Church In A Bar: Tulsa Residents Get Spiritual At Drunk Monkey Tavern

An Oklahoma church is now reaching a wider community by streaming live video of their services to a local bar.

Patrons of the Drunk Monkey Tavern in Tulsa, Okla., may not seem like your typical churchgoers. But now a local church is live streaming their weekly gospel service to the bar, reports News On 6.

Breakfast and coffee are served to bar patrons and worshippers as they watch Celebration Church's service on a large screen.

Thanks to a camera set up in the bar, parishioners at the church can also see those joining in from the bar.

For Celebration Church, broadcasting to the unusual venue is part of a larger movement to reach out to non-churchgoers in the community.

"We really want to reach people that are nervous about coming through the threshold of a church door," Pastor Eastman Curtis told KTUL. "We want people to see they're accepted wherever they are by God."

Even more surprising, the idea for this unconventional sermon first came from the bar owner himself when struggling to help customers through some difficult times, reports Fox 23, the first news outlet to break the story.

"We had a customer here who was talking suicide and you know you try to reach out from back here as much as you can, but it's hard when you got a full bar," bar owner Joe Beene told Fox 23.

Church in a bar is nothing new. Believe it or not, such services have been held over the years in numerous states including California and New York.

The only caveat for the unorthodox venue is that, naturally, patrons have to be at least 21 years old to attend.

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Comments

[Feurio]

09:10 PM on 05/03/2012

Beer is a far better bet than religion

1. If you've devoted your life to Beer, there are groups to help you stop.
2. You can prove you have a Beer and that it exists.
3. There are laws saying that Beer labels can't lie to you.
4. You don't have to wait more than 2,000 years for a second Beer.
5. Nobody's ever been burned at the stake, hanged, or tortured over their brand of Beer.
6. When you have Beer, you don't knock on people's doors trying to give it away.
7. They don't force Beer on minors who can't think for themselves.
8. Beer has never caused a major war.
9. Beer doesn't tell you how to Be Intimate and when.
10. No one will kill you for not drinking Beer.

Worship the mighty beer!

[ILoveTheUSofA]

02:57 AM on 05/05/2012

And if my tribe wants to invade lets say ancient Canaan and wipe out the inhabitants and take their land, does your silly beer worship give me any way to justify such immoral and outrageous conduct? No. Because no one will accept the concept of an Almighty Beer revealing laws to a prophet.

And if I want to justify raiding caravans and communities all over Arabia and taking the people's property and selling women and children into slavery, or in the alternative forcing them to pay taxes for not accepting the beer religion, will your beer religion be of any use to me at all? No. Because no one will accept the concept of an Almighty Beer delivering messages to a prophet.

Sorry my dear Feurio but your beer religion would entirely fail to serve the chief purpose of religion, which is simply to provide a way to justify outrageous and immoral crimes and activities, while granting special authority to the leader of the gang.

[ManuOB1]

10:19 AM on 05/03/2012

New? It's as old as the Bible. People find God (or is it the other way around?) in exile, slavery, prison, in a stable, at the seaside, at a well, or even nailed to a cross.

[nonChristian]

08:57 AM on 05/03/2012

How desperate......Next they will be going door to door, oh wait they already do :D

[michelesda]

06:21 AM on 05/03/2012

We all need something to believe in. I believe I'll have another drink...

[TBera12]

10:58 PM on 05/02/2012

Desperation...

Do they allow you to take communion with a margarita now? It's 5 o'clock somewhere...

The comments below are classic--best fun I've had all week--so funny! Get a real hell fire and brimstone preacher and watch the booze disappear! Everyone will be crying in their beers! Wish they'd do that here--it could be fun!

[VinZenTexaN]

09:26 PM on 05/02/2012

Even if drunk don't believe in god !

Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?

You can not convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it is based on a deep-seated need to believe.

[Danmcc455]

08:56 PM on 05/02/2012

Even I would find it easy to sit through church if I was pissed drunk.

[Bobisyouruncle]

06:26 PM on 05/02/2012

Oh c.r.a.p... You can't even go to a bar to get away from it now.

[David Weidner]

06:03 PM on 05/02/2012

I'd like to buy everyone a shot of Jesus juice.

[David Weidner]

06:02 PM on 05/02/2012

That has to be the lamest bar on the face of the earth. They should rename it to "Betty Buzzkill's Bar," or "The Debbie Downer Dive".

[mitch7el]

04:25 PM on 05/02/2012

I say good for them! There are so many people who just don't know about the living water (John 4:10-14) that is a repentance and prayer of faith away.

[Truthtalker2]

04:21 PM on 05/02/2012

JUST TEACH THE BIBLE!!!!!Jer. 11:20, 12:3, 15:15, 17:18, 18:21-23 and 20:12.....
Oh Lord take vengeance for me on my persecutors. Drag my enemies away and
butcher them like sheep. Let their children starve in famine. Let them be
killed by the sword. Let their wives lose their children and husbands. May
their men meet death by pestilence and may their youths be slained by the
sword in battle. May a cry be heard from their houses when you bring a
maurading mob suddenly upon them. Let them be put to shame, let them be
dismayed. Bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double
destruction. Lord, forgive not their iniquity. Nor blot out their sins from
your sight. Let them be overthrown before you. Deal with them while you are
angry and let me see your vengeance upon them.

What a masterpiece of unregenerated and heartless vindictiveness.

[frequentwind706]

04:06 PM on 05/02/2012

It's been done. Not just by churches - synagogues have also held "Torah on Tap" men's club events at bars. The article itself states this. So why is this a "surprising venue," AOL?

[Bannca67]

03:28 PM on 05/02/2012

I'd have to be wasted to go to a church. I'm glad I don't drink.

[I Fought Piranhas]

02:22 PM on 05/02/2012

What a perfect way to mess up a good day's drinking....by bringing religion into it!