hanging out in bars

i had lunch in a bar yesterday. at the counter. alone.

sat right there on the stool and talked to the bartender over a bowl of wings.

irreverent? sad? grounds for dismissal? not so fast...

if you were in worship a few weeks ago, you may remember my challenge to not spend all of your time with other christians. to be around some people who don't know Jesus. and of course, for many of you, all you need to do is go to work. but i work with church staff - you know, religious people!

so what's a guy to do? or at least a guy who is also a pastor? well, i figured doing what Jesus did would be a good place to start. so what did Jesus do?

 

he hung out in bars. or at least the first century equivalent. 

don't believe me? take a look at mark 2.15:

"later, Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners (there were many people of this kind among Jesus’ followers)."

okay, so it wasn't technically a bar. actually it was probably worse. bars have rules and management. levi's (later called matthew) house was his own house and these were his buds. things could easily have gotten way more out of hand.

now, people who visit bars aren't all heathens, and you can certainly find heathens in lots of other places. but as local places go, if i want to begin to connect with people in our community who don't have a vibrant relationship with Jesus in the context of a local church, i figured a bar is as good a place as any. and this one is right across the street.

John's Place is owned by John (who knew?!), whose last name i haven't gotten yet. he's a great guy, and his staff are welcoming and gracious. John seems glad to have us in the neighborhood - especially now that he knows that i mentioned hanging out there in one of my recent talks. everyone i have met there is a real person with a real life, and i have enjoyed asking them about those lives. and listening. my hope is that if they don't know how much God loves them, they will soon. so i'm hanging out there.

where are you hanging out? are all of your friends churched? are they all christians? i hope not. Jesus told the religious people who complained that he was hanging out in a bar that, “healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.”

and he also told those who would follow him that they should follow his lead.

here's the deal. threshold exists because within our community there are hurting people. people down on their luck. people with problems at home. people in debt. people who feel like they haven't got a friend and haven't got a prayer. and a lot of those people, when life seems to be dragging them under, hang out in bars. and if they are ever gonna feel some hope, if they are ever gonna feel like God cares about them at all, if they are ever gonna have someone listen to them who really cares, we need to be there.

so pick your spot. and if you wanna tell us about it, then do. we'll hang out with you.

if you wanna hang out and be Jesus to others with me, well, i'll be at John's.