Which is why bars might make a poor arena for theological debate. Not sure why I never did the math on this, but it turns out that people at bars tend to get drunk. Yeah, what it mostly meant was working with drunk people whose emotional range swings from maudlin to obnoxious and loses maturity with each passing hour. I thought it would keep me real, balance the mystical airs and insulated delusions of the church by keeping me in touch with normal people leading regular lives. I was a bartender when I was in seminary. All in all, for a twentysomething armchair theologian, this is a great thing. I believe that is a huge barrier to entry.Īlso, adults with young families struggle in this context because the “church” is not helping them with the spiritual development of their children. Hosting church in a bar basically communicates that people under the age of 21 cannot be part of the group. I believe a church should have the ability to reach out to people of all ages. What has always kept me from considering this an alternative to church is the type of people it allows into the discussion. I have seen these groups in action and they seem like a fine way to do a religious affinity group, assuming you are morally OK with alcohol. Q: What is your view of holding open discussions of faith in an informal setting, and how might you approach this perceived need?

There are such groups all over the U.S., including four in California, and more form each year. No one person is in charge of discussions, and everyone gets to speak up when they want to.īryan Berghoef, a pastor who runs pub events, sums up the meetings as “beer, conversation and God,” and says of the meetings, “everything is up for discussion, no assumptions, no barriers to entry.” Anderson says this is different from the usual “controlled environments” such as churches and classrooms. Using blogs and social media, pub theologians introduce topics to be discussed at informal meetings in pubs.

Holding a church meeting in a pub may at first seem a bit odd, but so-called theology pubs - regular pubs and bars where meetings are held, usually once a week - are catching on across the country.Īccording to Keith Anderson, a pastor in Philadelphia, “the world we live in demands that we do theology in a different way, on-the-fly, in different places, with different people.” He calls this “theology without a net.”

Pub Theology by Bryan Berghoef