New church vibe at the Roxbury Hotel
Sundays at the Roxbury Hotel in Sydney have a new vibe.
Once a month, a relaxed and informal church service, conducted by The Salvation Army’s Glebe Corps, is held at the hotel, starting at 5pm. It runs for an hour and everyone present is encouraged to stay for the pub’s $10 dinner special. The first service was held in March.
“We wanted to connect with people who wouldn’t normally connect with church,” said Lieutenant Christian White, Glebe Corps Officer.
The opportunity for a pub church came through the corps’ existing relationship with the Roxbury Hotel. For many years, the corps has been collecting at the hotel and neighbouring pubs in the Glebe community.
Lauren Mason, who attends the corps, said they took the decision last year to stop collecting at the Roxbury and, instead, focus on developing a relationship with the pub’s managers.
“We’ve been an active ministry presence in their lives. We’ve helped them a bit and shared the love of Christ with them,” said Lauren, who works as a chaplain at Sydney University.
Out of this connection evolved a Christmas carols event, held at the end of last year. This was where the idea of a pub church was born.
“We always wanted to do a pub church but we didn’t know how that would come about,” explained Lauren.
“At the end of it [carols event] the female pub owner [Michelle] really loved the vibe and the community atmosphere ... so they loved the idea [of pub church].”
Michelle, who’s been the manager of the Roxbury Hotel for about 10 months, said she jumped on board with the idea because she wanted to create a safe place for the local community.
“We feel that it’s going to be good for the community,” she said. “It will break down a few barriers. Some people won’t walk into a Salvos church but will be more comfortable walking into a pub. And we want to be here for the community as much as the Salvos are.”
Informal, innovative and interactive are the three words Lauren uses to describe the pub church. Individuals can sit down and enjoy acoustic-style worship, she explains.
A short testimony from a university student follows and then a guest speaker teaches from the Bible for about 15 minutes.
“The main thing we’re trying to make sure is that people are not preached at,” said Lauren.
“Often when you go to churches there can be an underlying pressure about how you behave and we’re trying to tear that down with running it out of a pub.”
While the services are relaxed, Lauren says the aim of the pub church is to see lives changed for the better.
In an effort to maintain momentum, the other Sundays in the month have their own identity. Known as “Sunday Sessions”, local musicians are invited to play a mix of Christian and popular music.
Before Sunday Sessions officially began, Lauren and Lieutenant White ran two successful live music nights which each attracted more than 50 people.
Pub church is held on the first Sunday of every month.
This article originally appeared in the July edition of Creative magazine.
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