The Village Voice

For the past couple of years I have kept virtually a daily journal of my thoughts here on www.villagevoice.ca.

Looking back, I could always judge how fired up I was about the blog and about the things around me by the frequency of my posts.

Some days I had trouble limited it to two or three. Other times, I had trouble coming up with something intelligent to say once a week.

All in all, I’ve really loved blogging and I think I’ll look back on it with real fondness as time goes on.

However, for now, www.villagevoice.ca (as we know it) will be no more.

My stated purpose for the site was to give people a window into the heart of The Village Community Church and allow them to experience a slice of the life of our church through their computer screen.

At the end of the day, I feel like this was accomplished, and that’s very cool.

As we grow as a church though, and as my life evolves as well, I’ve begun to see that 640 posts is enough (for now) and that the purpose of villagevoice.ca has run its course.

Over the next several months we will be using the same url and transitioning the site into something bold, daring and hopefully something that will connect with everyone in Milton…not just those who happen to wander onto a church blog.

We’re passionate about connecting people with the message of Jesus in a relevant, down-to-earth way at The Village, and we’re now charting a course to make www.villagevoice.ca an active part of that dream.

It’s been awesome chatting with all of you these past few years, and check back periodically to see what becomes of this site.

I think you’ll be glad you did.

Love,
Rob

Here’s a copy of an article about our Sex and the Suburbs series that apeared in yesterday’s Champion.

You can read it yourself here, or read it below.

Good stuff.

Five Week Church Series On Topic Of Sex

Church is the last place most people would expect to hear about sex.
But a local church is changing that notion with its upcoming series entitled ‘Sex and the Suburbs.’

For more information, visit www.villagechurch.ca .

About once a month I hear a comment about how I dress.

Now, I don’t mean that in terms of ‘Wow, he looks good in that’ or ‘Can you believe he wore white after Labour Day?’ What I mean is every once in a while at church the matter of what I chose to wear that week becomes an issue.

To preface this, I usually wear jeans or shorts every week…a t-shirt…and maybe a shirt over top.

For some, church is a place where they should dress holy and wear holy clothes to a holy event. You know what? Good for them.

Pretty exciting, eh?

However, for some reason this becomes a periodic topic of discussion.

The reason it does is because I dress like I do very much on purpose. I intentionally wear what a normal person would wear on a normal day to a normal event.

Of course, I also dress the way I want, and a way that I obviously think I look decent in…but trust me, there is a method to my madness.

The method is that for some, church is a place where they should dress holy and wear holy clothes to a holy event. You know what? Good for them. If they feel strongly about it and it’s coming from a good place, then more power to them.

In fact, I would assume that those who dress like that when they go to church are in churches which have words like ‘worship,’ ‘magnify,’ ‘exalt,’ and ‘preach’ in their mission statements.

Thus, it seems like a good fit.

For us though, we have words like ‘relevant,’ ‘down-to-earth,’ ‘personal,’ and even ‘groundbreaking’ in our mission statement.

Truth be told, these words don’t jibe that well with suits and Sunday hats.

For us though, we have words like ‘relevant,’ ‘down-to-earth,’ ‘personal,’ and even ‘groundbreaking’ in our mission statement.
Truth be told, these words don’t jibe that well with suits and Sunday hats.

I truly believe that there should be a Christian dress code, but that it shouldn’t be a standard, across-the-board one. I think that you should dress in a way which reflects exactly the same tone as your relationship with God.

If you’re looking to honor God by meeting in a holy place to exalt and worship Him with your Sunday…then by all means, dress accordingly.

And, if you’re looking to bring yourself warts and all into a place where everyday people are seeking Jesus in a way which makes sense for their lives outside of the church the rest of the week…then please, dress accordingly as well.

There’s no right or wrong answer…just an admonition for us to always be genuine and honest as we seek God in a way which works for us.

When we’re outside of that sweet spot, that’s when we’re in the wrong place for our spiritual growth.

Picture this: the most intriguing Family Feud round in history.

Host: Survey says!

Well, revealing the results of our Milton Sex Survey won’t be quite like that, but we’ve now closed the books and tabulated the results, and wow…some pretty interesting things came out.

We’ll be revealing the findings week-by-week as we progress through our Sex and the Suburbs series (starting this Sunday), and if you want to see the results in full, then check back to the miltonsexsurvey.ca site to see for yourselves (they’ll be up soon).

For the almost three years we’ve been in existence now we have always made one thing abundantly clear in the area of our finances: if you ever want to see our budget, just email me and I’ll send it to you.

We have an open policy when it comes to our finances and spending, and we’re unashamed (if not proud) of how we’ve hanndled that area of our church life.

You want to know the funny thing about that offer of making the budget known to all? No one has ever asked us to see it.

No one.

If you ever want to see our budget, just email me and I’ll send it to you

I was thinking about that yesterday and I was struck by the trust that exists in our group in this area. As a leadership team we’ve made every effort to be transparent, while also being directive, in this area, and it appears that people at The Village are cool with that approach.

I really like that.

I’ve heard of many groups/organizations/churches which are hamstrung either by financial mismanagement, or by excessive prodding and need-to-know-ism of their members.

I think we’ve found a bit of a middle ground as a church though, and I hope we can continue to stay there as we move forward.

FYI, our budget for 2008 was right around $145,000 with 75% of that going to our weekly rent and the several salaries we had committed to paying to our staff and leaders.

As a pastor, I always have to walk a fine line between being aloof and above any sorts of issues…and being an open book about my struggles, thus potentially losing any respect I might have.

It really is a fine line to walk.

For instance, if I’m speaking with a family who are having issues with child raising, is it better that I can empathize because my own children are out of control…or do they want me to have my children in-line and provide an example for them to aspire to?

Or, what if I’m talking with a guy who grapples with understanding the Bible for himself, is it better for me to say, ‘Yeah, I know what you mean. The whole thing baffles me sometimes too,’ or, should I be more sure of myself and reply, ‘Well, you need to follow my lead and put some of the things in place I’ve done in order to understand it for yourself’?

Some people love the vulnerability side, while others really gravitate toward the idea of seeing me as some sort of goal to aspire to.

The longer I do this (going on nine years now), the more I’ve realized that I simply need to be myself as I speak with people…and whatever happens will happen.

Early on in my life as a pastor, I think I was a bit more all over the place with this stuff, and it’s only now that I feel like I can simply be as vulnerable as I truly am and have people be impacted by it.

So, just to turn this back onto you: how vulnerable do you want your pastor to be?

Food for thought.

Remember 1997?

I do, barely, but one thing that stands out from that year is how seemingly everywhere you turned you saw or read something about the band Oasis.

Remeber Oasis?

They were those shaggy-haired Brits who fought a lot and sang songs that sounded a lot like the Beatles.

For awhile there, they were the hottest thing going. Their album ‘What’s The Story, Morning Glory?’ sold tens of millions…their interviews were legendary for their crude tone…and every award show you turned on was honoring them in some way. Heck, my mother even knew who they were.

We need to stop trying to recapture the energy of 1997, or 2002, or 2007, and start capturing the divine energy of today.

In every way, they were on top of their industry and things were sailing for them.

Quick question for you - Heard much about Oasis lately?

How about the five albums they’ve released over the past ten years…did you buy one of them?

Did you catch one of their shows in TO? They’ve been here every year.

Chances are, none of us have heard much about Oasis in years…and chances are not much of us care either.

Why? Because buzz always wears off eventually.

Oasis’ music was a breath of fresh air when it came out, but the music industry changed around them and now they’re still the same old band singing the same old songs. There’s nothing wrong with that per se, but it’s sad to see them touring through TO still with billboards talking about them being one of the world’s most popular bands.

They’re trying to re-ignite fires which are long dead and get that old buzz back while everyone else has moved on.

Truth be told, this is a trait I’ve seen in several new churches as well.

With the start-up phase comes energy, excitement, and a lot of buzz. If we capture that feeling and remain determined to relive it somehow, then we’re missing the heart of what God might be doing in our midst.

All too often we want to rely upon some sort of momentum in our midst, as opposed to relying upon God as He makes us into something we never could have dreamed of or drawn up ourselves.

We need to stop trying to recapture the energy of 1997, or 2002, or 2007, and start capturing the divine energy of today.

Well, our softball season has come to an end, as The Village Idiots were knocked out of the playoffs this past Sunday.

A good season was had by all, and despite the rain and the crippling start time (9:30 on a Sunday…we play in a local rec league), the team acquitted themselves quite nicely.

A few weeks back I was thinking about what I was going to do to occupy myself on Sunday nights after ball ended, then this past week I was again confronted with the beautiful reality that is six hours of NFL coverage.

I think I’ll be okay.

Well, I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that Village Voice has a brand new look. I’ve been looking at a redesign for around a year now, and I’m just now getting around to it.

For right now, only half of the features I’d like to have online are active, and the appearance is still very stark.

Check back periodically, not only for all of the highly intelligent ramblings you expect :-), but also to see how the style of the blog evolves.

It’s definitely a work in progress, but I’m stoked about the changes.

Tomorrow marks the final week of our 28: Building the Early Church series, and I’m a little sad to see it go.

It’s been the longest series we’ve ever done (8 weeks total) and tomorrow I’m wrapping up the final 6 chapters in a message called ‘Five Things You’ve Got To Do Before You Die.’

Should be fun.

As we move out of Acts-land though, we’re diving headlong into our culture with our next series: True or False.

What we’re doing with this one is spending four weeks examining other belief systems to see how they match up with Christanity.

The religions up for discussion?

Week 1 - Scientology
Week 2 - Islam & Hinduism
Week 3 - Jehovah’s Witnesses & Mormonism
Week 4 - Oprah’s ‘A New Earth’