Where the curious share a pint with God
TORONTO, ON—The burgers are piled high, the drinks are cold, and Baptist pastor Mike Wilkins is showing the group a clip from the movie Dogma.
"We're going to look into Jesus' private persona tonight," Wilkins says, "and take his halo off a little bit."
God at the Pub meets in the upper room of The Yellow Griffin on Bloor Street West, with a goal of helping people discover the reality of Jesus outside of the church walls.
The "Jesus Who?" course looks at historical and contemporary concepts on who Jesus is—revolutionary, guru, friend?—comparing them to the historical record of Jesus in the Bible.
God at the Pub is run by Runnymede Community Church where Wilkins serves as pastor. The charge is $150 per person to cover food and beverage for the 12 week course—which Wilkins is quick to point out is less than menu price. And it's no ordinary food. Yellow Griffin is purely a burger bar, serving beef, turkey, vegetarian, lamb and salmon patties with 35 different topping creations, including the Waldorf Astoria and the Bangkok Betty.
"It's very hard to walk into a church building for some people," Wilkins says over his Jack is Back burger with green peppercorn mayonnaise. "So we try to make the threshold a little lower."
He designed "Jesus Who?" to lay a foundation for something like an Alpha course.
"One of the things we found with Alpha is that the folks who are coming here are often coming with so much stuff, so many issues with faith and Christianity and God, we find they usually miss the early content because their own stuff is getting in the way."
Wilkins hopes to help people over the mental "hurdles" they might be facing before coming to a point of being able to receive the salvation message.
"There are a lot of people today who have moral issues with the Christian faith," he says. "So we're using the life of Christ to help people through those issues.
"We don't avoid salvation theology—after all we are evangelicals—but we work up to it. We take our time getting there. We are patient. God is patient."
At the bar, Brent Harper has ordered a Burning School House burger. Harper, an electronics engineer technician, says he is getting "reconnected with his spiritual side" after a stint away from church.
"I just kind of drifted away from church," Harper says. "I didn't say, 'No more church for me.' I always had some kind of faith in me."
Harper says it was the music of Bob Marley which encouraged him to take another look at Jesus.
"They take you as you are here," Harper adds. "You don't have to put up a face. My regular friends don't talk about faith. This is a place I can talk about my faith and learn more about myself and where I'm at with myself."
Beside him, software developer Jon Dewees is enjoying a Calypso Burger with avocado and mango.
"I have to say that the food is a pretty good hook into this," he says. "We thought it would be a cool way to meet an interesting group of people. I'm fairly confident in my Christian faith, but already picked up a few threads that are different than what I would normally think. I've been helped on a couple of things and affirmed in a couple of areas."
Wilkins adds the church will help sponsor the cost for people who can't afford it.
"You should see the hands go up when I stand up in church and say, 'Who wants to sponsor someone to become a Christian?' People are always willing to buy free burgers and beer for someone.
"The most important thing is that we need to go where other people are. We need to go on their turf and not require they come onto our turf to talk about Jesus."
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