This past Sunday, October 28, we held a members meeting to affirm Richview's first elders. "The Elders are collectively responsible to oversee the doctrine, direction, and discipline of the Church."

The following individuals received the required affirmation, and along with Pastor Darryl form Richview's first Board of Elders:

Bryan Campbell
Grant Caven
Dave Cook
Jon McMurray

Please pray for these individuals as they take on this important responsibility.

Sermon from October 28, 2007 by Darryl Dash - Audio | Transcript

Well, it happened again. Just over a week ago, I was reading the newspaper about a horrific crime that had happened in the city. The details of the crime aren't what I want to highlight; what I want to highlight is a description that seems to be more common than I'd like that goes something like this:

A church-going dad accused...was always a "gentle giant" and a "solid Christian" who had a great relationships...He showed no signs of mental illness, didn't have a temper, and was never violent or abusive, said one of his best friends. "He wasn't evil, he wasn't bad, he wasn't twisted. He wasn't anything (like that). He was just a great guy, a gentle giant, a fun guy. He was a great father."

Somebody else said of the man charged with this crime, "He was a regular guy...He's a church-going guy. Nobody expected this."

You've had this experience. Have you ever really looked up to somebody within the church, wishing that if you could be half as spiritually mature as they are, only to be crushed with disappointment when they let you down badly? It's the same experience as when we hear about the church treasurer or secretary that everybody trusted who, it turns out, had been skimming money from the offerings for years. It's the same experience as when yet another pastor is found to have been living a double life.

What do you do with this? How do you keep from becoming judgmental or disillusioned? What do you do when over and over, the people who seem to be spiritually alive, maybe even powerfully used by God, are found out to be less than we thought?

There's a story I'd like to look at that will help us answer this. More importantly, it will also lead us to reflect on something that is absolutely crucial for our own futures. So follow along as we look at a case study and ask how we handle when a good person goes bad.

Sermon from October 21, 2007 by Darryl Dash - Audio | Transcript

On Thanksgiving weekend, my brothers and my sister were comparing notes about our children after dinner. We all have good children, and we really have no right to complain, but we're going through the normal things that parents go through with their children. As we compared notes about our joys and our struggles, my mother smiled and said, "You kids weren't so different yourselves." The joys and the headaches our kids are giving us are exactly the same joys and headaches that we gave our mother when we were kid.

We are looking at the book of Judges right now, and one of the reasons is that you and I aren't so different from the people that we're looking at. The theme of this series is, "What's wrong with the world?" Often we look around and blame all kinds of people and groups for what's wrong with the world: liberals or conservatives, secular humanists, lobby groups, feminists, non-feminists, capitalists, socialists - whoever. But Judges holds up the mirror and says, "The problem with the world is you." In the book of Judges, the greatest problem wasn't the Canaanites or the people who didn't believe in God. The greatest problem, to be frank, was staring back at them in the mirror. What is wrong with the world is us.

One of our greatest problems is that we can know something in our heads, but not really believe it in our hearts. Join us this Sunday as we look at the story of someone who knew all the right things, but couldn't bridge the gap between what he knew and how he lived.

Join us this Sunday at 10:30 a.m.

Richview is currently in the process of selecting Elders. On October 28, we will be holding a business meeting to elect our first Board of Elders.

There are two church offices in the Bible: Elder and Deacon. It is best to keep these roles separate. Elders provide supervision and spiritual guidance for the congregation. Deacons serve by administering the finances, buildings, and ministries of the church.

The candidates for elders are Bryan Campbell, Grant Caven, David Cook, and Jon McMurray. The senior pastor is an unelected member of the Board of Elders.

Qualifications

The qualifications for elders are found in 1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9. 1 Peter 5:1-4 describes how elders are to conduct themselves.

The emphasis in these passages is on character and godliness. It is emphasized more than skill, age, or any other factor.

We ask that you prayerfully read these passages as we prepare for next week's meeting.

One writer says:

Finding men who desire the noble task of overseer is of great importance. Choosing pastors is the most important decision a congregation makes, for the pastors will shape the congregation through their teaching and their model. And given that, the Lord calls us to find men who "shepherd the flock of God... exercising oversight... willingly, as God would have [us]... eagerly... being examples to the flock" (1 Pet. 5:2-3). May the Lord give us discernment, patience, and clarity of thought and observation as we seek reliable men who desire this noble task. (Thabiti Anyabwile)

On October 28, a members meeting will be held to appoint Richview's first elders. "The Elders are collectively responsible to oversee the doctrine, direction, and discipline of the Church."

The qualifications for elders are as follows: "Qualifications for Elders are those outlined in Titus 1:6-9. Only those who have been Members of the Church for the two preceding years may serve as Elders, with the exception of the Senior Pastor and those who have previously served as Deacons. Only males may serve as Elders." The Senior Pastor is automatically a member of this Board of Elders.

Members have been given an opportunity to nominate individuals to serve as Elders. The following individuals have accepted their nominations, and have been interviewed and recommended by the Deacons. The Board of Deacons hereby recommend to the church that these individuals be affirmed as Elders:

Bryan Campbell
Grant Caven
Dave Cook
Jon McMurray

A two-thirds (2/3) vote of Members present at a duly constituted Meeting of Members is required to affirm each individual as an Elder.

Coming this Advent to Richview

Ask the average Canadian what they need for Christmas, and the answer for most has to be “nothing.” You’d never know it, though, if you visited a mall parking lot in December. Visa estimates that Canadians spend some $20 billion at Christmas.

Every year I talk to more people who are uncomfortable with what Christmas has become. Last year one pastor did something about it.

Rick McKinley is pastor of Imago Dei Community in Portland. “Every Christmas it happens,” McKinley says. “I get excited for the celebration of Jesus’ birth - that moment in history when all of Scripture came to life! And then I get depressed; inundated with commercials of what new gadget to buy, people in mad rushes to get more stuff, credit cards opening up sinkholes that people will be climbing out of for months to come, and newscasters telling us that fights are breaking out at Wal-Mart over the last X-Box 360.”

McKinley began to reflect on how Christ’s birth threatened Herod’s empire. How, McKinley asked, does the way that we celebrate Christ’s birth challenge the empire of consumerism and materialism that threatens our faithfulness to Jesus? He concluded that the way we celebrate Christmas re-enforces, not challenges, consumerism. So he and some pastor friends pulled the plug on Christmas.

“We decided we would ask our people to live the Advent story, not just talk and sing about it. We asked them to live counter-cultural lives that modeled our celebration after his incarnation.”

“What started out as an experiment ended up transforming us, our people, and a whole bunch of other people.”

It's time again for our monthly family service. This year, we are changing the format of our family service to make it more kid-friendly (translation: shorter, and with more participation).

Join us this Sunday at 10:30 a.m. for the family service and communion. There is no potluck this month.

Sermon from October 2 2007 by Darryl Dash - Audio | Transcript

Richview is currently in the process of selecting Elders. On October 28, we will be holding a business meeting to elect our first Board of Elders.

There are two church offices in the Bible: Elder and Deacon. It is best to keep these roles separate. Elders provide supervision and spiritual guidance for the congregation. Deacons serve by administering the finances, buildings, and ministries of the church.

The 3-Ds of Eldership

The duties of elders will fall into three broad categories:

• Doctrine - to pay attention to the doctrine of the church, to "encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it" (Titus 1:9; see also Acts 20:28-31)
• Direction - decision making, planning, administrating, delegating, and governing the details of church life
• Discipline - to "keep watch over you as those who must give an account" (Hebrews 13:17; see also Titus 2:15)

This means that the elders will meet around important issues: defining and clarifying the church's beliefs and principles of ministry; developing a distinctive mission and vision; evaluating major ministries; improving pastoral care; and planning for the future. The Word of God and prayer (Acts 6:4) will be priorities.

Coming next week:

What are the qualifications for elders?

This past September marked the 150th anniversary of a lunch-hour prayer meeting that started in a small church in New York City. When this prayer meeting started, the nation was in turmoil. 30,000 men were idle on the streets of New York. Drunkenness was rampant, and the nation was divided by slavery.

A church at Fulton and William Street decided to relocate, and they left a man behind to start a mission in that area. His name was Jeremiah Lanphier. He walked the streets and began to notice the worried looks of the businessmen in the area. He decided to call a prayer meeting. On September 23, 1857, the lunch-hour prayer meeting started. Six people showed up a half hour late. Not a very promising start.

The group decided to meet the next week, and 14 people showed up. The week after there were 23. The following week there were 40. Within three months there were over a hundred meetings in the city with more than 50,000 New Yorkers pausing to pray daily.

God moved so powerfully that the prayer meeting spread across the nation. Within about 18 months, it is estimated that nearly 1 million people were converted out of a national population of 35 million, including 10,000 weekly conversions in New York City for a while. The effects of this prayer meeting are still being felt today.

One researcher says, "When we look back, we really see that this was not a movement of great men or great women. This was a movement of a simple layman who was left behind by a relocating church" (Ed Stetzer)

There seem to be times when God takes an ordinary individual - often unexpectedly - and initiates something far beyond that person's abilities. In many of these cases, the impact is felt today.

Occasionally we get a glimpse of what happens when God uses somebody in a powerful way. This week we'll be looking at a case study as we discover how God uses people, and how we should respond. Our text will be Judges 4-5.

It's Thanksgiving Weekend, so we will also spend some time giving thanks for who God is and all that he has given us.

Sermon from September 30, 2007 by Darryl Dash - Audio | Transcript