A pub church is a
Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
Church which meets in a
public house or similar establishment. Their purpose is to exist as an authentic Christian community, but in a way which is both provocative and accessible to un-churched people. Thornton recognises that the closure of public houses has diminished community space, and this is an attempt to restore this community asset.
As Archbishop
Rowan Williams has commented:
This can take a number of forms. Sometimes an old public house is purchased, and used as a church building,
[ retaining the welcome and feel of a pub. Others rent a room in an existing pub,][ and church happens with the context of the functioning public house.
]
Examples
In the UK examples can be found in Nottingham - ''Eagle's Nest Church,''[ Eagles Nest Church NottinghamBrighton]
London - ''Church on the Corner'',[http://www.churchonthecorner.org.uk London] an
Christ Church Balham
an
Currently, a community of believers in Fishers, Indiana are meeting at The Pub at Pinheads under the ministry name of
Leavener
" also a group called "Connect Rome" meet at a local bar named McCrobie's in Rome, Georgia.
Critique
This has been said to be an example of what Nicholas M Healy calls "ecclesial bricolage." The church inhabits various aspects of its culture, and attempts to use them in its mission, sometimes unaware that each aspect has both positive and negative possibilities. In this case, the advantages of mission activity may not outweigh the difficulty of demonstrating a distinct community investing in clearly different values. This is because of what might be sacrificed in order to be "relevant." Newbigin comments that the church should be both distinct from its culture and comprehensible by it.[Lesslie Newbigin ''Foolishness to the Greeks: the Gospel and Western Culture'' (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986) 5-6] Pub church treads this fine line.
See also
* Cafe church
* Emerging Church
* List of bars
* List of public house topics
* Missional Christianity
In Christianity, missional living is the adoption of the posture, thinking, behaviors, and practices of a missionary in order to engage others with the gospel message. The missional church movement, a church renewal movement predicated on the ne ...
References
External links
The Independent article on pub churches
BBC article on pub churches
Leavener in Fishers, IN
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pub Church
Evangelical ecclesiology
Pubs
Ecclesiology