Business cards and bookstores
 
I wonder what Paul and Barnabas used instead of business cards. The book of Acts is an interesting, inspiring, and necessary read for a person starting a new church/ministry. Acts is really the story of how the Christian church got its start and two missionaries--Paul and Barnabas--were key to how the church got started. When Paul went out, though, and met a variety of people, how could people get in touch with him? I’m sure there’s a sociology book out there that would tell me. Trey and I knew we’d have to get business cards, but we’re realizing that we need them sooner rather than later. I think we thought, well, let’s get come up with a church name first and come up with a cool logo, etc., but as we’re meeting all kinds of people, I think we need those cards now and will be printing up some quickie cards soon. I handed out one of my old business cards yesterday and I think I may have freaked this nice woman out a little bit. I decided to take my own little tour of bookstores in Printer’s Row and found this cool little mom-and-pop bookstore on Dearborn called Sandmeyer’s. It’s just about everything you’d want a little independent bookstore to be. Since I’m a sucker for those kinds of shops, I bought a couple of books and started talking with the woman at the register who turned out to be Ellen Sandmeyer, one of the owners. We had a lovely conversation and I was able to sneak in there that I was starting a new church. She seemed interested and because of that, I gave her my card and asked if I could come back again sometime and just ask her questions about how the South Loop has changed over the years (they’ve been there since 1982). She seemed a little taken aback by this request and I wondered if I’d come on a little strong. I seem to be a little neurotic about this whole engaging with strangers thing. On Wednesday, I was concerned I wasn’t doing it enough and yesterday I was a little worried I was pushing things too much. All part of the learning process. We received a couple of emails this week out of nowhere from people who have heard about what we’re doing and want to be a part of it. The Spirit at work! My little tour of bookstores was great. Also went to Printer’s Row Fine and Rare Books (pic from inside the store is above), which, as the name implies, specializes in rare and first-edition books. I was looking at a book by Thomas Merton and thought, hmm, this looks kind of interesting and then I saw that it was $200 (a first edition) and thought, hmm, maybe not. When you have to ring to get into the store and when you have to ask the person to unlock the glass case so you can look at the books, that should be a hint that this isn’t your usual used-book store. The guy there was very nice, though. At the opposite end of this store was Powell’s Books, which is headquartered in Portland, but has three stores in Chicago. A massive, massive amount of used books here. If this is neighborhood analysis, I think I’m a fan.http://www.sandmeyersbookstore.com/Home_Page.htmlhttp://www.powellschicago.com/shapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1
Saturday, July 11, 2009