Recently there have been many posts around the internet talking about beer and faith. They’ve talked about how churches are using the tavern to bring the gospel to people far from God. It’s been interesting to see the push back from folks in the church world over some of these things.
I was first introduced to the idea by a good friend Bryan Berghoef. Bryan is a pastor in Washington DC, but at the time he was in Traverse City, MI and was doing something called Pub Theology. It was a group of people gathering in a pub and discussing the things that mattered most. I stumbled into this because a guy I was discipling, Zak, had an idea to start something like this in a coffee house (we called it Coffee. Doubt.).
When we launched the Antioch Movement with its emphasis on “table fellowship” we knew that a Pub Theology type thing was going to be a part of what we were going to do. What I saw with Coffee. Doubt. was a gathering of people who really talked and argued and discussed. We saw people of different beliefs get around a table and converse, really converse. We saw relationships form that still last to this very day. There was just something about getting around a table with a good beverage and talking.
This past Tuesday night as we gathered for Doubt on Tap I had no idea what we were going to be talking about. It had already been “one of those weeks” and I hadn’t really done much planning. Our friend Tom had the question and little did I know that this question would change Doubt on Tap for me and give me an ever deeper appreciation for what it is.
The critiques and judgments of gatherings like Doubt on Tap are many. They should cause us pause and be wise. But, before you judge, I beg you to read this first, then let’s have a conversation, oh, and I’ll bring the beer:
