The pastor of Riverchase United Methodist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, has figured out a way to hopefully get more locals into his Sunday morning services: He’s moving them to a local Buffalo Wild Wing restaurant and bar. The 45-minute service to be known as “The Stream” will actually take place before the establishment opens for business, so there will be no beer or wings served during the message, though Rev. Wesley Savage told a local paper, “We’re going to encourage people to stay for lunch, stay for sports. This is part of the partnership.”
He told AL.com that the idea is to reach a new audience who feel more comfortable hanging out at a wing joint than a traditional church: “We believe there’s a population that would attend a service there that wouldn’t go to a church. We hope it’s going to be a more inviting atmosphere … We want it to be a dialogue, questions and discussion about a topic: Why God? Why the church? Why the Bible? Why should I care about these things?” The wall separating church and wing is finally beginning to crumble …
