“The neighborhood bar is possibly the best counterfeit there is to the fellowship Christ wants to give His church. It’s an imitation, dispensing liquor instead of grace, escape rather than reality, but is a permissive, accepting, and inclusive fellowship. It is unshockable…You can tell people secrets and they usually don’t tell others or even want to. The bar flourishes not because most people are alcoholics, but because God has put into the human heart the desire to know and be known, to love and to be loved.”
Chuck Swindoll, in Dropping Your Guard
This quote absolutely breaks me. Because it is so true. And because so many people are trying to fill this need in bars and not in our churches.
Oh that our churches would truly exhibit this kind of God-designed community.
hey Klash, since I agree that a bar is counterfeit, and that the church has more to offer, is it bad that I take cues from how bars operate?
Not all the time, of course, but every so often I think: "What would this look like in a bar?"
For what it's worth, I genuinely hope that Midtown is a place that's better than a bar.
Yea Stephen…I'm not exactly sure I know what you are asking. But I agree that church should be much better than a bar. Its just no good that people don't see most churches as a place they can safely go to be known and loved, so they instead go to bars for community. We should be a beautiful picture of what it looks like to live in God-centered community, and that is better than any bar will ever be.