Clubbing

The point of this blog is not to overly berate this fact but talk about what to do about it and more specifically what I feel God wants some folk to do about it.

I just feel that the place where 20's are being open, vulnerable, real and openly hurting to the discerning eye - is nightclubs and bars.  These are the places people let their hair down - they lower their profesional pretences from the week, they cast off their restraint, they neglect sense for just a few freedom glazed hours - they enjoy community here - discussion and laughter... and music.  Enough talking about how much people need Jesus!  Let's go and get alongside people and I'm sure we'll find plenty of people to actually share him with in the depth of their need!  Not many other places you can go and rub shoulders with people - share times with strangers - get into conversations and pray with people like you can in clubs...

God isn't hanging about in churches all the time.
I believe - prophetically - that God is not waiting for us to polish him up and set him on a shield and carry him into the clubs.  He is already in there, probably bopping away - looking on the lost souls in there with heart wrenching compassion.  God wants us to go find church in the clubs - not try to take our church in there.  For too long we have done church our [backwards and often outdated] ways and expected people to come knocking wanting to join in.  Let's not get caught up in this whole conversation but once upon a time organs were cutting edge instruments that played the music of the people in bars and pubs - so the church started using them and creating new songs on them to be sung in church - redeeming the culture - using it to make the message of Christ relevent to the culture and specific people group.  Let's do that again.  Things need to keep chaging - one day the young people will fight with us to get rid of the boring old decks and DJs from church!!

We need to go to where they are - don't expect them to adapt to our foreign culture - let's go be real in theirs.  We need to be authentic - so while I'm tlaking about club culture - of course there are plenty of sub-cultures within that - and even cultures outside of clubs that this stuff is equally relevent about - but I feel the stirring of God particularly about clubs and bars.


The bible says GOD INHABITS THE PRAISE OF HIS PEOPLE.  Admittedly praise does not necessarily need to mean music but it's not hard to scan the scriptures to see what an awesome tool is music - that God has given us predominantly to be used in his worship.  Much of the music in churches these days is slow and passionless - it may be heartfelt and i love a load of it - but full of energy it usually ain't.  The music in clubs - even crap clubs - you have to admit has passion and energy.  I'm drawing the conclusion that surely if we harness people's attentions towards God - or manifestly invoke the Holy Spirit somehow into the venue and the music - people will meet face to face as-it-were with the living God.  Picture this.  A club night where a critical mass of the crowd are Christians.  Christians who love the music, love God and are in control of their bodies enough that they don't lose themselves in the darkness of the night but instead prophetically saturate the room with their worship and invoke God to inhabit the music as they praise him.  Prayer rooms.  Chill out rooms.  I'm guessing it won't take much prodding God for him to drench the place with his love - an infectious atmosphere where the power of the kingdom of God in heaven will physically clash with the Kingdom of God on earth.  I believe God honours this kind of worship "he sets a banquet before me... in the presence of my enemies"  People will not be able to resist the purity of this passion.  Unawares people will be healed, delivered, set free from fears and worries and given glimpses of hope in their lives.  Without a word spoken.  Excited?  I am.

As I have said - people are hurting.  Inside... and they are hurting themselves physically in town on a saturday night.  Street Pastors do a great job outside the clubs - let's get in there and do church inside too.  We can encourage each other and develop creative ways of sharing scriptural truth, sharing our lives and sharing our faith inside the venue.  Regularly.  And following up all the new relationships we make in the coffee shops during the day. 


Today I saw a picture of a bunch of Christians buying the biggest most successful club in Sheffield - actually there isn't really one anymore!  Might have to start a superclub!...  Not to convert it into a church - not to dumb it down and make it crappy - but to go meet God where the darkness is.  Sure, little by little I would imagine Christian values creeping into the organisation and which nights were promtoed - I envisage a regular night - maybe fri or sat night being an explicitly Christian run night where the music is uplifting, the mood bright etc etc but on the other nights perhaps even deliberately inviting the worst reputations in DJs promoters or brand nights.  20something's like a challenge :-)  In time a stack of talented DJs etc will be part of the worshipping community and getting discipled by the church.  Then we can set about launching CDs into the various charts, taking the Christian nights on tour and impacting the club scene right across the country - and even the world by getting involved in what people like 24-7 are doing in Ibiza...

In the meantime if you love clubbing and you love Jesus.  Go clubbing - not out of selfish desires - don't lose yourself as everyone else does to drink and sex and just having a good old self indulgent time - go and enjoy yourself and prime yourself to be a witness - to carry the presence of God - to invoke God to inhabit that thumping beat - to pour out your worries to him as you dance - to intercede and prophesy as you lift your hands and move your feet - to share your life with others and encourage each other about the wonder of God, his plan for us, his incrdedible forgiveness through Jesus, and his passion for us in our daily lives now.

This isn't rocket science.  It need not be the latest Christian fad - no slogan t-shirts or anything!  Just 20somethings in the church finding a passionate mission field and doing something revelutionary in Sheffield that will influence across the world rather than waiting for the mainstream church to give us what we need.  We'll still be under their authority and accountable for it all (and resourced!) but God is sending us out and if you want a God led world then come on let's give it a crack!  I think there's so much more to explore in this about radical discipleship and evangelism and even justice and mission.   Anyway... God bless