Buildings

I had my friend Stevie out last week and he said a very interesting thing "You're building will define what you do over this next season"

He's right, I haven't been a great fan of buildings over the years, they can be a hindrance, a weight around your neck, a financial drain but they can also be a great tool. Most families have a car, a tool to enable them to get about and get things done. Most families live in a building and that building to some degree determines what they can do.

When I look at various 24-7 communities around the world, they are first and foremost about people, community and relationship is at their core, but their buildings define them. Kelly's work with prostitutes in Mexico will soon be taken to another level with her new building. Markus and the community in Ramsdorf have a great facility from which to work out of and live out their dream of community. The 24-7 Community in Kansas have a great building that do some degree defines them. When I read red moon rising and hear the story of Andy Freeman and the Reading boiler room the community was more effective in engaging with the lost when they had a building.

So at the moment I am dreaming of an excellent building that we can use year round to effectively provide activities and services to the community, here in San Antonio.

I think I have undersold the fact that we are a year round community. Because what we do in the summer is so intense you could be forgiven for thinking that our winters are dull. Our winters are not dull and there are loads of opportunities to engage with our local community throughout the winter.

So, we need a building, a bigger building than the one we have got right now.

This building will provide a place of refuge and spiritual reflection.
This building will allow us to run a multiplicity of courses.
This building will be actively used all year round.
This building will be a facility for the people of Ibiza.

It will be a place for the young to use after school or at the weekend. It will be attractive to all age groups.

We will host xbox clubs, pool tournaments, relaxation sessions, Spanish classes, coffee mornings and poker nights.

It will be a facility for information and advice about life on this island, an access point for workers. Not just a place to use the internet, but a place of support when people are in need.

Sexual health and drugs awareness will be issues we will tackle from this building.

It will be a training centre – we could train people in DJing, drumming, guitar, dance, art and cookery… to name but a few.

We will gather people in the building on a regular basis for creative, chilled out teaching and worship services. We will run spiritual discovery courses such as alpha.

In my mind’s eye I see counselling taking place, massages being given, conversations being had, coffee being drunk, all in this building.

It will be the venue out of which summer teams work, the base for our community’s West End summer work.

At its heart it will have a prayer room - it’s vibrant beating spiritual heart will be prayer. Prayer will sustain it.

The next step is a building.