Friends, I often use this space to let you know about travel I have upcoming. This summer I plan a different kind of travel.
Chautauquas are late 19th century institutions committed to four pillars of life: education, the arts, recreation, and worship. Imagine summer camp, but for adults. About 25 of them still remain in North America, and a few of them still have worship as a pillar, including their most famous location in … Read more
Our team is doing their part to engage community and mend the world in one way or another. Take a look at what's going on:
Jason is jamming his summer travel into a one-month window in late spring and early summer. He’ll be in Turkey for a pilgrimage commemorating the seven ecumenical councils and the seven churches in Revelation through the end of May. Then he’ll preach and speak at a Chataqua in Lakeside, Ohio the first week of June and will teach at Northern Seminary outside Chicago the second week of… Read more
Who doesn’t love a festival? The very word conjures up delicious images of parades in the street and enforced non-employment. More of this!
For years at TEMC we have had an annual Festival of the Word in the summer in which some of the best preachers alive have blessed all of us. It’s so glorious in fact we might as well spread it out throughout the year.
The Festival followed the pattern of many north Torontonians for whom the summer was a time… Read more
(Gen. 12:1, Mt. 28:19) – One generational shift at our church is that we cannot assume everyone’s life revolves around the calendar of the school year or seasonal living for the weather. Once, many Torontonians could afford a shack up north, but those houses are often now as expensive as these in the GTA. Families look different now, and so do our socio-economic brackets. My predecessors often took the summer away, inviting in excellent summer preachers, and in Andy Lawson’s case, even writing his sermons for the next year!… Read more
“You’re here?!”
I get this response a fair bit when I’m at church on a Sunday when I’m not preaching. I suppose people have seen on the sign or the eblast that Dayle or a guest is preaching and figured that means I’m out of town. I still am tempted to tease the surprised person: yeah, I do have to show up for work occasionally!
Perhaps the surprise level calls for some deliberation about when I preach and don’t, when others preach and what I do… Read more
Friends, I’m so excited our summer preacher series is upon us! Several of these preachers will preach on “rude praise,” some from the Psalms, some from other places. Here they are:
This Sunday we hear from one of the most important artists in Canada. Shadrach Kabango has hosted CBC's "Q" and is the star interviewer for Peabody and Emmy winning Hip-Hop Evolution on Netflix. It’s an amazing show to watch—he gets to go around to his… Read more
There are three other places in town that I’ve preached at most often besides TEMC. One is Upper Canada College for its chapel service. The second is Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto. The third is Christie Gardens, where a number of our elderly members live and worship in chapel once a week. I got to preach there again recently and was struck how much I learned.
What to preach?
I know it’s annoying to be asked to look ahead on the calendar. But your accountant does it (tax time coming: ugh!). Whoever budgets in your household does it. Now your preacher is doing it: what should we preach on next?… Read more