Blog
Mercury Rising
Sun, May 9th
Seven months ago, I landed in Chicago and began meeting with all manner of people about potentially joining The Painted Door. With moving boxes still cluttering my home office, most of these meetings took place about a half block away at a massive, funky coffee shop called Mercury Café. For three weeks, that space became my functional office, and a rocking one at that – free Wi-Fi, intelligentsia coffee, a cool, arty vibe. I met with some three dozen people over that period, forming the launch team for our church. You might say that The Painted Door was birthed at the Mercury Café.
Now, we’re poised to grow up there.
Shut down and abandoned last fall, Mercury Café sat empty and unused over the winter, a large “for rent” sign adorning the locked front door. But this spring, as our church began looking for a more permanent meeting space, the owner of the building unlocked that door and gave me a tour through 6,000 square feet of character-dripping real estate on bustling Chicago Avenue.
And I had a vision: What if our church moved here? What if we controlled this space 24 hours a day, seven days a week? What if we opened it up for community events, art shows, concerts, film festivals, after school programs, computer labs, and Sunday church services? Might we even re-open the Mercury Café?
The possibilities seemed endless. My head was spinning. This space represented the potential for the fulfillment of all our values:
Beauty: Not only is the space aesthetically riveting, but it would serve as a springboard for local artists, encouraging creativity in visuals and music.Compassion: Kids from lower income families often lack access to computers, mentoring, tutoring. In this space, we could provide it all.
Brokenness: The building’s appearance is not slick or impressive but humble and honest. Such a neighborhood coffee shop attracts authentic people and facilitates real relationships.Truth: With this space as a launching point, our church could embody truth throughout the surrounding neighborhoods. We could live out our mission, showing who we are.
Community: For diverse Near West neighborhoods lacking identity and unity, we could provide a place a gathering, of coming together, a place to build a mosaic of difference.
So I jumped. I began making phone calls to financiers and members of our leadership team. Every single one said “Go!” Two days later, we put down a deposit and began a new chapter in the young story of The Painted Door.
Now, we call on you for help. To move this grand vision into reality, we need financial help and manpower. A friend of The Painted Door has gifted us a $15,000 matching grant to get things started. To give toward this Mercury Café fund, click here.
We hope to begin using the space for Sunday services soon, but there’s a bit of work to do inside. The former tenant left everything behind, tables, chairs, espresso machines, commercial refrigeration, computers, art, you name it. We need lots of hands to organize everything and put it to good use. To sign up for one of our scheduled work parties, click here.
Game on.
