the forest

I walk by this place everytime I go to lectures. It took a few months to really take notice, but finally went when kate was invited to listen to one of her friends perform during an open-mic night.

It's called "The Forest." The best way to describe it would be an art cafe. To be ironic, it's a really classy dive. It has a gallery which often times has the appearance of somebody's garbage glued together as a visual expression of, well, garbage. In the back is the cafe, a room where each piece of furniture stands alone in style and form. Nothing matches, but in some way it all makes sense. The walls are covered in abstract art and all they serve is vegetarian and vegan food. I had a great night when Kate and I went a few months back, but didn't return for some time. I've gone several times now and I'm beginning to really love my time there.

Howard Schultz took a trip to France and was fascinated by a little known concept at the time called "coffee bars." Instead of purchasing bags of coffee, or running into a 7/11 for a quick cup, people actually sat and enjoyed a cup in a cozy atmosphere. His trip completely changed the way Americans' drink coffee. He took over a little-known company in Seattle called Starbucks and the rest is history.
There is a Starbucks literally 100 yards from our flat, and probably 20 around the city. They're seemingly everywhere, and they exist not just for the coffee, but for the experience. He regarded his comfortable yet stylish decor with trendy music as someone's "third home". It was a place to relax from home and work, an intersection for people to meet and have a conversation, read, laugh, relax along with a double-shot-vanilla-mocha-soy-low-fat-latte.

The concept is certainly not new, but we want Eikon to heed this notion and make strategic and efficient use of our potential facilities. Again, not a new concept. Several Churches I know are taking full advantage of creating a "third home" for anyone to connect at, and I'm not talking about an auditorium where people can congregate once or twice per week (though often times necessary). I'm talking about an "Ebeneezer's", or a Hostel with a cafe idea that my friend Jay has, along with many others that use their facilities 15-20 hours for anyone every day. In some form or another, we would love for Eikon to do the same.
My point is that we're currently meeting on Sundays and will be officially "kicking" this Church off in less than a month!!!! However, property or rent for that matter is so insanely expensive that our vision will be something we'll continue to pray over and strive for. Property potential would completely be a God-thing because that's way out of our league at this point. This certainly doesn't mean we're weary of the present. On the contrary, we're more excited than ever to be officially starting Eikon.

The Forest is living a simliar notion of "third home" and doing it with excellence. They have a constant flow of very diverse people walking in and out of those doors. I've been praying for possibilities of not only a place of our own, but a place to temporarily use for the time being. The Forest is a non-profit cafe and open to anyone who wants to start a "group" (save the rainforest group, photography, vegans 'r' us, I'm making these up but you get the point.) They are also looking for volunteers to help at the Cafe. I feel like these are two open doors and believe this could be a great opportunity to connect with an array of people with diverse backgrounds.

Please pray for what this represents: a potential space to challenge, connect and share the reality of a relevant, personal, and accepting God.

As Zeb Minghistu once said, "I'll let the Spirit do it's work and I'll try to stay out of the way."