Toronto's Sanctuary Church

One of the best things about the Training School so far has been our visits to Sanctuary Church in Toronto. Maybe you have read the book God in the Alley? If not, I recommend it! 


The church is the most tangible expression of the Kingdom of God on earth that I have ever experienced. Truly all are welcome and all are free to act however in the safe space Sanctuary creates. They truly emoby their name and become a sanctuary for people who are marginalized and ignored by just about everyone else, including me. 


Because Sanctuary has been so formational to me, I wanted to share with you a few articles written by someone who has imbedded himself in the Sanctuary community, is living out of his car and on the streets, and is writing about his experiences. I got to walk with him for two weekends while in Toronto debating fun stuff like journalistic objectivity versus subjectivity and exploring though conversations why in the world this guy would want to live on these cold jaded streets for a month straight! 


Here are the links to the articles Stephen was written and that have been published through a not-for profit out of Carmel called World Next Door: 


Article One: 
http://www.worldnextdoor.org/2011/12/a-motley-crew-of-christians/#comments
Article Two: 
http://www.worldnextdoor.org/2011/12/that’s-god-that’s-god-that’s-god-–-part-i/#

Images of Jesus

In light of Christmas (specifically christmas shopping) coming up and the Occupy Movement that has been gaining momentum the past two months; these images of Jesus seem rather relevant and provocative: 

Some Recent Quotes

Here are some recent quotes we have been wrestling with in the training school:

"Sometimes I would like to ask God why he allows poverty, suffering, and injustice when he could do something about it."

"Well why don't you ask him?"

"Because I am afraid he would ask me the same question."

Christ has no body on earth but yours

No hands but yours

Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion for the world is to look out,

Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good

And yours are the hands with which he is to bless us now.

-Teresa of Avila

The greatest hermeneutic of the gospel is a community that seeks to live it.

-Larry Mitchell

Back in the Game

I haven't been blogging much at all lately. Which is super odd to me since I am processing, learning, and experiencing more than I probably have in any other season of my life. The Training School has afforded me all types of new experiences and space to live in community with people. So I should have tons of thoughts, ideas, and questions to share all the time, and I definitely do! Yet, my blog says otherwise. My theory is that so much of what we do is so hard to quantify into blog posts let alone conversations when someone makes the mistake of asking me how Training School is going.

I think I will try to be a little more intentional about processing and sharing my thoughts and experiences through the blog from here on out.

I think I will start now:

Just two weekend ago some of us from the Training School made a trek up to Toronto. It is amazing how formational a quick weekend trip can be when you go with the intentions of walking together in intimate community and go with open eyes and hands for what the streets have to offer.

What I learned:

1. I don't walk much.

I was physically sore from walking wherever we went in the city.

2. I don't live below the surface very often.

Walking with friends that want to have conversations that revolve around meaningful, emotional, and spiritual concepts for basically three days straight causes me to be emotionally and physically drained. My lack of stamina for such conversations led me to deduce I don't live below the surface very often.

3. I am a communist.

Just Kidding, about that one. But we did stumble into a park that was being occupied by people in support of the Occupy Wallstreet movement. It was pretty awesome to walk around and interact with the diverse group of people that had committed all kinds of time, energy, and money towards the movement.

The protesters were occupying St. James Park for five weeks in the heart of downtown Toronto before they were evicted.

They occupiers had literally created their own little community equipped with a kitchen, first aid tent, general assembly, and even a library full of more than a 1,000 books.

This guy was cool. He came up with this idea of setting up portable tables for dialogue. Aren't conversations, debates, and arguments better around a table where people know each other's names and aren't posturing at one another??

We just happened to be there on a day that they marched throughout the city. There were probably only about 100 permanent tents in St. James Park but nearly 5,000 people turned out for their march through the city.