Dr. J. Gordon Freeland was senior pastor of Richview for 23 years (1974-1997). Under his leadership Richview expanded its building from the original gymnatorium to its existing facility, and founded the Richview Baptist Foundation, a ministry that provides seniors housing in two buildings on the church property.

This coming Sunday, January 6 at 10:30 AM, we are pleased to welcome Dr. Freeland back to Richview to speak at our morning service.

LLOYD McCONNIE Passed away peacefully at the William Osler Health Centre on December 28, 2007 at 8:00 p.m. He was born in St. Vincent, British West Indies on August 19, 1928. After the sudden death of his wife Susan, in 1984, Lloyd devoted his entire life to his two sons, Bowen and Graeme and his daughter Suzanne, whom he loved dearly. Lloyd was an active volunteer with the Martingrove Baseball League. He served on the Martingrove Baseball executive for many years and was a life member of the Etobicoke Baseball Association. Named in his honour is Etobicoke's annual Lloyd McConnie Rookie Ball Tournament. Lloyd will be sadly missed by his 10 siblings and his first wife Maria. Resting at the NEWEDIUK FUNERAL HOME, KIPLING CHAPEL, 2058 Kipling Ave. (two blocks north of Rexdale Blvd.) from Wednesday 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. Funeral service Thursday at 10:00 a.m. from Richview Baptist Church, 1548 Kipling Ave. (north of Eglinton Ave.). Interment Glendale Memorial Gardens. Mr. McConnie will rest in the Church from 9:00 a.m. until service time. Contributions can be made in memory of Lloyd McConnie to a trust fund for his two sons, located at TD Canada Trust at Westway and Martingrove Rd.

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

If I asked you what 2007 was like, I'm sure that I would get a lot of answers, but a couple of answers would probably stand out.

Some of you would probably say that 2007 has been a hard year. I know what some of you have been through this year. It reminds me of the year that Windsor Castle caught on fire and some royal couples split. The Queen called it an annus horribilis. Most of us would just say "horrible year" but it sounds much better in Latin. For some of you it's been that kind of year.

Some of you wouldn't say it's been particularly hard, but it has been uneventful. Nothing spectacular happened. Most of life is rather ordinary, and for some of you it may have been one of those really ordinary years.

It's easy to think that hard or ordinary years are a waste of time. It's easy to think that nothing much of value takes place when we are going through hard or mundane times.

I want to invite you to look at a fascinating story today that's all about ordinary people going through hard times. If you had asked the people in this story if God was at work in their lives, they probably would have said no. But if we understand this story, we'll come to realize that God is often at work when we don't even know it, often preparing to do his greatest work as we just go about our lives not even aware that he's at work all around us.

So if you have your Bibles with you, please look with me at what someone has called one of the greatest masterpieces of narrative art in the Bible: the book of Ruth.

Most of life is ordinary. Some of it is hard. It's easy to lose sight of what happens in the ordinariness and the difficulties of life. The Hebrew book of Ruth reminds us that God is sometimes most active in hidden ways when we don't see much of significance going on.

Join us this Sunday at 10:30 a.m. as we look at part of the backstory to the Christmas story, and how God uses loyal love among ordinary people.

Sermon from December 23, 2007 by Darryl Dash - Audio | Transcript

This morning I'd like to take a few minutes with you to look at how you can know if you really understand Christmas.

The fact that you're here in church a couple of days before Christmas probably means that you understand the facts about Christmas. Most of us know a lot of the Christmas story found in the Bible: that the Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and she had a son before she ever had intimate relations with a man; that angels appeared to various people to tell them about the significance of this birth; that eastern astrologers came to pay homage to this baby born in a feeding trough. But just because you know the facts of Christmas doesn't mean that you really understand Christmas.

If you don't consider yourself to be someone who understands or buys into this, then that's okay. But it's not fair to give you this test, even though I'd love for you to listen because what I'm about to describe is what you should expect of people who follow Jesus Christ. So I invite you to listen and to think about it and consider if what I'm going to say makes sense if you believe what Christians say about the Christmas story. You can even hold us accountable.

From The Etobicoke Guardian:

Richview Baptist parishioners have come up with an innovative way to spend less this holiday season, while at the same time maintaining the giving spirit of Christmas both at home and abroad...

This Sunday, Richview Baptist will collect a special offering with 100 per cent going towards the construction of a well in Nicaragua, something Dash said he's been told can make a world of difference to the people in need there.

Barry Hart, president of Living Water Canada, said the benefits of such well projects are more than just a clean and dependable source of water. "It brings everything from peace of mind to better living conditions," he said.

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Sermon from December 16, 2007 by Darryl Dash - Audio | Transcript

We're in this series called The Advent Conspiracy. We are one of over a thousand churches working to recover the scandal of Christmas by entering the Christmas story and asking the question, "How can we worship Jesus more?" We've been talking about some of the themes like:

• spending less so that we make room to say yes to Jesus in our lives
• giving more - giving relational gifts, because God gave us a relational gift - his own Son
• loving all - believing that with the money we save by giving relationally and resisting the empire we can, in turn, re-distribute the money we saved to the least of these in the world

Next week we're taking an offering with the money from celebrating Christmas differently. All of this money is going to go to Living Water International. They're going to use this money to help some of the 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water in this world. But this isn't an extra thing we want to tag onto an already stressful Christmas. The idea isn't to buy all the gifts you'd normally buy and then drop a little extra in the offering as well. Instead, we want to celebrate Christmas entirely differently and enter into the story of Christ coming to this world.

Download this week's bulletin (requires the free Acrobat Reader)

This Christmas, we are joining some 1,200 churches as part of the Advent Conspiracy. We want to worship Jesus more as we enter the Christmas story.

On Sunday, December 16, we will be talking about Relational Giving. As we enter the Christmas story, we understand that Christmas at its heart is about God who gave himself to us relationally by giving us His Son.

On Sunday, December 23, we will be talking about Loving All. With the money we save by giving relationally and resisting the empire we, in turn, re-distribute the money we saved to the least of these in our communities and the world. We will be taking up an offering that will be given through Living Water International Canada to help provide water for the over 1.1 billion people live without clean drinking water.

On Monday, December 24, we will be meeting at 6:30 p.m. for a one-hour Christmas Eve service.

Sermon from December 9,2007 by Darryl Dash - Audio | Transcript

If you've been with us recently on Sundays, you know that we've been looking at an important but rather depressing book of the Bible. Last week we looked at one of the most disturbing stories in all of Scripture. You have this sense that you're glad it's over.

After the service somebody came up to me and asked, "What are you preaching on next week? I hope it's going to be a bit lighter than this." I thought for a minute and realized that we're talking about Herod's slaughter of the children two and younger in Jerusalem. I promise you it will get lighter, just not this week.

N.T. Wright, a prominent bishop in the church of England and one of the top theologians in the world, was preaching at a big Christmas service, and a well-known historian attended. This historian was well-known for his skepticism towards Christianity, but his family had persuaded him to attend the service.

Afterwards, this historian approached N.T. Wright with a big smile. "I've finally worked out why people like Christmas," he said.

"Really?" said Bishop Wright. "Do tell me."

"A baby threatens no one," the historian said, "so the whole thing is a happy event which means nothing at all."

That historian may not have read the Christmas story of the Bible. At the heart of the Christmas story is a baby who poses such a threat to the most powerful man around that he kills a whole village of young children to try to get rid of him. He is most definitely a threat to the kingdoms of this world, kingdoms that are in direct competition with his reign.

Last year four churches participated in what they called The Advent Conspiracy. It came out of a few pastors sitting around talking about how much they hate being pastors at Christmas.

You would think that a season that's all about one of the greatest theological truths - that God became flesh in what is called the incarnation - means that Christmas would be a great time to pastor. But the pastors had a sense of competing with stress, thoughts about the mall, what people hadn't bought yet, and how much debt they're going into for this great truth called the incarnation.

There's a stream of passion, consumerism and chaos that is contradictory to the message of the Gospels. Rick McKinley, one of the pastors in the group, observes, "There is a point where you want to just throw up your hands and say, 'Let's quit talking about Christmas from the Bible. Let's just talk about spend more. Let's cancel church for the Christmas season.' That probably would be easier for people. Then you realize that's stupid."

The pastors began to conspire together to enter the story of Christmas: not just teach about it and sing about it, but enter it. When Christ came to earth, he came as King. It threatened the king at the time and his empire. Although Christ comes in weakness, there is a true threat in this baby. He is subversive. He is a threat to the kingdoms and the powers that be in this world. When we worship at Christmas, we often bless the kingdom, and buy into consumerism and chaos. This seems contradictory to the Christmas story.

Last Christmas, four churches decided to try to enter the Christmas story by resisting consumerism, giving relationally, and redistributing what we have because God loves all. As a result of all of this, they were able to worship more. As well, they gave away close to half a million dollars. This year, over a thousand churches are taking part.

I realize it's late, but if you haven't checked out The Advent Conspiracy, do yourself a favor and spend some time doing so. They have a great website. Imago Dei, a church in Portland, also has a podcast of a recent service which introduced the Conspiracy, including interviews with someone who participated in last year's Conspiracy, a representative of Living Water International, and Morgan Spurlock, writer and director of Super Size Me and producer of the new film What Would Jesus Buy?

Check it out and spread the word. The Advent Conspiracy is changing lives around the world by providing clean water to those who don't have any, but it's also changing the lives of North Americans who are learning to enter the Christmas story and celebrate Christmas differently.

Sermon from December 2, 2007 by Darryl Dash - Audio | Transcript

Any father here who has a daughter understands that no matter what happens, that daughter will always be your little girl. The other thing you know if you have a daughter is that no guy will ever be good enough for her. My apologies to the men out there, but that's just life. That's the way it always has been and always will be.

So you'll understand that when my daughter came back home, I was glad. Oh, I was sad that her marriage had come to an end. It actually wasn't really even a marriage. She was a concubine. You don't have concubines in my day, but back then concubines were really like wives without all the privileges. I know what you're thinking: "Wives have privileges? When did this start?" But believe me, you wouldn't have wanted to be a concubine. They had it even worse. So when my little girl returned back home, I was sad for all that she had been through, but I was also really, really glad to see her.

I wish I could say that my daughter was completely innocent. The truth is that she had done some things I'm not proud of. But if you knew her husband, well he had his issues too.