A story from Awake’s Andy Carlson:

Awake’s mission is driven in part by the notion that bearing witness to the Kingdom of God means bearing witness to an alternative reality, to another world. So to be a part of Awake means to participate with a community of believers in a style of life rooted in the reality of the Kingdom of God rather than any kingdom of this world. This involves an alternative way of seeing our neighborhood, an alternative way of hoping for healing and redemption, an alternative way of stewarding resources, and an alternative way of being in relationship.

Our hope in creating the Aurora Commons has been that the world inside those four walls would become a tangible resemblance to the presence of the Kingdom of God. And the other day, while our neighbor Russell stood waiting outside the door to the Commons, he said something peculiar that gave me a subtle indication the space might indeed be fulfilling some of those hopes…

Now Russell has achieved the status that people in our neighborhood occasionally confer as “old timer.” He’s going on two decades of hanging out in this little corner of the world. Russell is kind of an icon, too. I can usually find him standing in his place on the back stairway of the AA meeting hall like someone manning a fire tower, scanning the neighborhood, his neighborhood, from that elevated vantage point and waiting for something of interest to arise. “I’ve seen it all,” Russell often says in a slow baritone voice; and I believe him.

So I can partly comprehend his skepticism over the past few years as Russell has been analytically observing the emergence of our faith community. I remember being flat out ignored by him at first, having “hellos” met with silence and waves returned with not even a nod. And then I remember his apathy becoming more like disgust as he would mock our efforts to unearth the goodness of the place. I’ve heard it said that hatred is closer to love than indifference, though, and it seems to me that Russell has lately been coming to love the presence of Awake in his neighborhood because he’s become a regular participant and volunteer in the life of the Commons. Recently he even told a few of us that his perception of the Church as a whole has been significantly reshaped by Awake’s style of life in this place.

Last week when I was standing on the inside of the Commons’ locked front door and Russell was standing outside waiting for me, a jesting look came over his Fu Manchued face and he shouted, “Let me out!”

We’ve had a lot of work parties over the course of the last almost-year. But this one was different. It was as if we could collectively sense the end, or more fittingly, the beginning that we are rapidly approaching.

At one point a half dozen people dismantled wood palettes in the basement (which we don’t rent, but our landlord graciously lets us use) – cleaning, sawing, removing nails, and pulling them apart (check out this video from our facebook page!) – while another half dozen people were upstairs singing as they sanded, stained, and sorted the palette wood (see a video here).

Later that night – and I really mean later – Andy Carlson (read this tribute to Andy written by someone from Awake) wandered back to the Commons to carry out the next phase of the palette wood process: creating the palette wall.  With his pregnant wife Lisa (co-director of the Aurora Commons) out of town, it was as if this husband and expectant father became possessed by a strange combination of bachelorhood freedom and a deep-seated nesting impulse.  He stayed up until 6:30 a.m., nearly completing this community-created masterpiece, but called it “a night” when he saw his sleepless, shaky hand unsteadily working wood on the table saw.

The next day people showed up for a party for the Super Bowl that the Packers won in the still uncompleted Commons where they witnessed Andy’s work – and the fruit of their own service.

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The following week, our attention turned from the walls to the floor, something I was particularly looking forward to because it had been 9 months since I had purchased the tigerwood flooring that we had planned to install in the back half of the Commons, which was formerly covered in an assortment of tiles.

The plan was for our friend and generous general contractor John Eidson to guide a group of unskilled volunteers through the floor installation process.

But then Ray showed up.

Ray has been connected to the neighboring AA/NA hall for years and years.  He has seen coffee shops come and go in our space.  Every few years or so, ownership of the coffee shop would change hands, and correspondingly, the name would change too.  Every person who ever owned the coffee shop was also involved in the AA/NA community next door.

For this reason, throughout the past year, we’ve had countless people walk in, point to some various aspect of the space, and say, “I installed that,” “I did that,” “so-and-so did that,” etc.

We’ve had an innumerable amount of neighbors say that they are general contractors.

We’ve had people insensitively bossing our volunteers around.

…which is all to say that there has been a lot of talk.

Until Ray.

Sure, there have been people like our dear friends Joel and Pedro and others who help here and there – and they are such a gift!

But Ray…  Essentially, one day Ray just announced that he wanted to do our floor for us, and do it as “service work.”

Was he for real?!  Or was this just more talk?

It was clear within the first few days that not only did he really know what he was doing, but also that he loves floors and is a floor artist.

With the help of our neighborhood friend Scott, Ray did the meticulous work of rearranging and straightening the pre-exisiting parquet flooring and then installing my beloved tigerwood.  Then he recruited his cousin “Deak,” who owns his own hardwood flooring company to help with the sanding, sealing, and whatever other things floor people do.

For almost two weeks now, Ray has been putting in full days at the Commons in exchange for a little gas money and some lunch.  Deak has been around for the past week, lending his expertise and equipment.

One day Andy overheard Ray talking with someone from the neighborhood about the Aurora Commons.  The person asked, “So is this is just another church that’s going to give us tracts and try to get us to do this and do that?”

Ray, who’s never heard a description of what Awake or the Aurora Commons is about, adamantly began to defend us, “No it’s not like that.  These people really care about the community!”

This morning I stopped by the Commons to check in on Ray and Deak.  We were talking and I asked Deak where his nickname came from.

“Actually,” knowing I’m the pastor guy, “You’ll find this interesting,” he said.  ”It’s short for Deacon.  You know, like in the church.  Everyone thought I was going to be a priest.”

He added, “I guess that whole thing didn’t work out for me.”

“Do you know that Deacon means ‘servant’?” I asked him.

“It seems to me that the whole servant thing is working out for you.  For you and Ray.”

For Deak and Ray.  For Scott and Andy and Karen and John and Joel and Pedro.  And for all of the Deacons who have contributed to work of Awake and the Aurora Commons!

Thank you so much.

With Much Gratitude,

Ben Katt

Months ago, we introduced it as the Aurora Sharehouse.

But, today, we announce that it has a new name… The Aurora Commons.

While we felt very attached to the name the Aurora Sharehouse, there was another stellar organization that has been at work in Seattle for 20 years called “The Sharehouse“.  They kindly asked us to reconsider our name to avoid confusion.  After much discernment and wrestling, we did not feel led to change our name, however, we felt called to relinquish the decision to The Sharehouse – and they asked us to not call ourselves “The Aurora Sharehouse.”

So it was back to the drawing board.  And all of this was at the same time that we were having problems with permits from the city!  No name, no place – we were definitely discouraged.

But the Spirit has continued to guide us and give us strength.  In the midst of all of these setbacks, we have been able to prepare internally for the intense journey that we are about to embark on.

Now, with permits in hand and reconstruction set to resume this week, we have a new name and a crystallized mission.  We always known that “our space” would be a place through which we would extend Christ’s hospitality to our neighbors, but we’ve now honed in on the nature of the continuum that we are seeking to cultivate: a common space for people to gather will lead to reciprocal relationships will lead to resource and gift sharing will lead to mutual and holistic flourishing.

Or, as our mission statement puts it: The Aurora Commons provides a safe place of hospitality along Aurora Avenue where we seek to grow the relational capacity within our neighborhood so that, as we care for one another, we may share space, resources and the fullness of life.

Thanks for your continued support!

Introducing the Aurora Sharehouse from Awake Church on Vimeo.