I have not had as productive a day as I had hoped. It was one of those days when it has been hard to settle because of other things going on. I arrived at the church later than I wanted and started talking to a couple who were working around the church. He is a retired electrical expert and has taken it upon himself to do repairs to the old 1937 Hammond organ we have. He had it in bits and was putting new modern capacitors and bits in and checking resultant electrical currents and frequencies. While I don't really enjoy the sound of the organ, I find the workings fascinating and admire his skill in doing the repairs. I suspect there would be few people in NZ able to do such things. He has had medical issues, with a much awaited appointment yesterday and so we talked through this event. I then settled to office work producing a poster for the outside noticeboard. I went out to put it up and got to talking with a friend who was walking past. He and I were largely responsible for starting Habitat for Humanity in Dunedin and I had not seen him for a long while. We shared life experiences. We talked about our faith journey and where we were at. We theologised and sorted the world out, or more correctly, pondered the questions. It was great to catch up but again time consuming. Pretty soon our Church was opened up for free coffee/hot drinks with its couches, easy chairs and coffee tables. This is the main part of my Space2B dream, my concept of a different way of doing "Church". My dream was to make the down town building a friendly space where people can come, enjoy a hot drink, comfortable surroundings and caring conversation if they want.
On Wednesdays it is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and today seemed busy. There was lots of supportive, laughter and warm thoughts as people came and went. I finished there and moved on to an hour session with one of our Night Shelter Trust members. After that I had a hot drink and reflected on the Space2B experience. I think I missed some people but I counted at least 25 people through and there was quite a cross section of types of people. At one stage there were around four groups of people chatting warmly. From time to time individuals had more private in depth conversation. As I reflected on how these folk had come to know one another, share experiences together and in a sense are traveling the journey of life together I recognised that my dream was coming true. A new style of "Church" was forming. I felt good about that. Today's experience confirmed that it was a venture worth doing. Sometimes I do something right.
It was an unproductive day in terms of my "to do" list. But if, and I believe it to be true, loving conversation is redemptive, healing and sacred, then it was, perhaps, a very productive day.
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