Church at a Bar
Both Kathy and I had hair appointments today on the Square. We were getting what Miss Patti calls, “our hair did”. I’ve been going to the same guy for the past 15 months. He’s a good ole Georgia boy who’s always pleasant and interested in what’s going on in my life.
He asked what I was working on for the New Year? I told him about The Gathering that Kathy and I were doing with Mike and Patti Paschall. I told him we’d been meeting 1-2 times per month in my family room. I told him how excited we were to be meeting weekly starting January 9th at the Sidebar 120 on Monday nights…
He asked, “why a bar”?
My immediate response was, “why not a bar”?
He asked me to explain, so I did. Here’s my explanation:
The Sidebar is on the Square in Gainesville, which is where the people are. So shouldn’t we do church where the people are? Isn’t it smarter to bring church to the people rather than bring people to church?
We wanted to keep the vision of reaching the community in front of all of us. We actually feel called to the people who wouldn’t normally go to church or don’t like normal church. We are after all called to the “unchurched, tired of church, and forgotten by the church”.
We were looking to add value to the people and businesses of the area, so rather than taking people out of the bars and restaurants, we decided to meet them there. The owner of the Sidebar 120 loves the idea. Our first meeting brought increased people, thus increased receipts to his establishment and staff.
Then my barber asked me if it was “just temporary”? “You’re going to eventually get your own building right?” He was surprised by my answer, “nope, we aren’t planning on a building”.
“See, buildings cost money to maintain. I’ve done that before, worked to maintain a building, and it’s not much fun”.
Our focus is discipleship and spiritual development. Most of that can be done in other restaurants and coffee shops. Break out sessions and small groups can meet in our homes. So why have a building?
Here’s his last question, “but how can a church be a church without a building”? “Isn’t that, after all, what church is”?
I guess I’d define church as “a gathering of ordinary people called to bring Kingdom to their community”.
How do you define it?
So why not a bar?
