Church Life

A mentor and friend tells a story of jogging on campus when a car stopped to ask for directions. Its occupants were a family in distress—a member was having a health crisis of some sort. My friend gave them directions to the hospital and then offered all he had: “I’m a minister.” They responded with an earnest question: “Are you a healing minister?” No, not that kind. “Well, then what good are you?” And they sped off to the actual healers.

When we or someone we love is in need of healing, another kind of minister… Read more

One of our longtime leaders taught me something new about our church recently. We celebrated our 100th anniversary in 2013 with a massive granite plaque you can see on the east side of our sanctuary wall. That 4x8’ piece weighs some 1800 pounds, and required a special mounting system and removal of pews to put it in place. Not to worry, it’s not going to fall down—each of six iron bolts can hold up to 1000 lbs. That thing is steady and secure.

It brought to mind for me all that’s been… Read more

Near where we now live in the Annex is a church building you probably know as the Hare Krishna Church. I was stunned to discover recently that two giants in Canadian church history once preached there. Charles Templeton took over a building abandoned by Avenue Road United Church and converted it into a fast-growing evangelical church, before later losing his own faith. A.W. Tozer pastored it as Avenue Road Alliance Church while becoming one of the Canadian church’s best-selling authors. One could trace the… Read more

It’s a common scam: find the leader of a do-gooder organization. Change your display-name so that an email looks like it’s coming from that executive to their staff. Ask the colleague not to phone, but rather communicate only by email, since the senior minister is 1-in a meeting 2-at prayer or 3-otherwise occupied, and request gift cards. My staff knew to call or email me anyway and ask if this was really me. They prepared a warning for others. 

I told one fellow pastor my philosophy, shared more than once from the pulpit: if I were standing in… Read more

Josh Del Rosario has worked at TEMC as digital coordinator since 2016. He began working as our youth ministry coordinator in January of 2024. He is a champion team player, always working to help others on the staff to do our work better. We talked about his older work with us, his newer youth work, and his life and faith.

Tell us about yourself, Josh.

I grew up here in a Filipino household. We came to Canada… Read more

I’ve gotten to know someone who’s newer to worshiping at our church’s 9:15 service. She calls herself a “whooper.” If a song is particularly good, she whoops. ‘Not my fault,’ she said. ‘You guys led the good song.’

Recently we rang the bell and she prepared to whoop. To her astonishment, someone whooped before her. She looked around. There’s another whooper at Timothy Eaton?! The whoopers found one another and rejoiced. He’s been around a little longer, though inactive until recently.… Read more

Friends I am so glad to introduce you to one of the most innovative ministries I know in Canada, and worldwide. Because they’re coming to our church.

A Rocha is an evangelical ministry of creation care and conservation. It started in Portugal—the word is Portuguese for “the Rock,” after the place of its founding. Located on the southwestern coast of Portugal, it is a major migration point for birds flying between Europe and Africa, and was threatened with… Read more

So here’s a wild idea for the new year. I usually resolve to lose weight or spend my time more wisely or take up some hobby that actually takes decades to learn. This far more reasonable. 

What if we worshiped in different spaces?

We have lovely spaces for worship in our building in addition to our magnificent sanctuary. Three of those seem perfect for our early service: the atrium, the west chapel, and the chancel. We do worship in each on special occasions already, but… Read more

As many of you know, TEMC is proud to have recently amalgamated with a Welsh United Church. Wales has more than 1500 years of church history. But if you're like me, you're relatively unaware of that history. So I've planned a pilgrimage to Wales, devoted to learning about Christ's work through the church in Wales, past and present. Wales inherited a unique strand of the Christian tradition called Celtic Christianity. The Celts, called the Galatians in the Bible, were a people with a vast territorial expanse north of the Roman Empire. With no written language,… Read more

An opinion piece made the rounds among us pastor types recently. Its author was saying goodbye not just to a congregation, but to pastoral ministry. It’s an old and creaky narrative that congregations are stuck in their ways. We clergy fancy ourselves more forward-thinking than our timid flocks. It’s also a… Read more