So, if you are short on time and want to quickly scan any of the latest forum posts, especially regarding prayer, simply click on the image below "RECENT FORUM POSTS" on the sidebar on the right. It will give you the latest postings on all the forums. If you want to spend a little time praying, just check out the prayer forum.
As we have been announcing for a couple of weeks...in a big answer to prayer, it looks like we have the opportunity to establish a long-term connection with our friends at the Moose Deer Point Native Reserve. This summer, we'll be doing another week-long summer day camp from July 20-26. If you want to read about our experience last summer, check out these postings here. Or talk to Scott M, Becki L, Lindz, Greg K, Bill H, Barb E, or Jen-Mai at TILT!!
If you are interested, talk to Bill H or email him at billhall [at] springgardenchurch [dot] ca.
Hey everyone. So, the last couple of teachings are now up on the TILT Teaching blog. Of course, you can listen to them through the TILT podcast too!
March's devotional resources are also up!! We continue to desire for us to journey through Scripture together and this is one way to do it...check it out here.
Please continue to use the new community boards for all of their uses. Unfortunately, for them to be free, the ads have to be there, so just don't look at the top of the page!! If you want to see the latest postings, check out the sidebar at the right and click on the image under "recent forum posts".
Sorry for not yet having this month's devotional stuff up. We are awaiting the reconnecting of the Spring Garden server to the outside world!
Thanks to everyone for such a wonderful TILT Communion Potluck and baby dedications on Sunday night. What an amazing way to worship God together. I will post pictures as soon as possible.
Hopefully you have been checking out the TILT community boards. There are all sorts of things you can do there. To see the latest posts in all of the forums, simply click on the image under "Recent Forum Posts" on the right sidebar. For a tutorial on the forums, check out the proboards website here.
For our gathering on Sunday, we're having our approximately bi-monthly communion potluck where we receive and celebrate communion together over a meal. So, we'll be downstairs in the Multi-Purpose Room instead of up in the sanctuary. 6:30 pm per usual!
We don't assign food by name or anything like that, so if you are able to bring anything, please do. However, if you don't have time/money/whatever to prepare anything, don't worry about it! We always make extra and often those who need to take food home, we send some with them!!
If you haven't been at a communion potluck before, a little background...the early Christian church celebrated communion over an entire meal, rather than just as part of a worship gathering. So, that is what we are doing at TILT - framing a meal together through the celebration of communion, so that the entire meal is communion.
While we are eating, we will be dedicating our three "e" TILT children!! Bill and Shelby will be dedicating GraciE, Mon and Greg ChloE, and Jay and Michelle RyliE. This is an important part of being a community as we all commit to supporting these families in raising their children in the love and grace of God and His Body.
This weekend, from February 22-24, there is a major mission event happening at Yorkminster Baptist Church. There is a speaker from Argentina, workshops, exhibits, tours, etc. all for $35 or less depending on what you register for. Click on the image to see more!
The season of lent is upon us! We've created a forum where we can share our journeys to the cross - talking about what we have given up, perhaps why, what that is breaking us free from and how we are drawing closer to God through it.
Check out the forum here.
Typically, the Sabbath day is a day 'off' from whatever you are fasting from throughout Lent. If you consider Sunday your Sabbath, we would love to provide whatever you are fasting from! For example, if you are fasting from chocolate for Lent, it would be great to have chocolate for snacks at TILT for your Sabbath enjoyment! So, add a thread on the forum or let us know at TILT!
Cartoon copyright: http://www.cartoonchurch.com/blog/images/ash-wednesday.gif
Sorry for the tardinesss! Listen to Gene's teaching here.
And don't forget the new way to pray!
Despite the weather, the meeting tonight will go on...just a reminder...6:45 prayer and 7:30 meeting about the revised budget. Hopefully some of you can make it, although understandable if not.
We try as much as possible to include stories from people within TILT about what is happening in their lives - you can find them on the Urban Monks blog tagged as "story". Read Jan D'Angelo's latest update about her adventures with LAUNCH.
It would be awesome to hear from everyone about the stories of their lives - from amazing stories like Becki's on Sunday night, to an interesting conversation at work, to a thought-provoking reading of Scripture, to a great windsurf (that's for you Nick!) - whatever it is! Share in one another's journeys...
Introducing the official launch of the TILT boards! I will post a full teaching explanation later day, but for now, please use the TILT community boards!!
You will see on the drop-down menu the addition of "community boards" at the top right. Click on that and it will take you to the general forum (with all of them listed). Prayer is the forum through which we can pray for one another, our city and our world. Practical helps is a way for us to build an inventory of what we as a community have to 'offer' - what skills do you have ? can you build a house? a website? paint? Put it up! Practical needs is where you can post anything you need help with! (See this one - nanny needed!). General is where you can talk about anything. Others will soon be added.
You can reply to an existing thread (such as this one on praying for Kenya), or start your own!!
Note: we considered making the prayer forum password protected or members only due to the concern of privacy that was raised in the TILT town hall meeting. However, we've decided to leave it open - we feel that the board is separate from the site and less public that previously posting on the blog. We also value the ability for ANYone to post on this, even if they are outside of TILT - this has happened a couple of times. I will moderate everything still, of course. As well, you can adjust the content of your prayer request to make it suitable for this kind of forum, so that you are comfortable with what you post. Hope that makes sense!
Sorry for the long lack of updates! Here is the latest:
:. Scott's teaching from Sunday night from Acts 17:33-46 (it includes the video as well).
:. This month's resources (sorry for the tardiness).
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.
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.
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!
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:
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!
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!
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.
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.
