I’ve heard of several churches that hold services in bars, even one that held services in a strip club.
Seriously.
But in just about every one of those cases the bar was closed or at least was not serving alcohol.
Apparently, the tap flows freely at this church on the Florida-Alabama state line.
I don’t have an issue with unholy places being repurposed as holy space. For me, it echoes the time when Paul held church in a dank, dirty prison cell.
But throwing back a Bloody Mary while the pastor preaches wearing Mardi Gras beads seems a bit inappropriate.
Maybe I’m just being a prude, but it seems to me that if we are going to repurpose unholy places as sacred space, then what we do during our time there should look differently than what normally goes on in that space. In other words, if we are going to reclaim space as sacred space, then what we do there should also be sacred.
Maybe I’m wrong, but for me, beads and Bloody Marys aren’t the sort of things to indulge in if, as we claim, we are standing on holy ground.
All that to say, if you want to hold services in a bar on Sunday mornings, go for it, but it’s probably best to hold off on the beads and Bloody Marys during service.
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