On Sunday, December 9, we are holding a potluck service after the budget meeting. Please plan on staying after the service for a meal. If your last name begins with a letter between A-K, please bring sandwiches. If your last name starts with L-Z, please bring salads or veggies and dip. The seniors ministry will provide dessert.

This Sunday, we finish our study of the book of Judges with one of the saddest and most bizarre stories in the entire Bible. Despite how strange this story is, we're reminded of God's grace, even when we really mess up.

Join us this Sunday at 10:30 a.m. as we look at Judges 19-21.

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Sermon from November 25, 2007 by Darryl Dash - Audio | Transcript

We're getting toward the end of the book of Judges. I figure it's as good a time as any to ask the question: what is the point of this book? The author wasn't just recording history. These authors were expert writers who were communicating something through the stories. That's why it's important to spend some time thinking about what the author was trying to get across in writing the book of Judges.

The most common view of why Judges was written comes from a statement that is repeated four times in the last five chapters of the book: "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Some people say that the author was arguing that the problem with Israel is that they needed a king. In other words, it's building a case for a king like David. But I'm not so sure about this view. The writer doesn't paint a very positive view of leaders as the solution to the problems of Israel.

I believe there is another purpose, one that is just as relevant to us today as it was when it is written. Like an expert storyteller, the writer includes two stories at the end of the book of Judges that bring the problem right to our doorstep. I'd like to look at the first of these two stories with you today, and explain how the problem he's addressing is still a problem that we are facing today.

Advent Conspiracy exists to be a catalyst for the church to help us worship Jesus more fully at Christmas and therefore be transformed by the God of Advent. We believe that we are better together than we are apart and that each year the Advent of Christ should be an opportunity to declare to the world that God has given us the greatest gift.

On Sunday, December 23, we will be taking a special offering (besides our regular offering) with money we have saved by spending less this Christmas. 100% of this offering will be given to Living Water Canada, which "exists to demonstrate the love of God by providing desperately needed clean water and medical attention, along with the 'living water' of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which alone satisfies the deepest thirst."

The vision is that in the next decade Christ- followers, acting as one people, can blot out the water crisis in the world. The estimated cost to solve the water problem is 10 billion dollars. This is doable given the number of churches and the amount of money that is spent on Christmas each year.

According to the World Water Council, 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water; 2.6 billion people lack adequate sanitation. 1.8 million People die every year from diarrheal diseases and 3,900 children die every day from water born diseases.

Giving to solve this problem is truly a declaration to the world that Jesus cares and that is why He came and created the church to act on His behalf.

The best writers make a point without coming out and telling you what it is. The Old Testament book of Judges is like that. It has a message, but it's not always easy to tell what it is.

This Sunday we're going to look at a story that gets to the heart of the author's message - a message that is as relevant today as it was back then.

Join us this Sunday for "A Mess From Top to Bottom" based on Judges 17-18.

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A copy of our 2008 Proposed Budget is online in PDF (requires the free Acrobat Reader program). A congregational meeting will take place on Sunday, December 9 after the morning service to approve this budget.

Sermon from November 18, 2007 by Darryl Dash - Audio | Transcript

What does it take for a person to be used by God in an extraordinary way? If God wants to move and to do something really unique, what kind of person does he choose? I've been thinking about these questions.

I spent some time thinking about people that God has used in my life. I thought of a preacher. I don't know him personally, but I heard him preach almost thirty years ago, and to this day I can still tell you what he said. I remember being captivated as I heard him speak. Just the other week I met with some friends who were also at the same service, and they said, "Remember when we went to hear that guy preach?" Not everyone can preach in a way that different people remember the same sermon thirty years later. He was a mean with extraordinary preaching gifts.

I thought of some of the preachers on my iPod. I have two or three people on there, and their sermons are consistently good. They have a way of expressing themselves. In some cases entire churches have risen up around their speaking abilities. They have a way of communicating that makes truth come alive.

I have a friend who started a church five years ago in one of the most challenging cities in America. His church has grown like crazy. A magazine for pastors arrived in my mailbox not long ago. I opened it and saw a full page picture of him along with an interview and a recommendation for his book, which is a really good book by the way. I'm excited for him. He's uniquely gifted and God is using him.

Then I thought of some of the dead whose lives have long been over, but whose influence continues: Martin Luther, who changed the course of church history and helped us rediscover the gospel; John Bunyan, a tinkerer who fixed pots and pans, and who wrote a novel that's one of the great works of English literature; Jonathan Edwards, a brilliant thinker and a spark in the revival they call The Great Awakening; C.S. Lewis, who called himself "the most reluctant convert in England," and yet who wrote one of the clearest books exploring Christianity, and volumes of other great works.

I could go on. What all of these people have in common is that they have unique and, I guess you would say, exceptional gifts. You look at them and realize that they have extraordinary gifts that have been used by God in such a way that they have a huge influence. I guess you would have to say that God uses people to who have exceptional gifts.

As a result, we're always looking for that unique person to follow. We live at a time in which the really exceptional individuals can become prominent. So if I asked you to name some people that God is really using across North America at the present time, you would probably come up with five or six people that most of us would recognize from TV or radio or books. We look to these people to set the pace, and we realize that we'll never be these people. It's not that God won't use us; we just don't expect as much because we're not exceptional in the same way. These people are extraordinary, which by definition means they're not like the rest of us.

I don't want to put down these exceptional people. I'm grateful for them. I know that a lot of them didn't ask for the prominence or influence that they have. God has given them exceptional gifts, and with that comes a lot of responsibility and pressure. So I pray for them. I pray that God would continue to use them and that they would stay faithful.

Samson's Exceptional Gifts

But I'd like to look at a story today that calls into question whether we're really looking at the right things when we look at the people we think God is going to use. We're going to look at the life of an extraordinary man, and we're going to realize that in the end, extraordinary gifts aren't always what God uses. Today we're looking at the most famous judge in the book of Judges. If you had to compile a list of the most gifted people in the Bible and throughout history, he would have to appear on that list. His name is Samson.

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As a story, the life of Samson has it all: suspense, sex, violence, super-human powers, and action. Yet it's a story that speaks addresses people like us, even though no one today claims to be like Samson.

What can we learn from the life of a man who had it all? Join us this Sunday at 10:30 a.m.

From the newswire:

MISSISSAUGA, ON, Nov. 5 /CNW/ - While writing their wish lists as the holiday season approaches, many Canadians have come to a frank conclusion: they really don't need - or even particularly want - anything this Christmas.

Ipsos Reid unwrapped the surprise findings after surveying 1,429 Canadians on behalf of World Vision Canada. Asked what they needed and wanted this Christmas, 77 per cent of Canadians said they didn't need anything, while only 36 per cent said there was something in particular they actually wanted.

One more reason to get involved with the Advent Conspiracy.

Sermon from November, 4 2007 by Darryl Dash - Audio | Transcript

I'll never forget the day. I was young, maybe 12 or 13. My brother came rushing in the house covered with paint. It turns out that he and a friend had been over at the church doing some painting. They started arguing about theology. One was a Calvinist, who believed in God's sovereignty. One was an Arminian, who believed in free will among human beings. One thing led to another, and before you knew it they were throwing paint at each other. They ruined a perfectly good day and some cans of paint with an argument about theology.

It's easy to see why people don't like theology. Theology means the study of God, which sounds like it should be okay. But we've all met people who delighted in taking the most obscure points and who have split hairs. They don't have time for anyone who believes any differently than they do. We've also all sat through sermons where the preacher has gone on endlessly about some idea that excited him, but to us it was as interesting as the small print on a contract.

When I go to a mechanic, I don't want to get a lecture on how cars work. I just want them to fix the car. And, by the same measure, people say that they don't come to church to learn theology. Leave that up to the scholars. Many are tired of all the talk about theology.

I've even heard pastors - lots of them - say something like this:

We've had enough talking. It's time for action. I don't preach theology. I think that people need to have an experience of God. People need to know how to relate. I'm into helping people who come on Sunday morning to have an experience. I don't give much time to theology. One thing I've learned is that you don't preach doctrine. Preach to people's needs.

I can understand this view, I really can. Preaching theology isn't a crowd-pleaser. We've all seen it done badly. It's much easier to find something that can relate right to our needs, and to leave the theological discussions for the ivory towers.

But before we decide to downplay theology, we may want to consider the story of this man. His name was Jephthah, a tragic character who lived years ago. His story is strange, but I think you'll soon discover that his story may cause us to reconsider brushing aside theology in our lives and our churches.

We've all experienced boring theology. It's why some people say, "We've had enough time for talking. It's time for action. I don't have much time for theology." And, to be honest, we understand why people think this way.

But what happens when we focus on the practical and ignore learning about God? This Sunday, we'll be looking at a case study. Join us this coming Sunday at 10:30 a.m.