I belong to a web based discussion group called Resonate. It is a Canadian forum for Emergent Christan thinking and practice. One member (A clergy man) was just asked to be chaplain of a local bar. Here is his explanation for why this opportunity is very much in line with the call to lead a Christlike life.
"We shall see where that rabbit hole leads.
I was there the other night and God was all over the place.
I watched how pub patrons treated a schizophrenic street person who
walks in every night with bags of bottles he pulls from the garbage.
He is known around town as Bottle Man. Pub patrons get a him a hot
tea, help him store his bottles under a table and help him be seated.
He pulls out paper and starts drawing coloured squares. He is in his
own world mentally. But in this pub he is safe and welcome.
No one picks on him. No one throws him out. People treat him with
dignity.
Smells like Church to me. In a pub. With people who barely know who
Jesus is.
But maybe, they know Jesus better than we think.
In fact I saw Jesus colouring squares and sipping tea and making sure
his bags full of bottles were all straight and secure by his sorel
boats. He pulled his toque tightly over his ears and kept his coat
zipped up as people drank beer and said hello to him. They all
treated him so kindly. In a pub.
Hmm.
What an honour to be invited to give spiritual care to a place like
that! I am utterly not worthy of that.
max pax Joseph"
I LOVE THIS!
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9 comments:
A "church" is only a building. The "Church" is, as Jesus put it, "anyplace where two or more gather in [His] name." That pub is obviously filled with members of the Church, moreso than some buildings claim to be! Good for them!
Beautiful!
Here is a comment from a blog I read called Solidaridad.
The young lady was responding to a self described fundamentalist who wanted to make obedience to the 'jots and tittles' the means by which we attain salvation
Solidaridad's response was as follows;
"it is those who *knew* the "Son of Man" and had no sense that they had failed to love him that are the ones who end up judged and condemned, and it is those who had no sense that they had ever even encountered him who "inherit the kingdom prepared for [them] from the foundation of the world..." Interesting no?"
my comment in reply was :) :):)
perhaps God is present even where the name of the Lord is barely known except as an inappropriate verbal ejaculation
I love Leo Tolstoy's short story called
"Where Love is GOD IS".
That title reminded me of the conditions found in the bar named in the original post.
This is God. Humanity reaching out to each other in pure love. I couldn’t agree more with Tolstoy’s assessment. Why on earth would we want to disrupt that? What need has a bar of a chaplain? There is more God-ness taking place there than in most churches (and by church I do mean group of people).
What I mean to say is – these bar patrons already know God. But apparently someone feels the need to evangelize them with the God of the Bible. That is sad, in my opinion.
Hi J
I don't think there is a question of the situation being disrupted.
The clergy man was invited by the owner to be the spiritual liason for his pub.
I'm pretty sure his influence won't look like arm twisting evangelism. If it was you'd be right to be concerned about it.
The kind of 'soul-scalping' religion you are refering to would end up shutting this bar down and kicking Jesus back out onto the street.
That would be fascist faith.
I am curious to know what sort of role the chaplain is expected to play. Like what will he *do* exactly? I've never heard of such a thing, so I want to know more.
The bar could look a lot like the one that the Inklings spent hundreds of evenings in.
The Inklings icluded C.S. Lewis and JR Tolkein and several other theologians/intellectuals of some repute.
I suppose the chaplain could be a second bartender to listen to the problems and issues in the patrons lives.
Could be a very good thing in my mind.
Pubs may be where its at.
OOh - I loved reading this :-) I have more recently come back to Christianity because it is in Jesus' good news that I find a worthwhile way of living and find inspiration to live differently - into a vision of a new reality where all are included, valued and no one exerts power *over* any other or gains at the expense of another. Anyway...in my coming back to Christianity and the Church, I knew I wanted to do that as a minister and as part of a new church start...at a pub! hehe.
It is a project I am still in the works to develop with others and I am doing all kinds of research - so if anyone has any leads for me to learn more about pub churches I'd appreciate it! :-)
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