“How can I help you?” asked the director of booking at the Phantom Canyon Brewery. I told her we were a new church in town looking for a place to rent on Sunday mornings. I had interrupted a meeting she was having with a young lady planning a wedding rehearsal dinner. “You want to have a church in the pub?” “Yes,” I responded. “It will totally fit our vision.”
The young lady replied, “That’s the kind of church I want to go to!”
These words rang in my ears as I handed the young lady my card. I thought, “Well, that’s the kind of church we want to be.”
“The world is my parish.” said John Wesley, I think I like that. Why have we centralized church so much so that we have disconnected ourselves from the ones who really need the good news of the gospel? When we think of how some of the revival songs of the 18th century were written using the music of the pubs of the day, we can see that these guys were really ahead of their time. But like most movements from Jesus‘ time forward, it’s always the religious that get weird and want to stop or control what God is doing on the earth. True revival ends when men take the reins!
So, church in a pub. I am on this adventure to find a venue that fits our vision. The vision of Acts 2:42 drives us to look at places that will satisfy that model. This might just work! Some might say that we shouldn’t celebrate Jesus in a pub. I kinda like the idea of singing his praise and teaching his principles in a place like that! It makes more sense to me now than ever.
Today I am meeting with the coordinator of the pub to see if this can really work. It’s a new adventure on a new horizon. I don’t think you’ll ever hear a church planting model tell you to go find a local pub to meet in. But that’s just it. I am not interested in planting, building, or trying to make a church work. My job is to make disciples. It’s Jesus’ job to build the church. Anything other than that produces a consumer driven institution…blech…no thanks!
“That’s the kind of church I want to go to!”
Me too sweetheart, me too.
Lonny's Blog 
go for it bro!!!
There is a ministry here in Indy called Pub theology that is doing a bar ministry. Here is the link so maybe you can get some ideas. Pubtheologyindy.com. Good luck with it brother. Great post!
Thanks Scott! I look forward to reading about them!
Yes! 🙂
Uh oh, you went and did it… the paradigm just shifted
Awesome, awesome, awesome blog! “True revival ends when men take the reins!” — Indeed! Did I say your blog was awesome!?