Delve July Aug 2020

JULY AUG

2020

Quick Calendar WEEKLY Sun

10am Sunday Worship Online 11:30 Virtual Coffee Time 1pm Life Group - Connect for Community

Tues 10am-12pm Pastoral Team Meeting Wed 10am Refresh, Women's Group - Online 7PM Kids Wednesday Hangout

Thur 8:30pm Evening Prayers - Online

pg 23 pg 13 pg 23 pg 23 pg 23 pg 23 pg 13

UPCOMING July 20-

Virtual Camp

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See more on the last pages or on our Events page at www.springgardenchurch.ca/events.

Delve submissions are due Aug. 24th. Delve submissions are due on the MONDAY before the LAST Sunday of each month. To submit for the next issue of Delve, e-mail: delve@springgardenchurch.ca

Features Attachment, Joy & Communion 3

Let Us Stand, Let Us Kneel 5 Treat Everyone Equally | Save Water 8 Holding onto Hope 11 About our Current Sermon Series 14

Community Corner CONNECT ONLINE Virtual Coffee Time, Refresh & Evening Prayer 13 EVENTS Day Camp 2020 13

Discipleship Ministries

Summer Staff 15 Spring Kids 17 | Spring Youth 17

Resource Centre

Resource Recommendations 19

More Info How to Give 21 Leadership Directory 21 Weekly Calendar 23 23

Upcoming Calendar 24 Design, Cover & Editor: Dale Forder

Contributors: Sam Lee Greg Kay Mary Simpkins Marion Knutson Jeremy Ranasinghe Karen Cassel Copy Editors: Greg Kay Karen Cassel

Attachment, Joy & Communion

By Sam Lee

Do you enjoy God?

I ask this question so that you consider what the nature of your relationship with God is like. Is your relationship with God based on your sins? Is it about making sure that you are forgiven of your sins and that God is making you less of a sinner? Is your relationship with God about your needs? Do you spend your time asking God for what you need? Do you have a list of wants and desires that you come to God with?

I ask this question not because it is wrong to ask God for things or to be forgiven for your sins but rather to contemplate what the foundational nature of your relationship with God is like. Is it about God appeasing our guilt or is it about treating God like our personal genie who grants us our wishes as long as we use the right magic words? What should be the nature of our relationship with God? Attachment theory argues that the only kind of love that helps the brain learn better character is attachment love. We are shaped by what we love.1 And the mechanism in which to have this attachment love is through joy. If this is true, it behoves us to ask the question, do we enjoy God? Does our relationship with God have any joy in it? How do we have fun together? How do we commune with each other?

When I think about some of the best times that I have had with my friends and loved ones, it is around a meal together. In sharing a meal together, we not only enjoy the food that is provided but in that meal together, we enjoy each other’s company. Yes we can have fun playing games, watching a movie, etc. but one of my favourite ways of building relationships (or how we build attachments) is through food. Isn’t this what communion is? Isn’t this what Jesus did when he broke break with his disciples and ate 3

with them? It is a reminder of the joy that can be shared through food. Jim Wider makes this connection between communion and attachment theory. He writes that, One of the central elements of an attachment model is that we attach to the one who feeds us and gives us our drink. Human history went wrong when Adam and Eve let the serpent, rather than God, feed them. That new attachment did not do us any good. Attaching to Jesus means He becomes the One who feeds us and gives us drink. His people should have meals together if they plan to attach to one another.2 If we want to attach ourselves to Jesus and one another, we should have meals together. This is exactly what we do when we celebrate Communion. We are being fed and given drink by Jesus where we commune and attach ourselves to Jesus. Is this why Jesus says that he is the bread of life and the one in which we will never thirst again?

I want to invite you this summer to explore ways in which you can enjoy Jesus. What does it mean to have fun with Him? What does it look like for you to have a love relationship with Jesus?

The great thing about this relationship is that it really depends on who you are. None of us is made the same and therefore each one of our relationships to Jesus is uniquely different to who you are and to who Jesus is. So I invite you to try different ways of loving God. Enjoy God through nature, through music, through the arts, through sports, through the internet, through _______. You fill in the blank.

I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you’ll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love.

Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.

-Ephesians 3:14-19

1 Jim Wilder and Dallas Willard, Renovated: God, Dallas Willard & the Church That Transforms (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2020), 6.

2

J. Wilder, 75.

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Let Us Stand, Let Us Kneel

By Greg Kay

There are many times where I feel inadequate for the task at hand, and this is one of them. A white middle-class middle-aged suburban male feeling convicted to write to and on behalf of a community of people who long to follow Jesus in response to recent protests against racism‌ I have nothing new to add to the conversation, but write simply to affirm that I as a person and we as a church need to stand.

To stand against racism in all its forms whether obvious or subtle, individual or systemic.

To stand and affirm that Black Lives Matter.

To stand and reject the ignorance that suggests Canada doesn’t have racism deep in our bones, oozing through the marrow of our culture from the first European immigrants through to today, weakening and killing us from within. Especially when we blindly choose to ignore all the signs of illness, minimizing or outright rejecting the diagnosis because we are either too ashamed to accept its truth or too afraid of how challenging and costly the treatment.

To stand and proclaim that Jesus is gentle and humble in heart, utterly rejecting any notion that the Kingdom of God comes by 5

force. Rejecting any notion that there is anything even remotely godly, God honouring, or Christian to “dominate the streets”.

Rejecting the virtuelessness of blind partisanship that keeps us from seeing the weakness of our political parties and views, that somehow enables us to live with the cognitive dissonance of being OK with things we should not be OK with (the current example I have in mind is the way many American Evangelicals don’t have a problem with Donald Trump teargassing and shooting rubber bullets into a crowd of peaceful protesters so that he could hold up a Bible for a photo shoot. The whole thing was the biblical definition of blasphemy and of “anti-Christ”—i.e. against or opposed to Christ who is always for the oppressed—yet many are so partisan they can’t see it for what it is).

I recognize this isn’t as simplistic as saying “don’t use force.” We watched thousands of people, capitalizing on the building energy and rightful anger of the protests, turning to looting and violence which only served to injure and harm others as well as the message of the protests. But instead of saying, “it’s terrible what happened to George Floyd, but violent rioting is unacceptable”, we should be saying “it’s terrible that violent rioting is happening, but what happened to George Floyd is unacceptable.” What we should never consider acceptable is turning away from systemic racism, and we must not be sidelined in this either by the flashiness of a looting mob or the rhetoric that seeks to lull us back into sleepy complacency.

This is going to sound harsh, but if we can’t say that Black Lives Matter without feeling the need to add, “all lives matter”, we quite bluntly are ignorant. If we can’t say that in Canada our First Nations have been oppressed without needing to add, “but the government apologized,” we are ignorant. Ignorant of the realities of what it means to be black in North America. Ignorant of the impact of generational oppression of the aboriginal people of Turtle Island.

Ignorant of what it’s like to have a knee held on our throat.

I admit my ignorance. As desperately as I want to understand, as a white middle-class male who grew up in Toronto, I’d be a fool to think I can know what it is like to live under the injustices of systemic racism.

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The good thing about ignorance though is that when we become aware of it, we have the choice of either choosing to remain ignorant, or, if we are humble enough to accept our ignorance, we have the choice to listen. To learn. To increase in empathy.

And perhaps to participate in healing.

I think we all need to seek the humility required to see our faults. The humility to listen with a spirit of openness and acceptance to those who have lived under the oppression of systemic racism, learning and grieving, confessing and repenting.

The humility of discerning places of racism within us and working alongside of God to do the important inner and outer work of removing piece by piece that cancer within us.

The humility to kneel in solidarity with those who have been held down far too long..

However, as many have been saying, it isn’t enough to simply try to not be racist. We need to actively be against racism. We are not against people, but we must battle against the principalities and powers of this dark world and spiritual realms, and racism is definitely one such principality. As individuals, as a church, as the Church universal, working alongside one another empowered by the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s Kingdom and foreshadow the merging of heaven and earth where the diversity of every nation, tribe, people and language stand together in the unity of love before a God whose heart has always been and will always be for those who have been held down, crushed, suffocated and oppressed.

Let us stand together in Christ. Let us kneel together in solidarity and humility: unwavering in reconciliation, unyielding in rejecting racism in all its forms, undying our pursuit of that which is just, all in the unending love of our Creator who made all people equal in God’s image.

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Treat Everyone Equally | Save Water

By Mary Simpkins

As we journey through learning about the United Nations Sustainable Development goals I am amazed each month at how relevant each goal has been to current events. These are not esoteric visions dreamed up in a think tank somewhere! The issues that fill the news are the same issues we need to resolve in our lives and our society in order to maintain a sustainable quality of life for future generations and protect the planet for which we have been given stewardship.

This month's goal is Equality. Between protests on racism and skyrocketing domestic violence due to self-isolation we are all aware of the dangers of the very real inequalities in our society.

We all know the verse from Matthew 22:37-39 "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

So I trust you are already taking the time to learn about the experiences of those who have different race/culture/genders to you, respecting the challenges they face, and addressing your own biases. Look at your family or immediate social bubble - where are the gender-based roles and inequalities? What can you do to 8

correct them? If it's comfortable for you not to correct them, why is that?

Here's an interesting read on how educating girls actually benefits an entire community: The Top 3 Reasons Why Getting Girls An Education Is So Important Here are the UN's suggestions on what each of us can do to support gender equality in our own community:

Because this is a double issue of Delve for the summer the next SDG is, appropriately, water. The availability of clean water and toilets is something we take for granted in Toronto. Aside from the cost, many of us pay little attention to how much water we use. We live beside a huge lake, we have filtration plants, and are seldom asked to limit our water usage so why does water matter? Unlike some of the other goals, water may not be on our radars and for that we are remarkably fortunate, but as soon as we look outside Toronto things start to get ugly. There are indigenous communities in Ontario where it isn't even safe to breathe the water vapour from your shower let alone wash your vegetables or cook with the water: 9

http://www.netnewsledger.com/2019/07/08/water-conditions-inattawapiskat-fire-up-on-twitter/ So the shortage of clean water and sanitation is in no way a third world country problem but because of inequalities in our own country, it remains an issue for many people.

The fact is water requires energy to clean and send to our homes and it is only renewable as long as the upstream supply continues to flow. Here's a resource about water conservation as well as some interesting tips on water conservation that you many not have thought of: Why Conserve Water if it's Renewable? [Importance & Benefits of Conserving Water] Here are the UN's suggestions on what each of us can do to conserve water:

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Holding onto Hope

By Marion Knutson

Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful.

-Hebrews 10:23 It can be difficult to have hope and remain faithful in the midst of continued uncertainty. Our recent experience with the pandemic exposed us to a situation that was unimaginable a few months ago.

We’re all too familiar with living in an unimaginable situation.

Here’s our story of how God’s been bringing us through our trials.

Two years ago today, our fourth child, Kayleigh, was in the hospital, fast asleep. She had been admitted just a few days prior, had fallen asleep and was not waking up. Fast forward a few weeks and you could say that we were deep in the depths of despair. I was always in the camp of, “If I think the worst, then whatever happens will probably be better.” But a friend (a former Spring Gardener) wisely told me that we can think that way and be disappointed twice, or we can hope, and either be happy twice or at worst, disappointed once.

So we chose to hope. We kept clinging to our hope in Christ. We kept praying, as many of you at Spring Garden did as well. And God was faithful. He pulled our “Sleeping Beauty” (as the nurses dubbed her) out of the mysterious month-long sleep and two years later, she is giggling and responsive to us.

We haven’t really shared our story with the large church family much. It has been a hard couple of years and what we really wanted to do was crawl into a hole and hide. There was so much disappointment. So much anxiety. Even after Kayleigh woke up, doctors told us about her grim future – she has a very rare disorder. She wouldn’t drink anything for almost a year. She experiences daily seizures. She’s almost three and can’t walk or talk. She doesn’t know her name.

And yet God. He’s showing his faithfulness as we hold onto our hope in Him. Two years later, we’re in a better place. It’s still a struggle to find the balance between hoping for more and accepting our situation.

We never ever, in a hundred million years, would have thought we’d be able to handle a child with special needs. We aren’t 11

stronger than you. We aren’t more faithful than you. But we are a family who loves each other deeply and are trying to raise our kids to be empathetic and care for each other. And we have God who sustains and provides for us daily.

From the outside looking in, you’d never see the miracles God has been working in Kayleigh’s life. But have we ever seen them! And has our faith ever grown.

That’s what God calls us to do. To hope for and look for the little miracles, no matter what we face: • The growth of vegetables in our garden despite the squirrels’ attempts to dig them up.

• Kayleigh standing for two seconds.

• My five-year-old’s eyes lighting up when she read her first word by herself.

• Kayleigh finally loving a toy!

• The lowered number of active Covid-19 cases even while we open up.

The road ahead with our youngest is going to still be a struggle, but we take it day by day and trust that God will come through for us, just as He did two years ago. We have to keep looking for the little miracles.

For many of us, the pandemic is worrisome and can bring on lots of anxiety. The road ahead for this pandemic may seem dismal and grim and hopeless. But our God will carry us all through this, like He’s done for our family. We just might have to choose to find the good in the midst of this seemingly unending trial. Timothy Keller wrote in his book, Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering, that “God brings fullness of joy not just despite but THROUGH suffering, just as Jesus saved us not in spite of but BECAUSE of what he endured on the cross.”

Let’s choose to continue to hope in our God and remain faithful to Him. Let’s use this time of suffering to seek God more.

And sometimes, there are no wiser words than those that come from the mouths of babes: One of my older kids said that she wishes God would heal Kayleigh completely, but also that “without her, we wouldn’t know what hope was.” And maybe this pandemic is what the world needs to know what this hope is.

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Life in and around Spring Garden

Community Corner

CONNECT ONLINE

For the most updated list, please go to: www. springgardenchurch.ca/connect-online

VIRTUAL COFFEE TIME SUNDAYS 11:30 AM

Join us for our virtual coffee time after our online Worship Gathering. Get some coffee and snacks and log on to our Zoom meeting where you can talk with other Spring Gardeners. We will be breaking into smaller groups. Prayer room is available. You can even just come for the first 10 minutes to say hi! Email office@springgardenchurch.ca for the log in info.

EVENING PRAYER THURSDAYS 8:30 PM

We are inviting you to a virtual time of liturgical prayer. If you would like to join us we will be using Zoom.

For the login and password, email: OFFICE@ SPRINGGARDENCHURCH.CA.

EVENTS WE WILL UPDATE YOU IF THESE EVENTS CHANGE OR GET CANCELLED

Day Camp 2020 July 20th

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This summer we plan to host interactive Virtual Camps taking place the same times as we originally planned for summer 2020. Our team is preparing to host multiple online meetings with registered campers, with breaks built into the schedule.

During our time together online, we will be engaged in a hybrid of live content such as interactive songs, crafts and games, combined with pre-recorded videos. For more info, please read this flyer.

We are planning to have our final 2 weeks as regular in-person summer camp, and that decision will be made July 15th.

For any questions or concerns please email Jeremy (jeremy@ springgardenchurch.ca).

About Our Current Sermon Series Faith Works: James "Faith without works is dead�. The letter of James has no one central theme outside of the reality that living faith works itself out in deeds. Like a composer writing the score for a musical work (i.e. Opus), the symphony of our life of faith is heard through the composition of the various works of our enacted faith. The letter of James describes a number of works of faith.

This series will run for 11 Weeks (Opus 1-11) from June 28th to September 6th 2020.

SGC in Minecraft We have started a Minecraft server for youth in grades 6-12.

We are currently working on building the world and will make the server public to youth who have contacted Jeremy for access. We are also looking to see if there is interest in starting one in our children’s ministry. If you are a parent and would like to participate in our online survey please go here http://tiny.cc/MinecraftSurvey.

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Partnering with Families

Discipleship Ministries

Summer Staff We are very excited to have hired our summer staff team who will be in charge of creating and running our summer camps, as well as facilitating our Children’s Ministry. Please welcome this team with me, and please pray for them as they minister to our kids this summer.

I have asked each of them to answer the following questions: 1. What Excites You Most In Life?

2. What/What Are You Looking Forward To Eating After The Pandemic?

Directors: Hannah G - I’m Hannah Gusé!

What excites me most in life are words - from God, with music, written down, read aloud.

I’m looking forward to eating a beaver tail on the harbourfront when the pandemic is over!

Diana - Hey my name is Diana Boisvert and I am so excited to codirect Spring Garden's camps this summer! Also, I am so excited to go to the Keg for a fat steak once the Pandemic is over!

Alec - Hi I’m Alec I’m excited for what the future holds and to have my degree. Food: I’m excited to eat sushi again

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Counsellors: Grace- Hey! My name is Grace Siracusa. The thing that excites me most in life is seeing young people develop an authentic relationship with Jesus! The place I am hoping to eat at again when the pandemic is over is Lob Toronto (Burgers and Bocce Ball are a great combo)!

Eldrin - What I’m most excited about is going to McDonald’s to drink a strawberry-banana smoothie.

Furthermore, I’m looking forward to getting strawberry- banana smoothies from Macdonalds once quarantine is over!

Lily - Hello! My name is Lily! Some things that excite me most are learning new languages and being creative through illustrating and other forms of art. The first thing I want to eat postpandemic has to be Korean BBQ, which is probably Jeremy’s fault, given that he introduced me to it in the first place.

Leah - The thing that excites me most about life is starting a new book, and when quarantine is over the first place I want to eat is Ed's Real Scoop for some delicious gelato Hannah T - My name is Hannah Turner and something that excites me is travelling/going on vacation. I am most looking forward to going out for all you can eat sushi once the pandemic is over. I am also looking forward to another great summer working at Spring Garden!

Viktoriya - Hi, my name is Viktoriya and what excites me in life is my family and friends! I’m looking forward to going out for sushi and spending time working with everyone.

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Discipleship Ministry Update:

As our church prepares to gather again, we will continue our children’s ministry meetings online until further notice. Notice of changes to our children’s ministry gatherings will be sent through our various forms of communication and social media.

For any questions or concerns please contact Jeremy (jeremy@ springgardenchurch.ca)

Spring Kids Wednesday (Online) Hangouts!: We are continuing to meet each Wednesday online this summer using Zoom. We have changed our time to 7:00pm-7:30pm. For more information email Jeremy (jeremy@springgardenchurch.ca)

Spring Youth

Now that summer is here, we want to make sure that our youth are cared for as the pandemic continues. We continue to update ourselves of the provincial governments guidelines and will intentionally follow them to ensure safety for our youth community. The hope is that we will be able to meet in person periodically this summer, with the understanding that if we cannot, we will continue to meet online.

Summer Hangouts: - Times and Locations are TBD July 17th, July 25th, August 1st, August 29th LIT 2020 - Cancelled - In previous summers, we often “take a break” from our regular youth ministry schedule and encourage our youth to participate in our LIT (Leaders In Training) program. We have decided it is in the best interest of our youth to cancel the LIT program for this summer. In lieu of this we will be meeting 4 times throughout the summer as indicated in the above section “Summer Hangouts”.

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Minecraft Server: IS NOW ONLINE!!

We have started an online Minecraft server for our youth to participate in and enjoy.

For those who may not know, Minecraft is a popular video game where players can build a world using in-game resources. More information of the game can be found through this website: https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/about-minecraft

(Scale Version of our Building In Minecraft) In hosting a Minecraft server, we are able to create a safe/ monitored online space for youth to meet and interact with each other virtually. This form of online engagement is optional and is currently only accessible for youth who have purchased the Java edition of the game.

While the server is online, the game is currently under construction by youth in our Minecraft Team, as they build a scale model of the church building. Once this is finished, youth who desire to participate may do so after contacting Jeremy for the details on how to join.

If this is something your youth would like to participate in, or if you would like more information on this please contact Jeremy (Jeremy@springgardenchurch.ca) for further details. Staying Updated: To stay up to date on what is happening for your youth, please visit our Google calendar which has all our planned events. http://tiny.cc/YouthCal

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Recommendations

The Resource Centre

God and the pandemic: a Christian reflection on the coronavirus and its aftermath, by N.T. Wright Discover a different way of seeing and responding to the Coronavirus pandemic, an approach drawing on Scripture, Christian history, and the way of living, thinking, and praying revealed to us

by Jesus.

This book is available for Kindle and Kobo, and the print version will be purchased for our library when feasible.

Listen to N.T. Wright speak about the book here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7lToM-hFEo Or if you prefer to listen to a longer message that covers the content of the book, go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUTD0S9YVuU

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Resources for studying the book of James

Click here for a Bible study of James that you can download for your personal or group use Click here for resources from Insight for Living There are 4 books in the church library that you can borrow whenever the building reopens:

The Book of James,

by Carolyn Nystrom, 227.91 NYS

James, faith that works,

by Andrew LePeau, 227.9107 LEP

The message of James,

by J.A. Motyer, 227.9107 MOT

General epistle of James,

by R. Tasker, 227.9107 TAS

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Directories and What's Happening

More Info

Leadership Directory PASTORAL TEAM

416.223.4593 Ext. 224

Greg Kay Co-Lead Pastor

gregkay@ springgardenchurch.ca Ext. 227

Sam Lee Co-Lead Pastor

samlee@ springgardenchurch.ca Ext. 223

Jeremy Ranasinghe Children and Youth Pastor

jeremy@ springgardenchurch.ca Ext. 221

Dale Forder Office & Communications Administrator

daleforder@ springgardenchurch.ca

Spring Garden Church

112 Spring Garden Avenue, Toronto ON M2N 3G3 www.springgardenchurch.ca office@springgardenchurch.ca Prayer Line

Tel 416.223.4593 Fax 416.223.6126 416.223.4038

Giving is one of the ways in which we can

respond to a generous God. We give because it is a part of our discipleship and an act of worship.

Please give as you feel led.

For more information please go to our website at: https://www.springgardenchurch.ca/giving.

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DEACONS Krysten Cameron

416.399.0493 krystencameron@hotmail.com

Ben Reynolds bereynolds@gmail.com Martin Dewar Monica Kim Joanne Laing Shannon Loewen Jeff McGee

416.229.2695 martin.dewar@sgbc.ca 604.710.3224 monicakim2000@gmail.com 416.617.6582 joannelaing@gmail.com 647.202.0701 shannon.loewen1@gmail.com 416.493.2102 jeff.mcgee@sympatico.ca

Cheryl Chapman cheryl.chapman@live.ca

ELDERS Anne Barron Gonzalo Librado

416.724.9329 anne.barron020@sympatico.ca 416.435.9691 gonzlibrado@gmail.com

Margaret Sutton margaretsutton242@gmail.com Koon Wah Leung Clem Lee

416.225.7092 koonwleung@gmail.com 416.508.7355 crazymonkeyfamily@gmail.com

Myrna Frost

416.225.4986 ​mfrost2254986@rogers.com 22

What’s Happening Life in Spring Garden

Weekly

SUNDAY MORNING WORSHIP

10am

Join us Sundays online as we explore the book if James in our series called Faith Works. Read more on page 14. Streamed at: www.springgardenchurch.ca

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Sunda

VIRTUAL COFFEE TIME

11:30am

Join us for our virtual coffee time after our online Worship Gathering. Get some coffee and snacks and log on to our Zoom meeting where you can talk with other Spring Gardeners. We will be breaking into smaller groups. Prayer room is available. Email office@springgardenchurch.ca for the log in info.

LIFE GROUP - Connect for Community

Together through bible study, prayer and sharing. Meet online, see online here.

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Monda

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a d s e n

Wed

PASTORAL TEAM MEETING

1pm

1pm - 3pm

We meet online every Monday. Please pray for us for wisdom and inspiration.

REFRESH

10am - 11:30am

Friendship, care & spiritual growth for women. Please see more on here.

Kids Wednesday Hangout

7pm - 7:30pm

A forum for our children to gather, learn and grow.

To join or ask questions, please email Jeremy.

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da s r u Th

EVENING PRAYER

8:30pm

We are inviting you to a virtual time of liturgical prayer. Please see here.

SGC COMMUNITY - Facebook

A group to encourage each other, share resources, connect, etc.

Find us through groups in Facebook.

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You may find more info at springgardenchurch.ca, in the welcome brochure or call us at 416-223-4593.

What’s Happening Upcoming July

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Life in Spring Garden

Day Camps at SGC See more on page 13.

SEE OUR EVENTS PAGE FOR MORE INFO ON ANY OF THESE EVENTS. springgardenchurch.ca/events

If you would like to receive a weekly e-mail update on what’s happening in Spring Garden, please visit the SGC website (www.springgardenchurch.ca) and add your email address on our home page to subscribe to our weekly e-mail.

Also keep your eye on our Events page at: www.springgardenchurch.ca/events.

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Our Values We believe in a humble God who came not to be served, but to serve.

Therefore we engage in sacrificial and active service to those around us. We strive to be good stewards of God’s gifts and talents by serving one another in humility. We aspire to regard others as higher than ourselves, which liberates us to creatively take risks in serving others for God’s glory.

We believe in a God of grace who came to save the world, not to condemn it. Therefore, as we are continuously receiving the gift of God’s grace, we seek to grow in that grace and extend it to others. We strive to define ourselves by what we are for, not what we are against.

We believe in a God who knows us, and who desires to be known.

Therefore we embrace a journey of faith that requires us to constantly strive for a personal, intimate and transformative knowledge of God. We strive to be led by God’s Spirit in supporting and encouraging one another in working out our faith.

We believe in a creative God. Therefore we are open to expressing our faith in new and creative ways that reflect the beauty and complexity of our creator. We are called to use our creative gifts in worship and service as we engage with our world. We take joy in the diversity of gifts that allow us to delight God and participate in His ongoing story.

We believe in a triune, relational God who calls us to come together as a diverse community of believers.

Therefore, we want to walk together, supporting one another physically, emotionally and spiritually. We strive to be a welcoming, inclusive family that goes through the joys and the trials of life together, acknowledging that God uses this community to deepen and mature our faith.

We believe in a God who loves this broken world and wants to reconcile us to Himself.

Therefore we are commissioned by Christ to go out into the world, meeting the holistic needs of the local and global community.

God calls us to participate in a redemptive work that he has already initiated; in humility, we will partner with others to work alongside and chase after Him.

We believe in a God who is our centre.

Therefore where we are on the journey is less important than that we are moving towards a deeper relationship with Christ. We believe and participate in God’s redemptive work in all people, which gives us the freedom to come as we are, and to accept others as they are.

We each are on a unique journey to become who God has created us to be.