Plans for Sunday service at Sidney pub

[Vicki Nichols]

2 Timothy 4:1-4 (New International Version)
2 Timothy 4
1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

[Vicki Nichols]

2 Timothy 2:19 (New International Version)

19Nevertheless, God's solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: "The Lord knows those who are his,"[a] and, "Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness."

2 Timothy 2:15 (New King James Version)

15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

John 14:6 NKJV
Jesus said to him,“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

[Vicki Nichols]

Matthew 28:19-20 (New King James Version)
New King James Version (NKJV)
Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Read verse 20 You can't just quote part of the commandment.
19 Go therefore[a] and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.[b]

[Vicki Nichols]

I'm done in here, You are not going to change my mind I WILL ALWAYS STAND FOR JESUS! IF THIS OFFENDS YOU TOO BAD!

[born again reader]

Way to go Vicki!
It's time true Christians stand up and proclaim the truth!
we are in this world not of it.
I'll follow Jesus any day!

[Vicki Nichols]

Dear Born again Reader,

Thanks for the nice comment, I'm just trying
to give Jesus the Glory He deserves!

Blessings In Christ,
Vicki

[hurting christian]

Looks like Rocky and you could use those passages to argue both your points.
Your first point in 2 Timothy 4- Isn't that what they are doing? Preaching the Word in a "different season"? You forgot verse 5 to finish the paragraph "5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry."
2 Timothy 2:19- Yes, the Lord does know who are his, no one else does; otherwise, it is judging. They are standing and confessing the name of the Lord in a different atmosphere.
2 Timothy 2:15- They did present themselves as workers of God, there was no shame there at all. It does not seem they were afraid or ashamed to preach.
I am not taking sides. It is hard for me to think that we as christians still believe that the church is a building when the Bible clearly states that the church is the people.
Check out 2 Tim 2:14-19- You stated above for someone not to take something out of context but yet you did the same.
14Keep reminding them of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. 15Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. 16Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. 17Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, 18who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. 19Nevertheless, God's solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: "The Lord knows those who are his,"[a] and, "Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness."
Do not quarrel is the first part. Avoid godless chatter. Maybe that is why people don't come to church in the first place... because of certain "church" bodies, certain religions but mostly christians who claim they are right, they know the scriptures completely and argue with the same people that Jesus has called to do His work.
How can we teach others and hopefully bring them to accepting Jesus if we cannot get over our own differences?

[Musician]

So how did the service go?

I understand what you are saying, hurting Christian.

Fortunately my early exposure to Christianity was not via divisive right wingers. "Worldy" is very subjective. The Amish believe electricity, cars, telephones are "worldly". Yet I rarely hear the Amish point judgmental fingers at others concerning things they consider "worldly" outside of their view of Christianity.

I think the right wing browbeating faction of Christianity may indirectly help to convert many ........to agnosticism or even atheism....if the ones that hear Christianity presented in this way for the first time....cannot look past the surface of the presentation.

That being said, I do not think that a right wing Christian is not sincere.
I am talking "the congregation". I question all human religious leadership.
I think Falwell was quite corrupt and divisive. I also have read that he had ties with "Rev. Moon", the cult leader, who claims to be the Messiah.
I guess scriptural discernment goes out the door when someone wants to bail out your Christian university's financial woes.....

However, I still think having church in a bar is strange and hope it isn't some backdoor to alcohol prohibition that looks nice on the surface. That would be the only problem I have with it.

If the motivation is to reach out to the non-church goer, it is a good thing. If there is a hidden prohibition agenda there, then it is not.

[hurting christian]

I was at the service. It was great! Pastor Chris has a sincere love and passion for finding new and unique ways to teach God's Word.

Yes, alchohol was served but not much was acutally bought. There were around 120 people that showed up. I could not tell how many were christians and how many were not. I know I met quite a few that did not belong to the church that were curious and pleasently surprised on how it was conducted.

God's Word was read, God's Word was taught. We even prayed in a bar. It was incredible. People rode the bull, country music was played, line dancing was done to "Boot Scootin' Boogie" and some "christian" songs were played, like "I Can Only Imagine". There was laughing and pizza and wings everywhere.

Throughout the service, people were reminded to drink responsibly and to even tip their waitress.

There is nothing hidden in this. It is what it is. It is meeting people where they are. It is being real and not fake. It is not being judgemental of other people.

A friend asked this in his blog today when writing about the service: Does anyone have a problem with prison ministry? If you don't but have a problem with a bar ministry then "how is ministering, on their own ground, to those who are imprisoned by their own behavior, lifestyle, demons, and "stinking thinking" any different?"

I use "hurting christian" as a title because the harsh reality is that most people hate going to church because of the all the bitterness and arguing between christians over who is right and wrong and who is in the right church with all the right answers.

[Musician]

hurting christian wrote:

I use "hurting christian" as a title because the harsh reality is that most people hate going to church because of the all the bitterness and arguing between christians over who is right and wrong and who is in the right church with all the right answers.

Thanks for sharing about the service.

I agree with your above statement 100%.
I am glad my first exposure to Christianity was with a pastor who taught the Bible, but was not a legalist.

I was very fortunate.

[sir william the 3rd]

Musician wrote:

Perhaps the smoking ban can be lifted too during these hours since it will be a church.
I'll bring some nice incense.
Jakartas

Since when has their ever been allowed smoking in church??

[pastor lisa partee]

i think this is a great idea i am a bartender and i get more people coming to me with stuff because they feel they can not go to a church for some reason or another i have turned more peoples lives around to god serving beer and listening than if they had to get dressed up and go to chuch on sunday mornings...i have heard god will stike me dead if i walk into a chuch because i drink i just tell them god forgives all

[pastor lisa partee]

Vicki Nichols wrote:

I think this is wrong!
We as Christians are called to not conform to the world. This "Church in the bar" is pathetic to me, all it is doing is telling people that Jesus does not require us to live a Godly life we can go on about our sinful lives, Drinking, homosexuality, adultrey, fornication, cussing, the list goes on and on... on the contrary God does call us to live a Holy life, this is not the way to do this, what you are doing is raising up FALSE COONVERTS, see MATTHEW 13:1-23. I believe they will be stony ground hearers, because they will have no root, the ROOT being Jesus Christ! You are teaching a graven image god who requires us to give up nothing, but the Bible teaches that we are to take up our cross and follow Jesus! see Matthew 10:38 Jesus says "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. Sorry I can't believe that any TRUE CHRISTIANS are going to come out of this "Church".

did jesus not reach out to the people in sodam and gamora did he not take a prosatute under his wings and save her did he not heal leepers and the sick jesus did not preach in a fancy 1 million dollor church but on a rock or a feild or where ever he felt the word of the lord was most needed to be heard these are people who are lost and are seeking the word of the lord in their own way let them be at least they are praying and not out killing someone all people beleive in their own way and some may feel better to praise the lord in a bar than line the pockets of that million dollor church with its gold cross and fancy woodwork that could of fed a third world country

[born again reader]

hurting christian,
May I ask why you are hurting?
Jesus took the sin out of my life when I was born again of his spirit, I became a new creature in CHRIST, I have no more desire to go back to my sinful ways which includes a bar wheather a preacher is there or not.
If it was meant for us to go to the bar to hear the word of GOD then Jesus would not have given us a local church building to worship him in and not be tempted by the sins of the flesh.
Give me a good old fashioned church any day.
God be with you and may you find the love, Joy, and peace that I have in CHRIST my LORD.

[hurting christian]

I am hurting because the Bible states: Judge not lest you be judged.

We are not asking anyone to "like" the ministry God has put before us (YES! that is exactly how we all feel and believe, God put this ministry before us), we just want people to pray for us.

I don't accept the way many churches have their traditions, beliefs or anything like that but I do not go out and bash them on message boards. I pray for them and hope that God leads them in all they do. I do not want to judge them though sometimes I find myself doing that anyways.

I am hurting because of this. Every church/synod seems to think that their way is THE way. That they are not doing anything wrong but everyone else is.

This is true with christians/pastors alike. For example, there is a Catholic message board where these people are bashing this ministry; yet the head Father here is Sidney wrote an article in the paper praising the ministry.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but how can we stop oppression in the world if we don't stop it with ourselves?

Two greatest words ever told to me: Let God.