Booze & Jesus: Local bar serves unique worship experience
FALL CREEK, Wis. (WEAU) – People across the Chippewa Valley put on their best and headed to church Sunday.
But in a local community, dozens of worshipers broke away from the pews and stained glass windows and got served a much different kind of holy spirit.
The sounds of the hymn “Amazing Grace” boomed through a place you wouldn’t expect Sunday morning in Fall Creek.
“This is my first time doing a worship service and an outreach inside a bar,” said Nikki Clark, after singing the tune.
Clark and Pastor Joanne Sorensen lead the special event at Steve & Kathy’s Bar.
“We were talking to Pastor Joanne one day and she happened to mention this type of thing and I said if you want to, let's go ahead and try it,” said Steve Schacht, who owns the bar with his wife Kathy.
This is the third time “Worship at the Bar” has come together over the past year.
“It’s open to anybody that wants to come. There's a lot of people out there that don't like to go to church but still believe,” said Kathy Schacht.
Pastor Sorensen comes from St. James Trinity Lutheran Church in Fall Creek.
She said this proves that people can worship wherever they are.
“It doesn't matter if you're in a bar or outside or driving or in nature,” Sorensen said
The leader of a local congregation said mixing brews, booze and religion may ruffle feathers, but this happened to Jesus all the time.
“He talked to people who were sinners, who were inappropriate people to be dealing with. He got into all kinds of trouble for doing that,” Sorensen said.
The worship leaders say there's no doubt that Jesus would be out having fun among us.
“His first miracle was turning the water into wine, and he obviously was a party going guy. I think this is where he would hang out,” Sorensen said.
One of the goals of the worship service was breaking misconceptions, showing a different side of Christianity one drink at a time.
“It’s a really cool thing for us to go out and meet the people and show them that we're human, we mess up and nobody is perfect,” Clark said.
Organizers hope to put on another bar worship later this year.
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