Gone all week...

Hello friends,

I, your faithful blog poster, am gone for the week, so take the time to explore corners of this site you haven't yet! Read about breath prayer and other fun things under the daily. Pray for one another on urban monks and use the prayer map. Check out some art. And of course, enjoy the new drop down menus (above)!! There is a world to explore in here folks!!!

We are also in the process of constructing the TILT community boards - more of a space for dialoguing. The skeleton is up with a few more additions necessary. We'll keep you posted for when it's a go. You can get a sneak preview at tilttoronto.proboards60.com.

Urgent! Help needed on Sunday

Sarah P posted a comment on the prayer posting here. Given its importance, I figured I would put it right up here (hope that's ok, Sarah!). Sarah said:

Was wondering if anybody is free this coming Sunday after church...
We're having a bin delivered to my mum's house so that we can get rid of a lot of her junk (she's moving from a house to an apartment so there is a lot to get rid of!) The thing is, much of it is big and heavy, so my little mother and I can't move it all on our own. I was therefore wondering if we could gather a whole crew of people to fill the bin. If that's possible, it should only take an hour or so. We'll meet at mum's around 2:00 on Sunday. Anybody up for that? If so, please email me at sarah_parke (AT) yahoo.ca and I'll send you the address.
Thank you thank you thank you in advance.

Bulletin | Baptism Sunday Morning!

Just to let you know, Michelle Willson is being baptized on Sunday morning at Spring Garden.  She was a part of the team that went up to Moose Deer Point this summer.  The gathering starts at 10 am if you're interested/able!

Calling All TILT! | Stemming from Sunday

As we met as a leadership team on Tuesday, two 'actionable' things emerged from Sunday night pretty clearly. (1) The idea of creating a team to connect us with the wider team was well received. (2) People desired to help out on Sunday nights as actively as possible. So, here goes...

Community Team: (I hesitate to use the word mission team, because everything we do as TILT should be mission, from snacks before gathering, to our music, prayer, to our work in the community) Our hope is create a team of 4ish people that would act as mobilizers and connectors to the community around the Spring Garden Church building (and, probably to a lesser extent, the communities in which we are scattered about). The team wouldn't necessarily create opportunities out of nothing, but would assess the community, see what organizations and people are already doing, see what Spring Garden as a whole is already resourced to do, and of course, pray through the ministry to which God has called TILT in this local community. Regularity, time and length of meetings would depend upon the members of the team. This team would also liaison regularly with the leadership team. We already know of a couple of people who are interested, but if you are interested in being a part of such a team, please email tilt.toronto {at} gmail.com.

Gathering Involvement: As you may know, we gather every Sunday night to worship God corporately. This requires lots of participation and help from the community as a whole - a lot of which happens already. Thank you! But we felt we heard on Sunday night a more earnest desire to continue to be involved. We, as a leadership team, have admittedly found that sometimes it takes more time and effort to delegate over doing everything ourselves. However, we are firmly committed to living as a community, not a top-down hierarchy. So, if you have previously expressed interest in helping out in various areas, we'll probably be contacting you soon! But if you are interested in helping out on Sunday nights, please email tilt.toronto {at} gmail.com. Areas where we need help:

• Kids - coordinated by Michelle. We recognize this is hard because they come inconsistently, but we still need two people very week just in case (thank you Kate for looking after the kids on Sunday night!);
• PowerPoint - it's fun up in the balcony!
• Clean-up - coordinated by Becki L, but always looking for regular helpers
  
• Set-up - coordinated by Naomi and Kate, but always looking for regular helpers
• Snack - Les still puts out the sign-up sheet regularly, so just sign up as desired!
• Leading in the gathering
  

I think that's it. Please email if you have any questions or concerns. Have a great day!

TILT Town Hall | Thanks & Re-cap

As a TILT leadership team, we wanted to thank everyone as a whole for the attitude we brought to the meeting on Sunday night. We feel affirmed and assisted by the conversation. (Editor's Note: Dearest Bill says, "Don't be so nice!!" Direct all criticism to him...kidding. ) As always, this wasn't a one-off opportunity for everyone to have a voice. We desire to be led as an entire community by God, not just 'the leadership team' declaring a 'vision' from above. Again, thanks for a healthy and positive evening! Continue to pray through the things we discussed and don't hesitate to contact TILT leadership at any time (tilt.toronto {at} gmail.com).

I have posted the notes from the dialogue online. Read the notes here. Also, there was many questions we weren't able to answer on Sunday night. Over the course of the next several weeks, we will answer them at the end of the gathering.

I will post more later about some areas where we are implementing things discussed on Sunday night!

TILT Town Hall | What's the deal?

As most of you hopefully know, this Sunday is going to be a 'town hall' meeting for us as a community. We'd like to spend as much time dialoguing as possible, so please do your darnedest to make it for 6:30!

We will be having elements common to our usual worship gathering (some singing, prayer and communion), but the bulk of the night will be spent talking with one another! We recognize this isn't the best with respect to visitors, but at the same time it says something about who we are.

Here's a brief overview of how it's going to work, just so you know:
:. We will be set up in the lounge for the entire evening, and we'll sit in six clusters (each with 6-7 people depending on who is there). Each table will have a (pre-) designated facilitator and yours truly (Scott) will be the 'moderator' (for lack of a better word) for the evening. Each cluster will also have a recorder/presenter.
:. I will give a very brief summary of what the dialogue feedback was from the forms we received.
:. We will have six questions to be discussed. I will pose the question, and it will be discussed in each cluster for about 5 minutes. Then the recorder/presenter of each cluster will summarize their cluster's discussion for the entire group, and I will record what is said. We'll do this for each question.
:. Once that is done, we'll have a time to see if we have missed anything in the discussion, and if people have questions of leadership, they can ask them. Free-for-all! Well, an orderly one hopefully.
:. We'll finish with communion and prayer, as close to 8 as possible!

What's Goin' On | January 16

Sorry for the lack of updates! Your faithful blog poster was off tobogganing in Winterpeg, Manitoba. Here's the latest:
:. Community life and prayer posting - pray for one another and add your own prayer requests.
:. Devotional resources for the month.
:. Read about the new blog feature to make it easier to see prayer comments.
:. A note from Rod.
:. Listen to Jan's teaching, and read more about her story here.

Bulletin Board | Town Hall Meeting!

What's Goin' On | January 8

A few updates for you on this...warm...winter...morning:
:. Community life and prayer posting - pray for one another and add your own prayer requests.
:. Matt's meditation from last week.
:. Devotional resources for the month.
:. Read about the new blog feature to make it easier to see prayer comments.
:. A note from Rod.

An Important Message from Rod

I was only able to drop by TILT tonight for coffee set up but was delighted to see some great mustaches on the faces of Mark and Scott. Unfortunately for me my facial hair grows at the rate of a newborn baby so even though I shaved earlier in the week my growth is minimal. But just wait boys... it'll be there.

For those men interested ... January is unofficially "grow your stache month". Why? Because it's fun! I'm pretty sure that "community" has something to do with a group of guys doing something for the fun of it. So men, if you haven't started growing out your mustache (without any other facial hair) then you still have time.

Rod

(editor's sidenote: my wife can barely look at me, let alone approach the stache)
And if you think you can grow a mustache, check out the World Beard and Moustache Championships!

What's Goin' On | Jan 6

Just a quick update that the Divine Offices are fully updated for the month! Let us know if you are using these or the Once-A-Day devotions - it would be great to start a conversation throughout the weeks as we read Scripture together.

Also, check out the latest post in the Daily about an upcoming movie.

What's Goin' On | Jan 5

A few things to update you on:
:. Devotional resources for the month of January are up. Find them here. What are these resources all about? Well, read about them here (divine offices | once-a-day). We think it would be amazing for an entire community of people to be journeying through the same Scriptures together and seeing where God leads us in doing that...
:. Prayer post is below...pray for SG and TILT leadership today as they are meeting for a mini-retreat.

Prayer for the week

Good morning! We'll have last week's teaching and the devotional resources for January up soon, but this week's prayer posting is up.

And make sure to read about the new blog feature!

Happy New Year!

We hope you are enjoying this beautiful winter day as a new year dawns. The website will be updated tomorrow!