The Canadian Bible Society just launched a new website for kids recently. I (Scott) think I rode across Canada on my bike to raise money for this sort of thing! This could be a good resource for those of you with young children. Check it out at www.biblekids.ca.
It is one of our biggest hopes that this website be used as a community resource for prayer. It is easy to post short comments about what is happening in your life so the community as a whole can unite in prayer. Each week, there will be a 'summary' post of some prayer requetss that wea re aware of, but our hope is that through the week, people will add comments so we can continue sharing life even whe nare are not physically together.
Prayer this week: Check it out here.
Becki Lee, shown here modelling for our " Abrahamic Covenant" series, is currently raising support for her work in Toronto with AIA. She, along with Monica, work on the York and U of T campuses with varsity athletes. Check out Becki's latest newsletter.
We continue our series on "Reconstructing the Call". Our night tonight was on "A Sabbath Way of Life" and Greg preached - Check it out. Check out the latest images and new pics of TILT set-up!. Of course, Urban Monk is updated and ready-to-go, as it will be every week. Jen-Mai encouraged us to pray the impossible tonight, stemming from her miraculous return to us. It is great to have her back at TILT and infecting us with such joy of life!!
Barbara Erochina, of York Campus for Christ, youth group leader and TILTer fame, is going to Scotland for reading week (is that right Barb?) in February to do some exciting things. As always, these opportunities need to be supported with prayer and, inevitably, finances. You can read Barb's support letter here. If you want to know more about Barb and contact her, you can also check out her blog - you'll find a link to it under the heading "TILT Friends" in the Urban Monks blog here.
Mark 2: A Discussion about the Sabbath
23 One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. 24 But the Pharisees said to Jesus, “Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?” 25 Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 26 He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions.”
27 Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”
Are you burning the candle (or matchstick in this instance) at both ends? Is it realistic to be able to rest for an entire day in our society? Isn't that laziness? Greg will be speaking on Sunday on "A Sabbath Way of Life". What does Jesus mean that the Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people? How does rest fit into God's design for us?
Hear ye, hear ye! Add it to your favourites, link it on your website, make it your start-up browser page...Finally! You can now officially access TILT's website at http://tilttoronto.ca or http://www.tilttoronto.ca. So, add the link to your site if you have one!!
WE ARE READY TO LAUNCH! So, this site has been in process for about a month now. I've been spreading the blogspot address, but always eagerly awaiting the tilttoronto.ca domain. I am IMpatiently awaiting the DNS to point the domain in the right direction...I've been told the worst case scenario is that it will be ready tomorrow, which would be fine by me. Nevertheless...the stress is getting to me. BUT, this blog isn't about the mysterious TILT webmaster is it?
This is one of those "what's goin' on" posts to let you know what is happening on the blog and across all the variety of sections. If you are reading this as the first thing ever on your first ever visit to the TILT website, boy, do we have a treasure-trove in store for you!
You can go to the first "what's goin' on" post below this one for introductory remarks and the link to the initial "how to use this blog" post.
Rather than stating the bazillion things posted on the site, check out the ENTIRE site! There are five blogs or sections: HOME (you're already there), Urban Monks, The Daily, Teaching, TILT art. Go to each by selecting them just below the big header picture. NOTE: A blog posts the newest stuff first. So, if you intend to fully explore each section, it might be easiest to scroll down to the bottom first and read UP!
Urban Monks is the most updated section and this is where a lot of the action will be happening. It is where we will pray together, read Scriptures together, heck maybe even sing together (virtually that is) during the week when we are not (physically) together at the TILT gathering. What is an Urban Monk you ask? Ah-ha! That is a great question. And we have a great answer!
In these so-titled posts, we will, on a semi-regular basis, provide links to all the latest areas of interest within the TILT blog. Seeing as the site is just up, EVERYTHING is of interest, new and exciting! Nevertheless, a few highlights. Perhaps most importantly, if you haven't the faintest idea what a blog is, how to use it, where to find stuff, make sure you go to "Using TILT's Blog" (aside: this will be a permanent link on the sidebar!). Just click on the hyperlinked (red) words to go to what's goin' on. Newly posted resources for breath prayer and prayer of examen. In fact, a whole bunch of good resources at the Daily@TILT. All sorts of art from TILT to check out - videos, photos, design stuff, paintings.
What TILT is and what TILT desires to be can be two quite different things at times.
First, TILT is not a ‘thing’ but a group of living people, so whenever we say something like ‘TILT is’, we’re really talking about a community of people. And it’s also not about what we desire to be, but rather what God is calling us to be in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Nevertheless, we proceed…
TILT is about worshipping God. We believe this is what we were designed to do, give glory to God, who exists as Father, Son and Spirit. Jesus came to Earth and preached that God’s Kingdom was a reality in the here and now. We believe that still to be true and so we seek to give a place to this kingdom in our lives, TILT and the community around us.
TILT is a missional community. In some circles, ‘missional’ is a pretty hot buzzword, yet my word processor identifies it as a misspelled word. So…essentially, we mean that TILT, as a part of the Church body worldwide, exists to serve the community at large, not Christians who are a part of TILT. Our focus is on God leading us out into the world, not becoming a little enclave of isolated people in Toronto. Our hope is that through the community of TILT, God’s grace and truth will be experienced tangibly.
TILT is about bringing the good news of God found in the person of Jesus Christ relevantly to our current and ever-changing culture. To most people, ‘church’ is out of touch with any sort of reality, yet we believe the Church should be the most ‘relevant’ place in our communities. A place that fights for justice, provides shelter for the weak, and oppressed, brings compassion and tenderness amidst hardness and selfishness, promotes peace where conflict prevails…that is just a glimpse of what God’s Kingdom is about.
TILT is authentic. Anyone is welcome as they are. Too often, the church tries to change people, but we trust and know only God can and will do that as he is experienced. Part of being authentic is re-invigorating ancient practices and bringing them back into our experience of worshipping God. It also includes times of silence before God to listen to him. It’s also times of confession, praying for one another with openness and honesty.
We could go on for a while here…
If you are looking for more information on the greater body of Spring Garden Church of which TILT is a part, click here for the main webpage or here for the theological image that drives our ministry
TILT gathers as a worship community weekly on Sundays at 6:10 pm before the 'official' (not that food isn't official or important) gathering begins at 6:30. TILT is a part of, and meets at, Spring Garden Baptist Church, which is located at:
112 Spring Garden Avenue
North York, Ontario M2N 3G3.
To Contact TILT or Spring Garden:
Email | tilt.toronto@gmail.com
Phone | 416.223.4593
Facsimile | 416.223.6126 (does anyone still use these?)
where location when time place
We have intentionally chosen to use a blog rather than traditional website in order to emphasize the community-oriented nature of TILT. A blog is more accessible, grassroots, dynamic, and more accurately reflects the changing 'organisim' which any community is. That being said, all the vitals are still available on the blog, usually in the sidebar.
TILT's website actually consists of five different blogs. A blog consists of "posts" - sorted by date, each with a Title and then associated content. The "title" of this post is "Using the TILT blog" and you are reading the "content" right now! Each blog is always accessible by the buttons underneath the header at the top of the page:
At the bottom of every post you will see something like this:
There is lots to do here! The dynamic nature of a blog allows users to post comments and spark online discussion regarding certain posts. Simply click on "Comments" at the bottom of an post. To learn more about comments, read about them on Blogger's Help Pages. Note: simply select "Other" and input your name when adding a comment. A major upgrade in the latest blog technology is the use of labels. Every post will have 'labels' attached to it, which are also found at the bottom of the post (see above image). For example, the sermon notes from December 12, 2006 on Luke 2 might have the labels "Luke", "Advent", "sermon", "notes", etc. If you would like to see every sermon on this blog on "Luke", all you have to do is click on the "Luke" label at the bottom of the post, and tada! every post with the label "Luke" will miraculously appear on your screen.
The sidebar of each blog contains much goodness and usefulness. Every blog will have specific links related to its section, such as these ones for the TILT art section:
There is also a search box such as this one for the Daily@TILT:
Simply type in something you are looking for, and if any post in that blog contains the word, it will come up! We are currently trying to make it so the search will simultaneously check ALL the TILT blogs. No success thus far.
Finally, the fun of the "Label Clouds"! Here is one example from TILT art:
The label cloud displays all the labels used within the blog. To get all the posts with a specific label, simply click on the desired word. The label cloud's beauty is that the more often a label is used in the posts, the bigger the font and the more red it gets. So, you can visually see the popular labels etc. The desired effect is to have a "cloud" with varied text sizes and colours.
TILT seeks to serve our city by fostering a growing, authentic, diverse community that will holistically encounter the mystery and healing of God together through worship and mission.
TILT is part of the wider Spring Garden Church community and we met here.
