sustain:if:able kiwi

confessions: the place of ikea in worship and teaching

Dear Ikea,

I love your shop. I love the creativity of good design. I love the way that the confines of space become a springboard to creativity. I love it so much that today I taught my class in your shop. We arrived at 1 pm and and we left at 3 pm.

First, because we had talked in the morning about the importance of environments. So moving from a class to lunch at your place provided an experience of a different environment. This led to a profitable discussion as we compared your space with church spaces.

Second, I gave out to the students one of your shopping lists and cute little pencils. The students are all working on a project for Friday. And since the confines of space can become (as you know so well) a springboard to creativity, in order for students to experience this, they were invited to choose (not buy) one thing from your shop for use in their project.

Third, we were due to talk about spirituality2go, about providing ways to resource spirituality beyond the gathered congregation. I placed a whole lot of my previous ministry ideas in a box in the middle of the table at which we were sitting. The class took turns to pull out an idea, at which point I shared the creative processes that led to that idea. (A lot more ideas are on my website – either under the heading worship treats, or preaching today or Creationary (a space to be creative with the lectionary).)

However, all of this is not what I need to confess. What I need to confess is this …

that I am the one who (absent-mindedly) took the help yourself little black tongs from your bread roll container.

I apologise for my neglect, for interpreting help yourself to apply to the tongs and not the bread rolls.

I trust that your dishwashing staff recognised these little black tongs and have now returned them to their rightful place,

Signed,
Steve Taylor