Preaching

(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.

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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