To: The Village - A Series of Short Notes

To: The Village A Series of Short Notes From Pastor Eric
The Sabbatical
Many of the people at the Village who know me well will tell you that I have long planned to take a Sabbatical after my fortieth birthday. The reason for this Sabbatical has changed over time. At first, it mostly had to do with reassessing whether, after ten years, I was still called to be a pastor at the Village or if God had something else for me. Since I feel that over the past year God has reaffirmed my call to the Village, the idea of Sabbatical then moved from a time of evaluation to a space for my family and I to refresh and refocus. Most recently, however, it has taken shape as a time to lay the foundations of a book which I have been planning to write for a very long time now. My Sabbatical will take the following form: Susan and I will start with a week-long vacation in early June. When we return, our family will move out of the Seneca House through the end of July. For the whole of June, we will be completely in cognito in regards to Village happenings: you may or may not see us on Sunday evenings and will not see us at other Village events. In July, Sue and I will pick up some light duties at the Village but will be focused primarily on book writing and spending time with our kids. On the last Sunday of July I will resume preaching and the four of us will head back into our home and resume our regular schedules. The four of us definitely need your prayers.

That we would be able to take a deep breath, relax, and trust Rod, the Leadership Community, and all of you… and/or just the Holy Spirit… to handle things well while we’re away.

That God would provide the money necessary for a small vacation and other Sabbatical-related expenses.

That I would be able to be diligent in my research for the book and the work of writing it.

That this would be a time our kids will look back on as rich, restful, and identity forming.

That Sue would take time during this Sabbatical to hone her craft as a musician and artist.

Most of all, that our family would rest and meet God in a special way so that we come back refreshed and excited about what He is doing in our lives and at the Village.

The Book 
My plan for the book is very simple: I will start by combing through the three hundred or so sermons that I have preached during the past ten years and select twenty of them that articulate key ideas and themes that God has revealed in our community. I plan to have these transcribed and begin framing the outline for the chapter layout. The book will include a few chapters that go into more detail about the Table of Decision and the Hot Seat Model as a whole. Once the outline is constructed, I will begin working up the rough draft and partnering with writers in our community to help me complete each chapter. My goal with this book is to write it in community. My hope is that things will move quickly and that by the end of the year I might be able to self-publish and begin distribution.

Thank You
Over the last few months, The Village has been so wonderfully gracious to my family. You generously cared for us during Christmas and even more recently with the gift that you gave me following my ordination exam. Some of you gave anonymously and others gave directly, so I just want to say thank you to all for taking care of Sue and I and the kids in this way. We love you and hope to continue to serve The Village community for a very long time.


The Village Gives
This year, the Village is planning to give 10% of the moneys it receives to other ministries which are serving in the surrounding community. Rod and I gave each Monastic Community the task of selecting two ministries that they would like the Village to support. These organizations will be put on a six week rotation to receive 10% of the offering given that particular week. The reason we assigned these to Monastic Communities is that we wanted to look into how we could support these organizations not only financially, but also through volunteering or other active endeavors. Each Monastic Community will also provide the larger community with information about their two selected ministries. The purpose in all of this is that just as God has called us as individuals to set aside money each week to support The Village, we believe that He has also called The Village as a body to do the same, trusting Him with the firstfruits of His provision.

The Leadership Community
As I have said in other letters and from the front at the Village, last August saw a transition in Village leadership. This new group of leaders has been in training and in practice at Pilgrim Groups and in Monastic Communities, and the exciting part of my Sabbatical is that you will get to see them team-teach through the months of June, July, and August. I am excited about what God has been doing with these leaders. They have taken hold of leading Monastic Communities, Pilgrim Groups, and leadership Meetings, pre-marriage counseling, missional activities, and Village finances. They have begun putting their own stamp on things and wrestling with the hard issues of being a leader. In particular, I would like to recognize Ron & Tamaki and Hannah & Steve, who have opened their homes to host and lead Monastic Communities. I would ask that if you are in either of these Monastic Communities, that you would make their job as easy as possible by helping with logistics, arriving prepared and eager to see God move in the discussion/decisions, and encouraging them by wholeheartedly supporting their leadership efforts (Hebrews 13:17).

(Reprinted from last letter) In Monastic Communities where the men, women, and children gather, we will spend time practicing the 6 Ways. In particular, we will spend time talking about the neighborhoods that we are present in as well as their stories. We’ll practice listening to each other and listening to what the Holy Spirit has to say about our particular mission. We’ll throw parties together and learn how to talk to our friends about celebration. We’ll practice what we’ve been learning in Pilgrim Groups and begin to offer it to the world around us. Finally, in both Pilgrim Groups and Monastic Communities, prayer will be a central focus. In particular, we’ll learn to listen to the Holy Spirit regarding what’s happening in our community and in the lives of our friends who don’t yet know Jesus and what He wants us to do. 
The vision for these Monastic Communities and Pilgrim Groups is that in the next 3-5 years, we would plant one or two new churches from them. If you join a Monastic Community, you need to understand that this won’t be your group forever. We intend to see each Community split into two or three groups after a year’s time because of their growth through transformed lives. Monastic Communities will be open groups. They will be permeable to new people coming in or just visiting. Pilgrim Groups will be open in a more restricted sense, or semi-permeable. They will be open to people who want to jump in and stay committed. My hope is that in five years, we will have planted a new Village on the south side and a new Village close to the U of A and that the Village at Cloverland will be bursting at the seams. I also know, however, that the Village is highly transitional and moves at a turtle’s pace. So please don’t be discouraged if starting things don’t happen overnight. But join me in pointing your turtle nose in the direction of mission and let’s enjoy the journey we are on together.

Pastor Eric

The Short Bio I Sent to the CRC

My name is Eric Cepin. I was born in Tucson, AZ. When I was six, my family moved to Miami, AZ where my father became the principle of Miami High School. A few years later, my parents felt called to go to seminary. They moved the family to Winona Lake, Indiana where they trained under Larry Crabb and Dan Allendar to become biblical counselors. After graduation, my father moved the family to Fayetteville, NC where he served as pastor at a small Bible church. After a short time in North Carolina, we moved back to Tucson, where I attended Rincon high school and met my lovely wife, Susan. Since then, Tucson is where I've lived other than a short stint taking classes at ASU during college. When I was four years old, my mother says that I jumped up into her lap and told her that I wanted to become a Christian. Even though I don't remember this conversion experience, I know for sure that my training to become a pastor started during those early years in Tucson when my mother and I would pray for all my friends who didn't know Jesus and when I would sit in the hallway of my parents' home with a bowl of popcorn to listen to my dad lead his weekly Bible study. While my heart was turned toward God as a young child, I also struggled with a paralyzing fear that affected most aspects of my life. This fear had such an impact on me that by tenth grade I had no friends, spent a great deal of time isolated in my bedroom, and had a D average in school. At the beginning of my junior year in high school, God took hold of my heart through conversations with my mother and with the youth pastor at the Evangelical Free church we attended. It was at this point that I first owned my faith in a way that enabled me to stand against my fears. With God's help I turned my grades around, started a prayer group at school, developed friendships, and spoke openly about my Christian beliefs with friends and teachers. In college, I started a prayer meeting with a handful of people which blossomed into a college ministry of about sixty. In the context of this group, Susan and I began dating and I started getting my feet wet as a leader. Shortly thereafter, I headed to Grand Canyon University in hopes of finishing up my elementary education degree. I decided that I didn't want to be an elementary teacher and transferred to ASU to pursue a psychology major. In college, I discovered that I had a language-related learning disability and wrestled to complete all the requirements. It became increasingly evident to me that I didn't belong there. In 1996, just a few classes short of my degree, I returned to Tucson to marry my wife, Susan, and take a job as a Mental Health Counselor in a geriatric psychiatry unit. During the early years of our marriage, Susan and I were mentored and trained by the pastor who married us. We helped in his college and singles ministry and took over leading it upon his departure to plant a church. This ministry became vibrant and mission-oriented, but it struggled to exist within the structures of a very traditional church. In 1999, the leadership sent us off with their blessing to do the ministry at hand. In the year 2000, I met Rod while working for an Evangelical Presbyterian church which had graciously taken our ministry under their wing. Due to extenuating circumstances in each of our communities, we sensed that God was calling us to plant a church together. In July of 2001, the Village church was planted. That same year, my daughter, Ashton, was born, and then my son, Elliott, four years later. As the Village nears the eleven year mark, I find I'm a pastor of a beautiful little church which has seen God work in absolutely stunning and humbling ways.

Skeptic Chickens: New Music

In the beginning, I found myself standing at the edge of 2012. My head was full of mucus. My eyes so tired.

The Code reDox

Sickness finds the heart and eats at our souls. The music plays and the voice sings only a small part. Sleeping beauty snug as bug sleeps slowly in a raspy sorta way. The light is so bright - my head hurts at levels yet to be determined. Why is the problem so ambiguous? A general disturbance in the force that is simply focused on last night. Hatred, fear, and anger fill the body so quickly, building a fortress yet to be conquered. The table is set. Words of definition sing their melody so clearly. Darkness speaks with such precision. I'd be fool to not listen, to drink deeply of such hatred. The cool wind of fresh perspective wipes over me. The dirty hole I dig is deep and cold and repetitive. Truth is just a whisper, a story for me to remember and call my own. Prince, son, and conquering hero call my name, but the blood - it is everywhere - pooling at my feet and moving towards my knees. The singing ringing in my ears is calling brokenness to its end. It is finished. The Fairy Tale is over and the war has begun. Ninja, samurai, and the voice that sings must be redeemed with a crushing carrot like stake of pure light. Hay, Ya, woo, please make me what I am. The light is bright. The heart is good and I've found my home.