The Church and the Pub, two institutions that have gone hand in hand for many years. This is no different at Christ City Church, where after our Sunday afternoon services, we embrace the opportunity to meet with each other, build friendships and discuss life.
The Pub is an extension of church. As Rowan Williams the former Archbishop of Canterbury remarked:
“There is plenty of theological room for diversity of rhythm and style, so long as we have ways of identifying the same living Christ at the heart of every expression of Christian life in common.”
It’s an opportunity to share stories from your week, to further connect with people you may just have met or cement a friendship by catching up with friends.
A Sunday service can be quite limiting in terms of an opportunity to connect as time is restricted, certainly if you want to get past a simple “hello” and “how are you?”. Heading to the pub provides a relaxed environment to chat and learn more about the people who are part of your community and understand what is going on in their lives, while sharing about your own.
From my experiences, I love the flexibility of staying for half an hour or a few hours, chatting about a variety of subjects, meeting new acquaintances or simply watching the sports on the TV. There is the option to grab food afterwards with your new friends or simply head home. No pressure, just community.
Heading to the Pub, helps to remove any nervousness. For me after the service, I knew a few names but not much more. After going to the pub, I knew more about people, why they were in Dublin, what they were passionate about and their main interests . They also got to know a bit about me. It definitely helped me to feel like I had joined a community and be part of a group of people who showed God’s love and wanted to get to know me. These connections helped me to get involved with a city group and be invited to get to know people outside of a Sunday.
So if you come along to our Sunday service at 4.30pm in Synge Street Secondary School, can I recommend you join us in the Bleeding Horse afterwards? It will be a great opportunity for you to meet people, develop friendships and also for people to get alongside and invest in you.
If you aren’t convinced so far, here is Steve putting it much more eloquently than I ever could 😊 – The Pub: Gluttons & Drunkards
(By Greg Sykes*)
*This is part of a short series of blog posts written by James Bass and Greg Sykes who have joined the church in the last year. We hope they help you think about how you connect to Christ City Church and form good friends.