, I'm sure you have a not so healthy preconceived notion about me. Although, it is the logical conclusion, I am not crazy. Let me start right. I am a Midwest farmer's daughter, Nebraska to be exact, and I am proud of it. Go Huskers! My favorite colors are the elegant green of soybeans in the field and the golden yellow of wheat at harvest time.

After my adventurous and exciting childhood in extreme rural Nebraska--seriously, the nearest McDonald's and/or Wal-Mart was, and still is, 60 miles away--I ventured off to the huge metropolis of Tulsa. There, I began my career of student at Oral Roberts University majoring in biology for two years. Before I could begin my third year, I found myself forfeiting my beloved Icelandic birth name for a boring common name of Wilson. That reminds me, did Robert say we went to the zoo for our honeymoon? Actually, that is where we met, just shortly before I purchased him from the Zoo Director. I guess I got a pretty good deal on him. I haven't had to return him yet, however, I've come close on occasion. After my name change in 1998, Robert and I made the journey from the Great Plains of the Heartland to the Horse Capitol of the World. I cried the whole way, almost. Since then, I have come to appreciate and admire Kentucky. I am sure the same will be true when the day comes that we drive off with this great state in the rearview mirror.

During my two-year vacation from academic life, I began to ponder just how long a career lasts and decided that Biology was fun, but not that fun. Besides, I couldn't dodge Organic Chemistry much longer. I realized that the profession of Social Work was very fitting to my personality. So, here I am, almost done with my social work degree and still no set direction of what to do in mind. I guess that is one thing we learn to do, trust God and be patient.

As for my spiritual life, I grew up going to church and learning about God. Then, when I was 14, I began to know God. We've gotten along pretty well, too. He has been very patient with me. Like many others, some of my experiences in life have very much tested my faith in God. At times, I was unsure if my faith would endure. But it has, and I believe it will continue
to do so.

My spiritual journey has taken me many places, all of them exciting in their own way. Currently, Vine and Branches is the vehicle of choice. Robert and I had been talking about a small group setting for a few years. Then, one day while browsing the internet, God led Robert to the VBCC website. We are truly thankful. We love the Creeches, and Debi, and Brian. We would love you to visit if you think you might like a comfortable and laid-back atmosphere, not to mention hilarious moments, at "church." See you there.