Story O' Day: Church in a Bar?

Last semester in seminary, we talked about the Pastor's role to lead the liturgy of the church. We talked of the importance of liturgy. In our readings for class, Barbara Brown Taylor worked through all the pieces of her traditional Episcopalian worship service and the importance that each piece held within the whole. I couldn’t help but think of a scene from just a few weeks ago.

It’s just before midnight. I pick up Claire at her house, we both throw on boots and jeans. She looks great as always, a green blouse, hair pulled back because of the heat. I look like normal with jeans, a worn-out blue t-shirt from a thrift store, my hair frizzy from driving with the top laid back on the Jeep. We ride over to the Double Door Inn in Charlotte, NC. As we push through the historic and worn double screened-in doors that guard the cathedral constructed from two Siamese shotgun shacks, I smell cigarettes and spilled beer. I hear the music I have come to love. We are here to hear Atilla’s Honey, a bluegrass band from Concord, for which my cousin H.L. plays banjo, but it feels like church. We are here almost weekly. We walk in, and the usual suspects are in their usual vestments and positions. H.L. has on jeans and ostrich-skin boots he found in a dumpster on Selwyn Ave and carries an all black Derring banjo, which he refers to as “murdered out.” Zac wears jeans and his navy Converse All-star High-tops, and picks a red Takamine guitar. Mogely sporting the traditional long hair and beard stands against the speaker stack greeting all the patrons. Quincy sits on her barstool towards the back. John is behind the soundboard. Everyone has his place like families in an old Southern church.

We all take turns visiting the bar, which serves as an altar, where we present our offerings and receive the Eucharist of Pabst Blue Ribbon and the traditional Benny the Bartender’s blessing. This place has its own liturgy. All the parts of worship, presented by Barbara Brown Taylor are here. Mogely is our greeter. We sing hymns together - some we wrote and some that were inherited. There is call and response liturgy that we all know. “In time she ran out of tricks,” the band sings and the congregation replies in unison, “Silly Rabbit.” “Robert was a submariner of submariners, you know he wasn’t now wiener,” they sing and the congregation responds, “Oscar Meyer.” We pass the peace between songs. We perform our elaborate dances. We spot each other a few bucks at the end of a rough week. There is a final hymn and a benediction and then we leave.

The two services are so similar, but do they accomplish the same thing? I hope not, because $60,000 buys a lot of guitar lessons, PBR, and studio time. The bar has liturgy and tradition, but it lacks meat. It’s Eucharist of PBR and peanuts confer the common grace of happiness, but cannot elevate us to our supernatural end. The god of that place cannot save. It cannot forgive sins or break the chains of bondage. The God of Israel and Jesus can, and He is present and works in places like the Double Door if we pay attention. The Church has the words of eternal life, it has the Body and Blood of Christ to offer a lost and hurting world, but it often lacks the intimacy and community of that smoky bar. If we could combine those two we would have a church, much like the First Century community of rough-handed but wise fishermen loving broken and battered folks, desperate for abundant life.

Here is a video from a similar show of what used to be Attila's playing one of our favorite tunes. "You Ain't Going Nowhere" a hymn we inherited. The video is rough, but it is real - maybe that is exactly what we should strive to be.