Day 72: Church at the Pub....Again

I would like to thank my friend, Pastor Bob Beeman 1.0 (I was dubbed Pastor Bob 2.0 at Cornerstone this year) for telling his Facebook friends about a new ministry I started called, "Church at the Pub." There was allot of great conversation about the pros and cons of doing something like this. It is important to know that I tell my church often that this is not a ministry for everyone. This would not be a place for people struggling with alcoholism. That would be like sending someone who struggles with being unfaithful to their spouse to Panama City Beach during spring break. There are some things that unless you are mature in Christ...you should not do. It is okay not to participate in something like this, but for those who are strong and find no temptation with alcohol...this is a great ministry.

My biggest "gripe" is towards people who do not think this kind of ministry should happen at all. It has been my observation that people who don't care for "Church at the Pub" will get excited to hear about foreign missionaries doing ministry in shady places. Some will even go on a missions trip and come back talking about how they did this kind of ministry or that kind of ministry. Perhaps some will get excited because they did pub ministry...but, because it was in Germany or other European areas, now it is okay.

Below is a blurb from a blog I wrote in May about what happened one night at "Church at the Pub."

Tonight the jukebox was in full effect. We heard everything from Lady Antebellum to the Black Eyed Peas (requested by Ben from our church because we played a snip-it of their song in church for the announcements lol). As always a classic rock song comes on and a lady in her 50’s at the end of the bar started to sing along to is and I said, “Ah….Marshall Tucker Band…just downloaded this one to my iPod.” She was pretty happy that someone knew the name of that band given the younger crowd in the pub tonight. I said, “Not too bad for a pastor is it?” Just then a friend of hers asked me what church I was the pastor of in which I responded, “Radiant Fellowship.” The lady that asked me knew where it was but what was key is the other lady asked, “Are you Pastor Bob?” It ends up that this lady is the manager of the pub and was there on her off time to celebrate her birthday. See, this lady originally told me that we could not meet at the pub because we were a church. After I talked with her on the phone a couple of months ago she finally gave us permission to meet there. Tonight she got to meet about ten of us from the church and kept telling us how great it is that we are there. She was really impressed by our group and that we just enjoyed conversations with people without ulterior motives. The only thing I do is pray before I go in and pray when I leave that God would work on these people’s hearts (and mine as well) to show them that they have a friend in this church that meets there on Sunday nights.