Beer, Smokes, and Wings…At Church!
- 11.03.09
- Church, Missional Living, Kathy Price
- 7 Comments
Where can one hold a Bible in one hand and nurse a beer in the other? It’s at The Red Door, a ministry held at the Willowdale Saloon in Janesville, Ill. led by Kathy Price. In an effort to minister to those turned off by traditional religion, Price holds services at the bar at 10:30 a.m. every Sunday. A social beer and cigarette is allowed as well as chicken wings, coffee and donuts. “I want the people who don’t want to go to church, those who are wounded and broken, especially from religion,” Price said.
Last Sunday, about a dozen people gathered around a few tables. One woman sipped a beer and a bloody Mary, a few people lit up cigarettes and the others munched on coffee cake. Price stuck with an iced tea, but said she didn’t have a problem with a couple of cocktails amongst the congregation. After all, she said some people will go to church with a hangover or have a beer afterwards. “I want to reach out to the person who believes a beer separates them from God,” Price said.
Price, the daughter of Pastor Dave Fogderud, has been holding services on and off at the bar for a few years. Although some have attacked her for allowing visitors to drink beer, Price joked that putting down a beer is easier than forgiving somebody or letting go of anger. “Jesus said what comes out of the heart is more defiling than what goes into the mouth,” Price said. She added that certain sins, like drinking beer or smoking cigarettes, are focused on more than sins of the heart such as greed or self-righteousness.
Price, who grew up in her father’s street ministry and coffee house, said she watched her dad minister to the homeless and the lost, joking that the “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.” A few years ago, Price said she became obsessed with the Catholic Saint Katherine of Sienna, a 14th Century figure known for preaching in pubs, and felt moved by the Holy Spirit do to the same thing. After she visited the Willowbrook Saloon one night to do karaoke, Willowdale owner Art Conner offered up the bar free of charge. Since starting up the services, Price has gotten a warm response.
Many people are hesitant to attend church, Price said, because they feel they aren’t good enough, or are too sinful. For example, some feel they can’t live with their boyfriends or girlfriends, must cease swearing, or driving and talking on the cell phone before they can even set foot in a church. Sometimes, she said the “gerbil wheel of Christianity” eventually turns people off when they feel they can’t turn their lives around right away like traditional clergy expect. Although God heals hearts, she said behaviors may not change all at once.
Price said Jesus came for the sick not the healthy, and met people right where they were in life. At the Red Door, Price said visitors don’t have to pretend to be something they aren’t. “I love them where they are at rather than where they are supposed to be,” Price said. “There’s nobody I refuse to fellowship with. I’d much rather hang out with someone who is broken, than someone who thinks they don’t have any need.”
Why….I am just outraged!!!
While I think this is a really great outreach, I get fearful that Christians sometimes forget we are not to be a part of the world. We are supposed to be different. So…while I see the value here, I wonder if it’s completely biblical to try to fit into the culture. It’s never ok to judge others for what they do but it’s also not ok to live like everyone else in the world. Excellent article though and Ms. Price’s idea has value.
Now that’s my kind of church!!
@J: You are right that Christians are called to be different, but *what* about us is to be different? Are we to be different in our dress and clothing standards? Are we to shun some of the recreational activities that unbelievers participate in? Are we called to create a separate culture, with its own music, language, and customs? Many would say yes, but I’m not quite convinced.
Or does Christ call us to be different in some other way? Maybe we’re to be different in the way that we interact with people. Maybe we’re supposed to model radically caring for those we don’t like, or who even hurt us. Maybe we’re supposed to live more communally so that we can give more of our incomes to those who are needy. Maybe we’re supposed to be different by talking about how God’s kingdom is coming to set things right, and how we should repent and join in that kingdom. I’m asking a legitimate question, though: how “Different” do we need to be from the rest of the culture, and in what areas of our life in order to follow Christ?
It seems a little bit gimmicky to talk about “Church! With Beer!,” and I think there are some legitimate distinctions to be made between a house of prayer and a bar. That being said, though, it does sound as though this pastor is trying to reach out to people where they are, and let secondary behaviors or vices be secondary to the true Gospel. That, I think, is a good thing, and worth considering.
This is one reason I enjoy a biker ministry. Most 1% bikers (claim to be the worst 1% of bikers) believe that they have been too bad for God to ever forgive them. They tend to be much easier to reach than someone who has been raised in the church and thinks that they are not really a sinner. My mother was one of those people who was raised going to church but never really felt the need to ask Jesus to be her Lord. She was much harder to reach because she didn’t feel she had never really done anything wrong. I was eventually able to reach her after many years of trying but her life could have been so much better with Christ had she acknowledged her need for Him earlier.
@Natros Right on. I love your questions!
Let’s also keep in mind that the Biblical call is to moderation in all things. It’s the church and society that have turned alcohol and cigarettes into sin.
I don’t drink and I don’t smoke, but I do sin and I am forgiven. We have to reach people where they are, like Jesus did, in order to have them recognize and turn from the sin in their lives. It’s not Repent, Believe, it’s Believe, Repent.
Man looks on the outward appearance… God looks on the heart