Opening Service at the Bar

Last night our Pembroke Campus, the one that meets in a bar, started. It was awesome. I decided to go since I'll be serving in Children's Ministry at the Chesapeake Campus and will miss the sermon this Sunday.

I got there super early with a friend who is actually on the Pembroke Campus Launch Team. Her job was to run the computer for the night. I got to help prepare communion. It was so neat to watch them get set up, to watch the band practice, to see the bar begin to fill up, and to see a real church service happening in a bar.

The bar was packed! There were well over 100 people (someone told me 108). At least half were people from our church, but there were lots of new faces. Even a few news crews came out. I'll be sure to post links to stories if they end up on the internet.

All in all, I'd say it was a huge success. It was nearly silent during the message, and it was an awesome message all about how God loves bad people and how our church is a church for bad people. Our senior pastor shared part of his own testimony of his badness and the forgiveness he's experienced from God.

My favorite story from last night is about a girl who stopped by our information table on her way out and picked up a free Bible. Someone overheard her say, "This is the first time I've ever even touched a Bible." Now how cool is that?? She went to the bar for the evening and left with a Bible!!