Hello Church family and friends,

It’s Saturday morning and I just came back from picking up the bread for our last dinner preparation at 40 Oak St. We will be preparing a community dinner in November but not from this location. After today, Church in Regent Park’s meal program will stop operating out of Fred Victor for the next while. Their ministry is moving to Yonge Street Mission’s Davis Centre 270 Gerrard St E, Toronto, ON M5A 2G4. YSM will allow them to serve an in-person meal. This has stopped due to COVID.
We will get to see the new set up when we serve again in November.

This is a big change for the Church in Regent Park and a reminder to me that as we in the English Congregation try to get back into a regular rhythm, adding study groups and activities in a steady, sustainable fashion, there are some who are facing disruptions in life and/or launching new ventures. Be assured that God is with you in every way and in every season. If you are in a season of need, please reach out to us for prayer and support.

For tomorrow, we have our pastoral intern Martin Tam preaching from Luke 6:1-10. Service time is 10am in person and on-line.
If you want to join our Ecclesiastes Bible Class, I will be leading the first class reading Ecclesiastes 1 asking the question: “Why do I do what I do?” with a concentration on how the Bible teaches us about how our humanity is tied to having meaningful work.

All links can be found in our summary sheet. Hint: why not bookmark the sheet and have a real time look at our ministries?

EM Ministry Sheet

Two time sensitive notes:

• We have some spots available for badminton tomorrow afternoon. Here’s a note from our badminton coordinator KY Wong:

Hi all,
Please fill in this form for the badminton game at 1-3pm on 25 Sep. When the max number of players is reached, the sign up form will no longer be accepting responses – so action early.

Badminton Sign-Up

Note that no walk-in is allowed except seniors aged 50 or above or CPC members. If you plan to come, you’d need to register via the above form by 24 Sep 11:59pm ET.

• Our Women’s Bible study group is getting ready to start up again in October. Here is a note from Nicole and Linda:

Summer has passed by so quickly! Hope everyone enjoyed the summer with their loved ones. We will be starting up Women’s Bible Study Group again and we will be continuing our study in Exodus 19-40 (part 2) in October! Please see the link below for the Bible study guide by Jen Wilkin.

God of Freedom

The level of commitment is expected to be around 70% of the sessions like last time, so please try your best to make it to as many sessions as you can to make the most out of it! There will be homework of course, but you’ll have 2 weeks to complete it before each session.

WHO: Women only (18+)

WHAT: God of Freedom – Bible Study Exodus 19–40 by Jen Wilkin (10 week session)

WHEN: Bi-weekly hybrid model -> Thursday night’s @ 8pm (online) / Sunday afternoon’s @ 1:30pm (in person)

WHERE: Zoom/TCBC/Auntie Linda’s house

Please RSVP by SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24 to Nicole nicoletong93@gmail.com and/or Linda huilinda2016@gmail.com. Everyone will need to purchase their own individual Bible study guide. If anyone needs reimbursement, please let us know!

Hope you are enjoying the wonderful weather. Give thanks for clear skies!

Blessings,
Pastor Nolan

Hello Friends,

Some questions posed by our CBOQ church support team:
As churches get back into the flow of meeting in person again,

• What are the essentials about our gatherings that we best not forget.
• Why do we meet?
• Is there something that belonging enables us to become more like Christ?
• Where does mission fit into our ethos and practice as we gather?
• What is the Holy Spirit seeking to do among us?

After this Labour Day weekend, it’s the start of the school year. As part of our welcome to new visitors and students, we are having a “Mid-Autumn Festival” in our back courtyard on Sunday afternoon. If you are a returning student or new to TCBC, we hope you can join us.

A bigger question for all of us to think about is how we hope to connect this fall with Christ and the Christian community. It’s fitting to reflect on this question as we approach our Communion Sunday this week. You are welcome to join us in-person or follow us on-line.

This week we have Pastor Rob Weatherby as a guest speaker. Rob will be joining our Chinatown outreach and participating in Jesus Loves Toronto. Now retired as an OM Missionary, Rob writes as a faith columnist for Sun Media.
https://nationalpost.com/author/pastor-rob-weatherby-faith-columnist/

Finally, some have been asking about our Sunday sports. This is also a great way to connect with others in the church. All events take place at CPC, 177 Beverley St. (corner of Beverley and Baldwin).

Here is our gym schedule for September.

Sept 11 – Volleyball (all are welcome, full court play)
Sept 18 – Basketball (all are welcome, half court play split according to level of play)
Sept 25 – Badminton (max 24 players, pre-registration link to be released the week before)

Enjoy the start of September!

Blessings,
Pastor Nolan

Hello Friends,

Before the pandemic, one of the criticisms I often heard was how it was hard to get to know people at church. It can be like boarding a plane: you can strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger, or it’s them who takes the initiative to talk to you. If that doesn’t happen before the plane takes off, we can end up spending the whole flight saying nothing else other than “Excuse me, I need to use the restroom” or “Could you pass me my tray? Thanks”

That may be okay when we are travelling on a plane but you may be looking for a greater sense of community. Here are three ways you can get to know people at TCBC.

#1 – Linger in the fellowship room or in the backyard.

The fellowship room in the back (where we used to meet for morning worship) is where we can meet after the service. Weather permitting, the backyard is also open for us to take a short break and meet someone before we get on with the rest of our day.

#2 – Join us for sports afterwards

We work together with the CPC church north of Dundas (177 Beverley) and host sports on Sunday afternoons. We have scheduled Sundays for basketball, volleyball and badminton. Each one is run a bit differently (for example badminton has a limited number of players and we advise pre-registration). You can find out more from our English Ministry Links page.

Google Doc

#3 – Join a study or prayer group

One of the best ways to learn about life with Jesus is to study the Bible with others. These are more than study groups though. We think of them as places where we find community and belonging. On Sunday, time and space often keep us from talking about what’s going on in our life. These community groups meet on-line or in someone’s home through the week. Find out more about them and give one a try.

#4 – Join a serving team

This is one of the best ways to get to know people. No matter your stage in life, there’s a special feeling you get from working alongside others. Find out ways we serve in the community within and outside the church.

For this Sunday we have David Burke, lead pastor of Lifeline Ministries at Toronto Metropolitan University presenting the teaching for this Sunday. David is a long time friend of TCBC and his focus in on engaging students on campus and helping them discover Jesus. Our Sunday service begins at 10am and yes, we will be in the main sanctuary.

Blessings,
Pastor Nolan

Hello All,

I trust your summer calendar is balanced between getting out more and taking time to recharge. This summer marks a return to community activities as we see more people meeting up in-person again. We understand that people will have different levels of comfort with public activities and TCBC remains committed to providing different ways for you to connect with Jesus and with His followers.

We thank Deacon Anthony for providing the message last Sunday and look forward to Dr. Yee Ung who will be preaching on the Fruits of the Spirit.

Please note that the Toronto Triathlon Festival is on this weekend so that Gardiner and DVP will be partially closed Sunday morning (southbound DVP and westbound Gardiner Exp remain unaffected). If you are attending in-person, please enter through the Sullivan Street doors of the main building. Note: We are nearing the maximum capacity of the room and are planning to move to the main sanctuary. We will keep you up to date on our plans. You may follow us on-line on YouTube

This Sunday we are playing badminton at the Chinese Presbyterian Church gym. Sign up here so you don’t miss updates on our badminton play times:

Badminton Registration

Please enter in through the lower Baldwin St. doors leading to the gym. Play starts at 1pm

Our major activity will be preparing for our Summer Children’s VBS that runs from Aug 8-12. Our summer interns are running at high gear setting up and preparing our volunteers to serve in different ministry teams. I know one thing for certain: the decorations for this year are going to be amazing!

Finally, a gentle reminder that you are invited to join in our community building weekend at Hidden Acres Retreat Centre on Aug 19-21. Please register early if you are coming so we can plan our food accordingly and help arrange transportation for those who don’t have cars.
Retreat Registration

Please note:  The July 27th,  Wednesday prayer meeting is canceled.  The weekly prayer meeting will resume on August 3rd.

We have created a Google Doc file to list all our upcoming activities which is updated more regularly than the news page on the website.  We encourage you to check it out (and bookmark it) to find out what’s going on.

Google Doc

Have a blessed weekend,
Pastor Nolan

Hello Friends,

Summer is here–finally! This is a great time to look ahead with anticipation as the city becomes alive again with activities. While we take appropriate precautions, we can see our friends again and do things together when the weather is good.

The first 6 months of 2022 had some tough times, but there were many good memories. What sticks out for me:

• Small groups that met on-line for prayer, bible study and mentoring
• Baptisms of two new members in April: indoors and full immersion!
• The restart of in-person children’s ministry in June: with a full program of bible teaching, arts, music and games
• Teens Camp in July: a fitting way for our youth to mark the end of the school year

I believe 2022 will be one of the most important years for our English congregation. When I returned to pastor this congregation in 2013, I never dreamed that we would endure a pandemic together, move to different places to hold our worship, and switch to on-line ministry and back to in-person ministry multiple times. Reflecting on the church as a whole, I see God’s faithfulness and people’s generosity and willingness to be involved.

For now we will be holding our Sunday worship in the back chapel of our main building. Our Worship service starts at 10am. And for those who can’t make it in-person, we will continue livestreaming the service on YouTube. We are also starting up Sunday sports in the afternoon. This Sunday it’s Volleyball and next Sunday (July 17) we will use the gym at the Chinese Presbyterian Church (177 Beverley St.) for basketball. We thank our friends at CPC for allowing us to use their facilities on Sundays.

In August you are invited to join us for our congregation retreat. This takes place on the weekend of Aug 19-21.Here’s the google form to register for our summer retreat https://forms.gle/zgeb3d9yj48b1Hnq9

For this Sunday we have Chunlun Chan preaching from Jonah 1:1-2. The title of his message is “No-Joy Evangelism”

Blessings,
Pastor Nolan Lee