TILT Mission

We recently spent two Sunday evenings expanding upon and putting 'flesh' on the mission statement which had been drafted over the last few months. If you'd like to check out our mission statement, read it here.

Sunday Night | WHERE ARE WE GOING?!

About three months ago, the TILT leadership team gathered together to seek God's direction for us as a community. Since that time, we've been drafting a statement that speaks to who we are and where we are headed.

On Sunday night, when we gather together, we will be exploring this statement together and trying to put "flesh" on it - i.e. what will this look like for us as a community?

The statement is as follows!
TILT will 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.

Community Action Team Survey...finally!

I promised I would have it up this week...so here it is...
How do you love to serve people?
Are you interested in serving the community around Spring Garden Church?

If yes: Click Here to take a SHORT survey.
(Note, this is about 1/30th the length of the TILT town hall survey.)

Leadership Retreat | Announcement

About a month ago, the TILT leadership team took a day to pray through and for many aspects of TILT and its raison d'etre. Gene did an announcement a couple of weeks ago about that day, and since many of you likely weren't there, I figured I would put it up on the web for you! Thank you for all of you who gave us some feedback - it was much appreciated.Download the announcement here (right-click and select Save As...) or listen to it below:

Photo copyright istock photo

The Daily | Scripture & Memorization

Check out this quote from Dallas Willard in the Daily. As I've been reading the Psalms in the Divine Offices, it is so evident how the Psalmists always had the Word of the Lord before them, in their hearts and on their minds. We continue to affirm the incredible power of a life of prayer and Scripture, especially reading together as a community. There are a couple of us that do the Divine Offices, and some who do the Once-A-Day approach. If you are on a computer a lot, the Divine Offices Calendar literally makes it two clicks away to read a short section of Scripture and say a prayer. You can also print either out when the resources posting in Urban Monks every week.

A couple of us (well, Kate and I) have begun weekly Scripture memory and if anyone is interested in joining in, let us know!! We are starting with Colossians 3, about 4 verses a week.

All of these things are not ends in and of themselves. They are merely practices that train us in becoming more and more like Jesus - becoming his disciples. It is sometimes easy to forget that!

TILT Leadership Meeting | Community Voice

As Greg mentioned tonight during announcements, the TILT leadership team is dedicating a day on June 25th to praying through and discussing anything and everything regarding the TILT community. We believe leadership exists within the community and does not stand over and above it. In other words, leadership does not dictate. SO, we would like to give anyone and everyone an opportunity to put "items" up for discussion for this day. They can be concerns about the community, a vision of where God wants it to go, encouragements about what TILT is doing well, ideas to integrate into our worship gathering, thoughts about becoming more of a "sent-out" community rather than inward-focused...anything! We would really appreciate your input on this. You can provide input in one of three ways:

• Post a comment by clicking "# COMMENTS" below;
• Post a comment by going here;
• Email tilt.toronto@gmail.com.
• NOTE: all comments must be published by someone on the TILT leadership team. Therefore, you can actually post a comment that nobody will ever see (please state this as your desire if you would like your comment to be private). You can also post a comment as anonymous too!
  

TILT is {insert here}.

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