Wales: Bread, fish, beer – life in a pub church
Bar None is a church in a pub in Cardiff, Wales. Chris Coffey, one of the
founders, says “The employees like working in the cellar which we rent every
week. They enjoy the atmosphere, take part in the discussions, and sometimes
ask for prayer. I think that is an indication: when the employees who have to
work during a Christian event don’t stand around, tensely waiting for the end,
hating every minute, that’s a good sign…” Bar None began with three friends
who met at a Christian festival and discussed ideas of how to be church in a
unchurchlike manner. They came up with the idea of a pub church. A group of
Cardiff Christians decided to check out the city’s pubs, to find out if any
were open for the idea of being a pub church on Sunday. They expected
rejection, but were astonished that most were excited by the idea. They finally
settled on ‘The Oz Bar’ in the city centre.
Newspapers and Bibles
In the first meetings, they laid Bibles and newspapers on some of the tables,
held discussions and sometimes a 10-minute talk, a songwriter presented a song,
and discussed the meaning. “The best evenings were often the ones which we did
not plan,” says Chris. “Someone would ask ‘Why do you lot believe what you
believe?’ and things would go from there. To start with, we had around 100
people each evening, including many curious Christians from local churches. We
now have thirty to forty regular visitors, many of whom do not attend a
‘normal’ church because they think they would not fit in. Bar None is one of
four fellowships belonging to the Glenwood Church. It is important for people
to recognise that they are not in a waiting line for a ‘real church’, but that
this is ‘real church’! And one of the most important things that we have
learned is that we do not need to have an answer to every question, and do not
need to justify everything that we do,” he says.
Comments
11 responses to “Church in a Pub”
our church has been looking at the whole idae of a pub church, just recently i was talking to a friend and made the suggestion that w everyone who is to attend the “pub Church” would simply wear a t-shirt with the following words “Who is JESUS ? to you…” on the front & back, this would at least be a conversation starter and perhaps our regular attendences in larger numbers would show regular pub attenders that something different was happening in their community.
Our primary goal was however more relationship based & not neccessarily centred on any sort of actual church. What inspiration, encouragement or constructive critisism can you offer me towards this idea..
Phil Burt – Sydney,Australia
Phil – I have not actually tried “doing” “being” or “going to” a pub church, but the idea of one has been heavily contemplated many times. A few thoughts if I may:
I don’t know that I’d go into a venture like this wearing some sort of shirt or sign, because I think it would single out those who are already “belong” to the group and it would most likely exclude those who show up out of curiousity or for drinks. You don’t want them to know you by the t-shirts that you wear, you want them to know you without automatically needing to put a label on you.
A relational approach, as opposed to an evangelistic approach, would be great in my opinion, because genuine relationships would open so many more opportunities for real, honest discussion/conversations than if people think you’re only interested in them so that you can “get them saved.”
A few years ago a guy named Mark Dowds (from England, I think) was speaking at the soularize event and he has been doing this very thing. He shared a lot of his experiences about it. I think his talk may be found on the CD at this link (though I am not 100% sure: http://www.theooze.com/store/details.cfm?item=10000
You might be interested in Christ Church Brighton, we have a meeting a pub every Sunday evening.
This is fantastic! we have just started church in a pub,in conwy north wales, it is going well only 3 weeks in…. check out http://www.i61.org
just down the road from you in Newport. wanting to reach out to students in particular and have been given a mandate from the Bishop to start a youth church. would you be interested in meeting up? could we come and visit bar none. Also working on a teenagers nightclub idea. Blog list looks familiar…..
Hi – five of us started “Kingsway at the Queensway – Church in the Pub” on January 14th this year – one of us worked there as a chef and we get to use the function room for free. The Queensway is a pub in Scunthorpe, North Lincs. It’s just very casual, informal, but definately church – sometimes we sing along to gospel cds, we have prayer, annointing, we had Communion a couple of weeks ago – our Pastor is teaching his way through Ephesians at the moment but we have also shown the Alpha Course, and Philip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace dvd series. The idea was that people who might never feel inclined to go to a church building, might bring their pint along and listen in if we were right under their nose. Well – we are up to about 16 regular attenders now, with only the original 5 being previously “churched”. So go for it, everyone!
And, I agree with the comment above that it’s maybe better not to have T-shirts or anything to single out the “churched” from the “unchurched” – we like the “belonging before believing” idea, and it’s great if people can just feel like part of the group whatever they believe. We have been astounded at who has turned up.
We have been doing a weekly church in the pub for a year or so in Nottingham, UK. We have a live band with though provoking images projected on a screen behind, serve some food to guests and have a 5 minute sermon.
Some info in the link below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/content/articles/2005/10/19/church_in_the_pub_feature.shtml
i am a minister who wants to start a pub church…maybe in greenville SC any suggestions???? i really believe this is from God and i am in love with idea of being culturally relavitve followers of Christ!!
rev. suzie
This emergening church stuff is really prophetic. 3 of us just held in a pub an acoustic evening with a charity emphasis and beer mats mentioning God also some folky spiritual and jesus songs. Its very embreyonic but the focus isn’t evangelistic in traditional sense but relational and emergent in character although we in the valleys hadn’t heard of pubchurch emergent church – a move of god at last a reformation kind of
Rev. Suzie,
Did you ever start a pub church in NC? I would love to hear more.
-Xochitl
THE IDEA IS BRILLIANT AND HERE IN NAIROBI, KENYA WE HAVE CHURCHES IN VERY UNFAMILIAR PLACES LIKE IN THE PUB WHICH SOUNDS DEROGATIVE BUT STILL EVEN THOSE WHO ARE NOT ATTENDANTS OF SUCH PLACES HAVE NO OPTION BUT VISIT THE CHURCH WHERE IT RENTS A HOUSE.
I BELIEVE IT IS NOT MEANT FOR THE CUSTOMERS BUT FOR CHRISTIANS