Church in a Bar serves different kind of purpose

September 20, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

ERIE, Pa.

In a second-floor barroom with industrial-style pillars, black paint peeling from the ceiling and a wooden dance floor sticky from old varnish or spilled drinks, about 150 people sway to live music or clap out the beat from bar stools.

The dim lighting comes from neon Budweiser signs, a couple of bare bulbs, and a pair of hanging fixtures positioned to light pool tables no longer there.

In the back of the room, farthest from the musicians, people talk and sip drinks from an open bar.

The only thing out of place is the worship service.

Erie’s Church in a Bar meets at the Cell Block bar at 5 p.m. each Sunday.

The drinks are bottled water and lemonade dispensed from large picnic-style jugs.

The live music is by a four-member worship team.

And the people swaying and clapping to the music are members of the congregation.

Site Pastor Andy Kerr followed the musical warm-up one recent Sunday, delivering a sermon in ball cap, T-shirt and jeans.

“It’s not your conventional kind of church, like I grew up in out in McLane. It’s not meant to be,” Kerr said. “It’s for people in the city.”

McLane Church, of Edinboro, founded the Church in a Bar with the approval of Cell Block owners three years ago.

Originally a fellowship for college students in a setting meant to attract them, Church in a Bar has evolved into something else entirely.

College students and families worship with addicts and the homeless from downtown shelters. The congregation is young and old; white, black and Hispanic; in designer jeans with stylized holes and in jeans with holes from hard wear.

“It’s about as diverse as you can get,” Kerr said. “It’s kind of neat that we can have that much diversity and still have people worship together. Too often in America, the most segregated day of the week is Sunday morning in churches that are predominately white or predominately African-American.”

The diverse Church in a Bar congregation has grown from 15 to 20 people each week to about 150 on a recent week including Megan Hershey, 28, and Joshua Kistaer, 27, a student at the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Formerly of Indianapolis, the couple is visiting churches in search of a new church home. They saw the Church in a Bar advertised in a tourist magazine.

“It’s very different,” Hershey said. “The sermon was good.”

Sherry Crosby, 52, is a new church regular. She has been attending services at the Cell Block for the past five weeks, since church leaders got her off the street and into a motel room until space became available at the Community of Caring shelter.

Crosby had been living with her boyfriend, then lived in a car and later on the street after her boyfriend was jailed.

“I couldn’t pay the rent,” Crosby said. “The people here don’t just preach. They take care of people. When I needed help, they got me a hotel room for a week. They’re real nice people.

“And the music is great.”

The music, including vocals, guitar and keyboard, is by site leader Paul Macosko, Bill Burdick, Dawn Wisniewski and Rob Morrison. Kerr’s wife, Jennifer, also participates in the music ministry.

Hymn lyrics are projected onto a large screen so that the congregation can sing along.

Church in a Bar has no hymnals. It does have an offering basket — an actual basket on the floor in front of the rows of plastic seats. The basket isn’t passed. People who want to give put their money into the basket before or after the service.

Kerr isn’t bothered by the sometimes minimal offerings.

McLane Church, with a congregation of about 1,200 at its main site in Edinboro, funds expenses in Erie and at another satellite site in Union City — including meals after each service — from its benevolent fund. The fund, largely from a dedicated Christmas offering, totaled $100,000 in 2009, Kerr said.

Edinboro church volunteers last week served up chili, homemade breads, salad and nonalcoholic beverages from the Cell Block bar. Almost everyone attending the Sunday service stayed to eat.