Community Research

I've been involved in a couple of groups that are doing community research. Specifically we are looking at Indicators of a transformed city. I have mentioned this before (here and here). It provides us a way of determining if we are actually being effective in our church and religious activities. Does it really make any difference when we worship and pray? Can we influence our culture? If so how do we measure that influence? The research is trying to find ways of quantifying that influence.

Therefore as a start, I have been compiling a list of websites that help us get some sense of where to look for information on community change. This page may not be of interest to everyone. Actually at times it is downright tedious. But for our team and perhaps for some others who may want to browse around in city and community websites there are some real gems of information. Most municipal leaders really do want to have healthy cities and we need to partner with them and contribute to the shaping of our cities. Christians have a significant voice in helping our communities become healthy and healing places where lives are transformed.

This is just a start and I will be organizing and categorizing this further. The highlighted names of the organizations will lead you to the site directly. I also included the actual site address if you want to record it without going there first.

Official Municipal Sites

City of Toronto Related Sites

City of Toronto Website (http://www.toronto.ca/)
The City of Toronto website has a wealth of information - very specifically geared to neighbourhoods and city wards. Lots of info here on social profiles of the area (age, ethnicity, income, etc.).
Toronto Maps (http://www.toronto.ca/torontomaps/index.htm)
Portal to go to all Toronto Neighbourhoods (140) (http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/profiles_map_and_index.htm)
Each Neighbourhood has its own site and demographic statistics.
Portal to all Toronto Wards (44) (http://app.toronto.ca/wards/jsp/wards.jsp)
Each Ward has its own site and demographic statistics.
Strong Neighbourhood Task Force (http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/sntf.htm)
Demographic Atlas (Census Canada Info)
including religious affiliation by census tract (http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/atlas.htm#3)
Absolutely fascinating stuff here.

GTA Regional Municipality Sites

York Region's Website (http://www.york.ca/default.htm)
York Region Reports on Regional Issues
Links to the official websites of all the municipalities in York Region.
City of Vaughan
Demographics for Vaughan (http://www.vaughangis.info/siteselection/vss.htm)

Durham Region Website (http://www.region.durham.on.ca/)
Link to the official websites of all the municipalities in Durham Region.

Regional Municipality of Peel Website
Peel's Statistics Website
Peel Ward Profile Maps
Mississauga, Brampton, and Caledon websites.

Halton Region Website
Link to all Halton community websites including historical research links and municipality webpages.

Other Ontario Sites

Social Planning Network of Ontario (SPNO (http://www.spno.ca/)) has useful research in a number of Ontario communities including the GTA.

Closing the Distance (http://closingthedistance.spno.ca/) is a project of the SPNO that has a number of reports for various communities in Ontario.

Urban Research Sites (mostly focused on Toronto)

The Centre for Urban and Community Studies (CUCS (http://www.urbancentre.utoronto.ca/)), part of University of Toronto, it was established in 1964, and promotes and disseminates multidisciplinary research and policy analysis on urban issues. The Centre’s activities contribute to scholarship on questions relating to the social, economic and physical well-being of people who live and work in urban areas large and small, in Canada and around the world.
This is a very helpful site committed to research of all kinds of urban issues. Lots of articles here too.
Greater Toronto Urban Observatory (http://www.urbancentre.utoronto.ca/gtuo/)
- monitors and evaluates regional urban conditions and trends.
Urban Research Links (http://www.urbancentre.utoronto.ca/urbanresearchlinks.html)
connecting to Websites of other Urban and Housing Research and Policy Organizations

Cardus (formerly Work Research Foundation)
Cardus' mission is to influence people to a Christian view of work and public life. Cardus seeks to explore and unfold the dignity of work, the meaning of economics, and the structures of civil society, in the context of underlying patterns created by God. Includes reports on:
Stained Glass Urbanism
Toronto the Good

Toronto Community Foundation (http://www.tcf.ca/)
TCF is a local centre for philanthropy and a leader in the community, working with individuals, families, corporations and not-for-profit organizations to carry out their charitable objectives and address emerging community issues.
Toronto Vital Signs (http://www.tcf.ca/Default.aspx?tabid=56)
Each year, the Toronto Community Foundation monitors the health of Toronto and shares the results through Toronto’s Vital Signs®. This annual check-up looks at important indicators of our City’s quality of life, using information gathered from current statistics and special studies. Vital Signs shows us the trends that are emerging in Toronto and some of the new realities of how we live, work and play.

The Canadian Urban Institute (CUI) (http://www.canurb.com/home.php)
is a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of life in urban areas across Canada and internationally.

The Toronto City Summit Alliance (http://www.torontoalliance.ca/)
is a coalition of civic leaders in the Toronto region. The Alliance was formed to address challenges to the future of Toronto such as expanding knowledge-based industry, poor economic integration of immigrants, decaying infrastructure, and affordable housing.

Strong Neighbourhoods Task Force (http://www.torontoalliance.ca/tcsa_initiatives/strong_neighbourhoods/)
An ongoing study researching what elements make for strong neighbourhoods.
Issues Facing Our City (http://www.torontoalliance.ca/urban_challenges/) provides policy reports on various City Issues.

Canada 25 (http://www.canada25.com/)
- a site chronicling a youth research coalition that produced a number of interesting reports on healthy cities - now disbanded, but the site is still up and links to the reports and findings.

The Community Social Planning Council of Toronto (http://www.socialplanningtoronto.org/)
is committed to independent social planning at the local and city-wide levels in order to improve the quality of life for all people in Toronto. It is committed to diversity, social and economic justice, and active citizen participation in all aspects of community life.

25-in-5 (http://www.socialplanningtoronto.org/25in5/resources.html)
This is a Network for Poverty Reduction and is a multi-sectoral network comprised of more than 100 provincial and Toronto-based organizations and individuals working on eliminating poverty. We have organized ourselves around the call for a Poverty Reduction Plan with a goal to reduce poverty in Ontario by 25% in 5 years and 50% in 10 years.
Lots of links to homelessness and poverty resources.
Part of The Community Social Planning Council of Toronto

United Way of Toronto
http://unitedwaytoronto.com/whoWeHelp/reports/losingGround.php
Includes reports on poverty by postal code, and recommendations for strong neighbourhoods.
Strong Neighbourhoods Task Force (http://www.strongneighbourhoods.ca/)

National Sites

Statistics Canada (http://www.statcan.ca/start.html)
Canada's national site for all kinds of statistical research - especially things like official census reports and electoral district stats.

The Metropolis Project in Canada (http://canada.metropolis.net/index_e.html)
Metropolis is an international network for comparative research and public policy development on migration, diversity, and immigrant integration in cities in Canada and around the world.

The Ontario Metropolis Centre (part of CERIS) (http://ceris.metropolis.net/frameset_e.html)
This is a consortium of Toronto-area universities and community partners.

Census Data at Metropolis (http://ceris.metropolis.net/frameset_e.html)

Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (http://www.cmhc-schl.gc.ca/en/inpr/rehi/)
This is Canada's national housing agency. They are committed to helping Canadians access a wide choice of quality, affordable homes, while making vibrant, healthy communities and cities a reality across the country. CMHC works to enhance Canada's housing finance options, assist Canadians who cannot afford housing in the private market, improve building standards and housing construction, and provide policymakers with the information and analysis they need to sustain a vibrant housing market in Canada.
For research info check out the Library link.

Find A Thesis lists every thesis on file at the national archives.

Christian Research Sites

Canadian Pentecostal Research Network
This is part of Trinity Western University. They are committed to developing research networks for all the major streams of evangelicalism. This is only part of a much larger site (most of which is still in development).

Centre for Research on Canadian Evangelicalism.
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) has established the Centre for Research on Canadian Evangelicalism (CRCE), which seeks to enhance the effectiveness of ministry carried out by Evangelicals in Canada and shed light on the character and role of Evangelicalism in Canada.

Outreach Canada
Outreach Canda works together with local churches and denominations in promoting a nationwide strategy of church planting and revitalization to reach Canada for Christ.
ChurchMapCanada.com a site that lists and locates every church in Canada (or at least 24 or so thousand of them). Part of Outreach Canada.
Canadian Denominations - a page at Outreach Canada with links to all the Canadian denominational websites.

UReachToronto
This is a fairly new initiative. UReachToronto.com is a critical initiative that has grown out of a broader collaboration between various networks and researchers. They hope this website will become a valuable tool in an effort to connect people and share resources that will facilitate Christian ministry and mission among the diverse peoples of the Greater Toronto Area and beyond. They offer a good links page for ethnographic research under the link "Understanding Demographics".

Cardus (http://www.wrf.ca/research/urban.cfm) (formerly called "The Work Research Foundation) Cardus’ mission is to influence people to a Christian view of work and public life. They seek to explore and unfold the dignity of work, the meaning of economics, and the structures of civil society, in the context of underlying patterns created by God. Includes reports on:
Stained Glass Urbanism
Toronto the Good

ARDA - The Association of Religion Data Archives
http://www.thearda.com/
A great national religious info archive - unfortunately only for the US.

The Pew Forum is another American research site where many surveys have been done on religion, mostly in the USA, but also a number of surveys concerning the church around the world.

There is an interactive map of the world's Muslim population by nation also found on one of the The Pew Forum subsites.

The Barna Group does a great deal of research on faith and its interaction with culture. This material is used by many sacred and secular sources.

The Church Gate

In our city (Toronto), we have been praying for city transformation. Earlier I listed the Key Indicators of a Transformed City. We are attempting to establish these indicators for our city. Part of the process is to identify "gates" of the city. As an organization (PrayGTA) we are attempting to outline some of those gates in our regular updates. We decided to focus on one gate every month and wanted to begin with the gate that is (or should be) the gatekeeper for the rest of the gates ...

The Church Gate

As we continue to look at the gates of the city, at the beginning of the year we want to focus on one of the most significant gate in the city – the Church gate. In Matthew 16 Jesus says that he will build his church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. If (as we said before) these gates are spiritual a couple of things become clear. There are gates of evil (the gates of Hades – places where the influence of hell is peddled) as well as gates of good or of heaven (where the influence of God is manifest). Because the gates of Hades are not able to overcome the Church, the Church gate is foundational to understanding the spiritual makeup of the city and foundational to the advancement of wisdom and righteousness (the Kingdom of God) in our city.

We have become accustomed to view the Church as either the local church (a single church congregation) or as the Church universal (the worldwide body of Christ) or sometimes as the church in a nation or region (the Greek Orthodox church or the church in America). In this last century, and going back to at least the Reformation, the church has been viewed more denominationally and local churches have gained some of their identity from their associated theological distinctives. National and international associations of like-minded groups (like the National Association of Evangelicals, or even the World Council of Churches) gather to address certain issues and try to make some national and regional impact, but is this effective or efficient in helping to transform communities?

Although the local church is vital for effective evangelism and discipleship, and has a level of Kingdom impact in its own neighbourhood, it cannot meet the complex needs of the city by itself. Today as Western, postmodern culture begins to disengage from (and become more hostile towards) its Christian foundations, and as denominationalism becomes increasingly irrelevant, a new pattern for bonding together as Christians must emerge.

Instead of co-operating at the denominational, national or global level, we need to begin to see the church becoming effective at the city-wide level. This is where transformation can be ignited. It is in the city Church that people can begin to see the unified body of Christ effecting measurable change in a geographic area. The vision of one “Church of the city” that meets in many congregations, is becoming a necessity. The key elements that need to be set in place for the city Church (or the Church Gate) to become a reality are many but they must include: a functional unity of believers, a relational bond between pastors and leaders, the emergence of a city eldership (comprised of humble, servant leaders), the articulation of a clear vision for the city, a commitment to passionate, unified prayer and measurable outcomes.

There are problems that arise in trying to envision and accomplish such a task. Cities can be large and diverse. Communication, language, administration and even transportation through the city are all challenges to be faced. Churches and Christians have a track record of competing for resources instead of sharing them. Unity among the many streams of the Church faces significant theological challenges. Establishing a cohesive vision for the whole church in a particular city is a daunting task. There are still strong vestiges of denominationalism and theological idiosyncrasies (resulting in isolationalism) that need to be overcome. And the time pressures faced by busy pastors leave little energy for a citywide focus. Our culture also resists the movement towards a revitalized Christianity and there is a spiritual darkness (the gates of Hades) blinding the minds of people and a demonic oppression attempting to maintain strongholds that exert influence over many aspects of city life.

The hope of city transformation is invigorating, but how do we measure city transformation? Part of the task is recognizing what a well-run city looks like. We all want to live in neighbourhoods that are safe and free of discrimination. We want our schools to be places where real learning takes place. We want our justice system to serve everyone fairly. We want economic opportunity to be available to citizens of every class, kind and condition. We want people to be set free from the binding and blinding oppression of destructive habits, substances and ideologies. We want our leaders to act in wisdom to make righteous decisions. And most of all we want people to hear and respond to a call to radical discipleship - one that fills our city with transformed people who truly follow, and are filled with the life and love of Jesus. Is it possible? Can a community or a whole city be transformed? We certainly believe it is possible - but to get there requires the ongoing transformation of individuals, of congregations and of the Church of the city.

Part of our task at PrayGTA is to encourage the Church in the city to fulfill its role as spiritual gatekeepers. We do that through facilitating strategic intercession seeking to understand God’s redemptive purposes for our city, equipping intercessors and co-ordinating regional prayer gatherings. Hopefully we can also provide timely updates on upcoming events and link to resources and research to help the Church pray more effectively.

MissionGTA

I did my city wide activities today. I participated in a MissionGTA meeting and in our local ministerial in Thornhill. MissionGTA is a region wide (GTA is the Greater Toronto Area) organization that attempts to gather Christian leaders for united prayer geared toward seeing positive transformation of all the spheres of life in our city. I pulled the following off the newly revamped (not fully complete) website to give you a bit more info.

This is our strategy ...

* Connecting various groups who are already causing a transformational impact in the different spheres of society as identified by the key indicators, and where such groups do not exist encourage their formation.
* Providing representative leaders of the different geographical communities of the GTA with opportunities for interaction, prayer and strategy formation.
* Providing representative leaders of the different ethnic communities of the GTA with opportunities for interaction, prayer and strategy formation.
* Mobilizing unified intercession through the efforts of PrayGTA.
* Providing the Body of Christ with opportunities for regional prayer gatherings (including City Hall Prayer, Prayer Summits and Global Day Of Prayer).
* Encouraging the creation of a communication hub for all Christian activity in the GTA.

The Thornhill Ministerial on the other hand is our local gathering. It involves seven churches in my immediate area where the pastoral staff of these congregations meet once a month. It involves Lutheran, Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian, United, Roman Catholic and Pentecostal churches. It really is quite collegial and quite enjoyable but not particularly spiritual or prayerful. Our major event is an annual Lenten series of meetings where we swap pulpits for the six Sunday evenings of Lent. It is nice to be able to participate in the various traditions but the concern continues to be that younger families and youth don't attend. (After hearing the particularly somber music at one of these Lenten services my son (12 years old at the time) quipped: "Don't they want people to attend these meetings?" I force my family to come at least once during Lent - the Sunday I'm speaking.

My other "ministerial" involvement is with my area denominational meetings. They happen infrequently - only three or four times a year.

However, if I went to every event, meeting, conference, prayer breakfast, or seminar designed to assist, inform, unify or equip the local clergy, I could be busy 532 days per year. The power to choose must be exercised to be healthy!

A Sense of Call

I think I've said it before - I write when I'm inspired. That makes it a bit difficult to write a regular blog. This week has been busy on and off and has had a number of interesting things in it. However, as you may have noticed, I have not been inspired enough to write any of it down. However, this week I was reminded of how God had gotten my attention 17 years ago.

I had a chance to go downtown on Wednesday to attend and share a few words at a former colleague's celebration of their 25th year working at Yonge Street Mission. I met Bill Ryan in 1982 when I was doing my seminary placement at Yonge Street Mission. He was the pastor of Church on the Street (COTS) - one of the first street churches in Canada. I sat on the Advisory Committee for COTS and then followed Bill as the pastor when he became the director of the Community Centre - another branch of YSM.

He spoke of his call to work at the mission and interestingly enough, my call to work at the mission was closely linked with his. At a COTS advisory committee meeting in October of 1990, Bill said to the group that since he was coming up to his fifth anniversary of his tenure as pastor of COTS he was going to spend the next few weeks evaluating his call to the church - but he was sure he was going to remain.

It was at that moment that God popped a thought into my heart: "Michael, why don't you do that?" Do what? "Become the pastor of Church on the Street!" God (I said), didn't you hear Bill? He said he was sure he was going to remain. Then I put it out of my mind - except it wouldn't stay out of my mind. I started thinking about it all the time - until about two months later when I made an appointment to talk to Bill about how he was doing and about this irritating thought that wouldn't leave my mind

What he told me at that lunch meeting blew my mind! He said that immediately after the advisory committee meeting that past October, the executive director of YSM (Rick Tobias) asked him to be the next director of the Community Centre. God had confirmed the call to me the day He had given it to Bill. We both were amazed at the timing of God.

It took me another couple of months to convince my mind of what my heart was already sure about. In July of 1991 I became the pastor of Church on the Street and then worked for Yonge Street Mission for the next nine and a half years.

Theological Reflection

Well after the buzz of last week (Halloween, All Saints, prayer over the visit of the Dalai Lama), I haven’t been good for much blogging this week. I realize that blogging consistently requires a certain level of personal awareness and reflection. And if one wants to describe things from a Christian perspective it also requires theological reflection – not just “This is a biblical idea” but “What is this idea saying to me or to my situation?” This week I’ve had a lot of the first but not much of the second.

I conducted a funeral this week. The deceased was only 55, thin, active and fairly healthy but died of a heart attack. He had just this past weekend finished the cottage he had been working on for years (well made it livable with plumbing and electricity). He had a 16 year old daughter who read a letter to her dad as part of the eulogy. That hit fairly close to home. I have a 16-year-old daughter. It’s my birthday in a week and 55 is, well … I’m not there yet but I can see it from here.

I also spent a day at a conference about key indicators of a transformed city. I posted about those last year. We had Glen Smith here discussing how they came up with those for Montreal. Basically the concept is “How do you know when what you’re doing is working?” If we are praying that we would have good government, that we would see neighbourhoods improved and cities transformed, then what does that really look like? How do we know we are going in the right direction?

These twelve indicators are a great paradigm but they need to be developed for the city of Toronto and many of them will be different – or at least some of them will be. That will take a lot of work – and theological reflection. If you want to check out the graphic I’ve included below in more detail, check out their website or the direct link to the twelve indicators PDF.

Gates

The word “gate” is often used as a metaphor for a place of spiritual access. Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Psalm 24:7

In times gone by cities had literal gates. Some cities (like Jerusalem) still have the ancient gates intact. They served a significant purpose – to control the flow of traffic (of people, goods and ideas) in and out of the city. They also served to protect the inhabitants of the city, from thieves and raiders in times of relative peace and from an attacking enemy in time of war. Attacking armies targeted the gates of the city so as to take control of the city. Therefore gates needed to be especially watched and protected. They provided safety for the people of the city. The gates were also places the city elders met to make important decisions. They were often the place of the public market and the place where dignitaries were welcomed and special events were celebrated.

Today city gates exist but they are primarily spiritual or symbolic. Yes, there are occasionally literal gates in the city but these are mostly symbolic (like the Prince’s Gates or the Dufferin Gate on the Exhibition grounds in Toronto). Spiritual gates also control the flow of traffic in the city – primarily the trafficking of ideas and influence or of blessing and cursing. Jesus said that the Church needs to influence the gates of the city when he said: I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. Matthew 16:18

If these gates are spiritual a couple of things become clear. There are gates of evil (the gates of Hades – places where the influence of hell is peddled) as well as gates of good or of heaven (where the influence of God is manifest). Both types of gates may actually be in the same place but some have come under the control of the enemy. What is also clear is that these gates in today’s world are places that control the flow of ideas and influence. Therefore our education system would be a gate as would our judicial system. We need to be possessing the gates of the city so that the King of Glory may come in and we must be continuing to maintain and watch that the gates are safe. Psalm 48 has been a guide for us: 12 Walk about Zion, go around her, count her towers, 13 consider well her ramparts, view her citadels, that you may tell of them to the next generation.

From the ramparts we will guard the gates. These spiritual gates need special watching and protection for they are often the target of the forces of evil attempting to defraud the city of its inheritance. When the elders gather to make decisions, we must be in prayer.

What we have discovered is that festivals and temples are also gates. One of the more significant festival gates is Halloween. The church needs to advance against that gate and reclaim and redeem this festival time so that the ideas and influence flowing through this gate become godly again. We do this by making this time of year a season of prayer and worship. In my city (Toronto) we are encouraging the Church to set time aside for praise celebrations across our region during October 30, 31, and November 1. Our hope is that churches, houses of prayer, and prayer groups come together to celebrate and dedicate these three days to Jesus Christ and His Church. We are calling churches to unite in their neighbourhoods for worship and redemptive action (neighbourhood prayer walks, active neighbouring) on the evening of the 31st.

This is a time in the traditional Church calendar, when we reflect on those that have gone before us in the faith (Reformation Day - October 31st, and All Saints Day - November 1st). We remember and honour the expression of Christ through their lives. Let us lift the Name of Jesus, and pray for our cities and regions.

The Warehouse Mission

Yesterday afternoon, Jared (my son) and I went downtown and attended a service at the Warehouse Mission (part of the Salvation Army). About 60 people squeezed into a small second floor room not much larger than my living room and laughed and prayed and worshipped God with the abandonment that only those who have lost everything can display. The crowd was mostly older (ie 40+) street people. Street people means people who are not necessarily homeless but live most of their lives identified with some aspects of the street culture, often accessing services that assist the poor and homeless (food banks, meal programs, support services, drop-ins, employment training, I.D. access, etc.).

It was a good afternoon. The Warehouse Mission is run by Ron and Linda Farr - both Lieutenants in the Salvation Army. (you can check out an article about them written in Christianity.ca here.) There is also a personal connection here - Linda used to be my secretary and office manager (then kitchen manager and street youth worker) when I worked at Evergreen. They have been good friends for many years (even though I don't see them much these days). Ron and Linda started this ministry by just going around talking to the people who were hanging out on the street in the St. Jamestown (Parliament and Wellesley) area of downtown Toronto. They are doing a great job.

The service itself was the right blend of down home warmth, country music, Salvation Army culture, and lots of laughter. Ron and Linda have made the Gospel real to these people and have incarnated Jesus in a way that perfectly fits this context. It's worth a visit and worthy of your support.

Key Indicators

I received a couple of emails yesterday that were actually related. As we pray for our cities to see transformation we neecd to have some way of measuring change. Glen Smith of Christian Direction put together a number of indicators of positive movement in a city. Here they are listed below.

12 Key Indicators of a Transformed City
GLEN SMITH – Christian Direction - Montreal
Canadian City Impact Consultation
Ottawa – November 21-23, 2005
1. Increasing number of churches actively involved in spiritual transformation.
2. Concrete acts of reconciliation and justice for the welfare of the city.
3. Leaders leading a demonstration of the Gospel in all aspects of the city.
4. Equity in all aspects of the city.
5. Children and youth welfare and wellness.
6. Decline in Suicides.
7. Marriage & Family health
8. Most vulnerable reconnecting through multiple opportunities.
9. Decline in violence.
10. Decline in sexual abuse against women and children.
11. Artistic expression and Heritage valued
12. Environmental improvement.

The second email was about an organization in Toronto that measures the vital signs of a city. It's called The Toronto Community Foundation and they do exhaustive studies on key indicators of health in a city.

Someone once said to me that for which you are searching is already seeking you out. Well that certainly came to pass yesterday!

Dreams and Visions

Do you ever dream? Ever had a vision? In Acts chapter 2 Peter stands up explaining the events that were happening in Jerusalem by quoting from the prophet Joel:

17" 'In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams."

I'm not sure if I'm considered an old man or a young one. Maybe that's why there are times when I dream and other times I feel like a visionary. I also take dreams and visions with a grain of salt. Sometimes they inspire and sometimes they just confuse but most of the time they are interesting fodder for discussion.

All this to say this morning I attended a prayer meeting for pastors in North Toronto. During our worship I glimpsed a scene from before the throne room where we were worshipping God in the presence of angels and of the heavenly host. I seem to have this "vision" often as I worship God. This Isaiah 6 type experience where the angels cry holy and everyone bows down to worship. I'm not always sure if I am thinking it up in my mind or if it is coming from God - but it does help me to focus on the greatness of God and it reminds me that there is non-stop worship before the throne of God 24 hours a day (if there is time in heaven).

As I had this vision, I noticed something different this time though. I felt (sensed) that the angels were being "briefed" as if for a battle and that they were drawing strength from the throne for the battle that was ahead. It was as if as they (and we) were ministering to the Lord that the Lord was ministering back to the angels and to us in an even more powerful way. The sense I got was that there was preparation going on in heaven for a significant event or battle that would be coming in the near future.

The significance for me is that God is calling me to be ready. Part of being ready is being in a place to hear His voice and committing myself to "minister to the Lord" through worship and praise. As I do that He will minister to me, building me up and making me ready for whatever is to come.