As we have written before about our home—the Perch—we really desire to use it as a place to minister and exercise hospitality, especially through special events. So, our dining room got a new coat of paint just in time for a house concert in December and a Curator’s Codex in February. What’s wonderfully unusual about these events is that both the guests involved are people Kirk has known for as long as he has been in ministry – 27 years.

Jason Harrod performing in our dining room!

House Concert presenting: Jason Harrod

Back in the early 90’s Kirk was exposed to the music of Jason Harrod when he was in the duo Harrod & Funck. Even back then Kirk’s imagination was fired by Jason’s unique sound and content through his folk-blues-Americana style. This has remained true even after so many years. Jason has walked with God for as long as Kirk has listened to him – and Jason even terms his music as falling into three categories – relationships, travel, and God. We had 25-30 people packed into our dining room to listen to 90 minutes of Jason’s music – a good number who were new to us.

This kind of event is our way of living out our mission to cultivate community—with an event many can gather around and also celebrate cultural artifacts—which is what Jason’s music is and has become.

Kirk introducing speaker for Curator’s Codex—David McGaw

Curator’s Codex brought by David McGaw

For our winter’s Curator’s Codex we invited one of Kirk’s oldest friends, David McGaw to speak. Since leaving Cru staff 18 years ago, David took his design experiences and has worked for companies such as McKinsey & Co, Gravity Tank, and LUNAR; currently he works for Google in their ambient computing section. He is also an Anglican. His talk was titled “Rite Again: Renewing Community through Ritual”, where he discussed his observations through his work and life about how human beings are drawn to habits and rituals that enhance their lives. Before discussion he shared a list of characteristics that form rituals. He even shared how this related to his experiences as an Anglican and how some Christian rituals do the same in the lives of followers of Christ. We had about 25 people from the community in our dining room to hear David and participate in a discussion following his lecture.

The Curator’s Codex is designed as a platform to present content on which to interact with the art community; it also assists us to cultivate community here in Rock Hill.

These kinds of events position us to speak and act with the love of Jesus within this unique and influential community—the Art World. As we have written before, these types of activities create space for God to work.