CrossBridge

The other day I was at the bar before 9am. No one was there yet, and I wasn’t too surprised. But I knew that they’d be there soon enough. I was right. By 10am the place was buzzing. People talking, laughing, having a good time, enjoying a beverage…cold or hot. Then the band started, and that pretty much set the atmosphere for the morning. A little later somebody got up and talked…real funny guy…a visitor from Arkansas. He made everybody laugh, and he was real smart and then he got serious and so did the rest of us. Then some of us stayed for lunch at the restaurant upstairs. Me and my friends call this ‘church.’ We do it about once a week. And yes, we do it in a bar. A real bar with neon beer logos on the wall and a view of the Sun Harbor Marina on St. Andrews Bay that is just beautiful. The bar is called “Dock of the Bay” and it sits on…ummm…a dock…on a bay. Thus the name. And yes, there is a dynamite restaurant upstairs. Great food, great atmosphere. What a cool place to have church. It was not really my dream to have church in a bar. It is a value for our church to avoid a permanent location as long as possible. See, we don’t think of the church as a building, but as a people. I know lots of other folks say they believe the same thing, but they mostly meet in church buildings. We meet in a bar. We’re not better than church-building churches. We’re just trying to live out our values. Lots of people think it’s a cool idea to have church in a bar. Like us. We think it’s a great idea. There’s chairs, tables and walls. Room enough for everyone. We didn’t have to buy chairs, tables or walls. We can spend that money on other stuff. We like to spend as much money as we can on helping others. We do this ministry called “Angel Food.” It helps get people cheap groceries. We also do this thing called “The Cars of Christmas” and it helps people get...well, cars. At Christmas. It’s cool to do things to help people and not have to worry about chairs and tables and walls. ‘Cause we meet in a bar. People who think it’s a cool idea to have church in a bar usually say something about our church hanging out with people who Jesus would have hung out with. Like people who go to bars. They talk about how Jesus loves and accepts everyone, even those who go to bars. People are accepted in a bar. Our whole church goes to bars… one called ‘Dock of the Bay’ in particular. Anyway, we accept people the way they are the very best we can. And we love them because we love the Jesus who accepts them the way they are. Some of our folks have been hurt in other churches so they don’t feel comfortable in a conventional church building. Some folks may have never been to church much but they’ve been to bars a lot, so they are more at home in a bar. I’ve been to a lot of bars and a lot of churches. I figure folks go to bars and churches for a lot the same reasons. Because they’re hurting, lonely, needing love and someone to talk to. Or maybe because they’re in the habit of going. Whatever your reason for wanting to see church done in a different way, we welcome you at CrossBridge. Dock of the Bay Restaurant and Lounge, Sundays at 10am.