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'God and Guinness' offers warm reception, cold beer to post-modern generation
By Thomas Blanton
2002-138
5/30/2002
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[Episcopal News Service]
Two Episcopal priests are exploring a way to make religion more significant to the post-modern generation. Instead of attempting to lure post-moderns into church with promises of salvation or threats of brimstone and hellfire, Lisa Senuta and Helen Svoboda-Barber are using a different kind of age-old enticement: beer.
'My conviction is that people of my age group are a little timid about walking through church doors,' said Senuta, a priest at St. Thomas the Apostle in Overland Park, Kansas.
'We're both really concerned about how to make church relevant to our generation,' said Svoboda-Barber, who is currently an associate pastor at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Overland Park. Originally assigned to the cathedral in Topeka, she began working for the Lutheran Church after Called to Common Mission established full communion and strengthened cooperation between Lutherans and Episcopalians. Holy Cross brought Svoboda-Barber on board specifically to work with members of the post-modern age bracket.
Church in a bar
The two friends, both graduates of the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Texas and members of Generation X themselves, began discussing the problem and possible ways to overcome it. While talking over coffee, they hit upon an offbeat solution.
'We said, ‘we need to have church in a bar,'' Svoboda-Barber said. 'We decided to host a weekly meeting and focus on conversations that have to do with God in our everyday lives.'
Using a bar as a religious meeting place, however progressive it may seem, is not a new idea. According to Senuta, she first hit upon the idea after reading The Post-Evangelical by Dave Tomlinson, former leader of the House Church movement in Britain, who called for reformation of evangelical denominations to appeal to post-modern generations.
'C.S. Lewis even held philosophical and theological discussions in pubs,' Senuta added.
Christian invasion
With their concept in place, Svoboda-Barber and Senuta went in search of a location to hold meetings, specifically a bar that would not be opposed to a weekly Christian invasion. They found the perfect venue in W.J. McBride's, an Irish pub located down the street from Holy Cross.
Upon approaching the pub's management, Svoboda-Barber and Senuta received a startlingly warm reception. 'The manager was thrilled,' Senuta said. She thought it was a great idea, and she let us put posters up all over the bar. It was surprising.'
As it turns out, the pub was already hosting a nondenominational Christian gathering in its reception hall on Sunday nights. The group started out with a core of 20 people, but soon grew to over 150. 'Their weekly attendance ended up at almost 300 people,' Svoboda-Barber said, adding that the group had to relocate after outgrowing the space.
That was all the encouragement they needed. Senuta recruited a graphic designer from her congregation, who created a series of posters and postcards advertising 'God and Guinness' on Tuesday nights, which the priests distributed throughout their churches and around town.
'We wanted to make coasters, too' Svoboda-Barber said. 'We thought that would be appropriate.'
Post-modern seekers
Despite the publicity campaign, God and Guinness has not drawn huge numbers. However, Svoboda-Barber and Senuta are pleased with the attendance so far.
'We've had a couple of dozen people come through,' Svoboda-Barber said. 'And we're building momentum. We feel that it's been successful. People brought friends and co-workers, whom they wouldn't normally bring to church.'
God and Guinness has been temporarily suspended during the summer months, but Svoboda-Barber and Senuta look forward to starting the series again this fall. Both are confident that what the meetings have to offer will continue to bring in Christian seekers from the post-modern generation.
'We catch people on their way home from work, get them to come in and have a beer and talk about things that matter,' Senuta said. 'And of course, Guinness is the finest beer.'
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