Church held in a bar---What will they think of next ?

Question

4/23/2007 10:37:17 AM
IN THE NEWS:
Bar Beckons Bikers For Sunday Church Service

OZONA, FL (AP) -- The pastor wears a sleeveless black T-shirt, blue jeans and a backward baseball cap. The collection is taken in a motorcycle helmet. And the first thing you see as you walk in the door of this makeshift church isn't a cross or a stained-glass window, it's a bar.
Steve's Cape Cod, a seafood restaurant and bar known for all-you-can-eat snow crab on Monday and ladies-drink-free night on Wednesday, is reborn each Sunday morning as the Salvation Saloon. Worshippers who go by names like Curly Joe and Wild Bill file in by the dozen -- many holding plastic foam cups of coffee, some biting at doughnuts -- for a service they say is unlike any other.
"This is not your parents' church," Paul White, who created the service and serves as the pastor, tells those gathered. "This is going to bless your socks off."
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/faith/news-article.aspx?storyid=80540

Answer 1

They made sure to mention that the collection is taken...just like any other church. I wonder if they get tips too.

Answer 2

I am a pastor. One of the issues we face in our congregation is finding and affordable worship space. If you have a smaller congregation you may not be able to afford a big fancy church building. Even renting/converting a wherehouse can be very expensive.

Owning a large building can be a drain on church finances. Maybe worshiping in a bar saves that congreagation some money. For those who complain that churches are always asking for money, think for a moment about how the bills get paid. You enjoy coming to worship in a nice church with a wonderful sanctuary. But someone has to pay the electric bill to keep the heat and air conditioning running.

Pastor Erwin Rafael McManus (Los Angeles - Mosaic) uses night club on Sunday morning. He says the chose that because it was available and had the A/V equipment he requires already installed.

Answer 3

Where the church meets is unimportant! The important thing is that Jesus Christ is worshipped and glorified and His Spirit is allowed to flow! A bar, a stadium, a school, a government building, a park, a cemetary, an office building...wherever Christians (true Christians) meet there Jesus will be!!

Answer 4

Hey, there was a club here in Las Vegas that was a club on Saturday, then the next day it was for church gathering. Eventually, the whole building became a church and the club was abolished.

Answer 5

Now that sounds like my kind of Church!!!!!!!! Out here in So. Calif. We have Calvary Chapels(they are all over) That's the way they started off.Now they are a bit more sophisticated.But they were started to bring in the Hippie and the surfer who wouldn't go to a regular church,or be welcomed at one.They have lost that edge over the years,I'm glad to hear about that one.

Answer 6

absolutely, completely ridiculous! yes there are more sinners in a bar, and yes Jesus is everywhere, but Christians have a duty to keep some part of their religion sacred. Going to a church for one hour a week is NOT a lot to ask. If you cant pray without being drunk, thats pathetic.

Answer 7

if ya think about it, the best place to have church isnt where all the christians are, you have to go where the sinners are, Im a rt preacher and hold services in a bar, and guess what Jesus did too.. He hung out with sinners and whores all day long...and preached to them... not the rightous

Answer 8

i think it's a cool way to tell people about god who wouldn't normally come to a regular church. i think some people feel like they're being judged in church...and so that turns them off from going back.

but preaching to them in their own environment and using ways that they feel more comfortable with (like taking collection in a motorcycle helmet), might actually let them see what god's been trying to tell them all along.

Answer 9

Sounds like my kind of church. Full of real people and not pharisees.
The message of salvation began around sinners and tax collectors.
I bet you that every person on this planet (including me) falls into that category. And no I am not a tax collector.
If Jesus had a baseball cap, he would have worn it backwards.
Love has no bias.

Answer 10

Why not? Isn't it all about god? Not about where you are? If anyone wants to meet to talk about god, does location matter? It is hard enough to get some to go to church and believe, if this is all they can do, then I say more power to them.