A day downtown Toronto…

April 18, 2008

Yesterday I had breakfast with someone downtown to talk about God… lots of great questions, there’s not much I enjoy more than journeying alongside with people.

Dan Kimball recently wrote the book “They like Jesus, but they don’t like the church“; but I find what might be closer to the hearts of people (at least in Toronto), is they like the teachings of Jesus, but they don’t know why they need to believe in the reality of Jesus. Your thoughts?

I wandered the streets, and just took the city in before settling down to get some work done. I bumped into Donald along the way. For a street dude, he sure glows.

This is a shot of the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum). I love how they’ve overtly clashed tradition and innovation in the building.

If you want to know more about the city of Toronto and faith, an ebook was just published called Toronto the Good. link via Yuling

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Posted in Pictures, Toronto, art, poverty

Comments to “A day downtown Toronto…”

russ said:

April 19th, 2008 at 4:53 pm

Downtown Toronto reminds me a bit of Downtown Vancouver. I hope to see more of Toronto some day. It is good to be open to meeting all kinds of people as God leads.

Cheers, Lon

Jake Belder said:

April 19th, 2008 at 8:55 pm

Toronto is a great city. My hometown. I haven’t been there for a bit, and I kind of miss it, there’s lots of great things about the city. And so much opportunity for the church. I know some of the people who worked on that booklet, Toronto the Good. I have yet to look at it, though.

Good perspective on Kimball’s question, I think you may be on to something there. I don’t know that I’d switch the question altogether, but I might place your thought kind of in between, if that makes sense. As I see it, they may like Jesus, but not believe the reality of Jesus, and thus see no need for the church. Just a thought.

Good post!

aaron said:

April 20th, 2008 at 6:49 pm

did you know him before?

Lon said:

April 21st, 2008 at 8:29 am

Russ, come on down sometime!

Jake - that’s wild that you know people who worked on the book, I thought it was fascinating that someone would even publish something of that nature from a fairly objective point of view

Aaron - Donald, nope. He said he recognized me, it could have been from some of the drop-ins I hung out at last year. Talking to strangers isn’t a regular thing for me… but I try.

Jake Belder said:

April 21st, 2008 at 12:40 pm

Yeah, Lon. The organization, the Work Research Foundation, has some folks really committed to urban and cultural renewal. They are based out of Hamilton, Ontario, where I lived before I moved to Florida to go to seminary. They’re a great bunch of folks, very intelligent, and very committed to God. It’s great.