Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church in Durant is brewing up plans for its second Theology on Tap meeting at Lost Street Brewing Company.
The first meeting was July 21 and Theology on Tap is meeting again at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 18 at Lost Street.
Rev. Eric Saed, pastor of Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church, said the idea came up because the congregation was looking at a way to get out into the community. He said there are many ways churches have outreach and ministries, so they were trying to think outside of the box.
“We looked around at some ideas that other churches have tried and in our Lutheran tradition, we have success in other areas with doing the Bible study in a bar,” Saed said. “The Theology on tap. As a matter of fact, we have a church in Fort Worth that meets in a pub, but nothing like that going on here and we also thought it might be a bit attention grabbing because people don’t necessarily equate drinking beer with studying the Bible, but that’s more of an American cultural thing than it is anything that we find prohibitive.
“So, Martin Luther, the Great Reformer, he brewed his own beer and he talked about beer, so that’s why we’re here.”
Everyone is welcome, including people of other faiths or no faiths at all.
“We’re looking for common ground andthereisacommonsenseof morality and a common sense of goodness that transcends any religion and there’s also a lot of people who have had trauma in church,” Saed said. “They’ve belonged to churches that for whatever reason, have turned them off from going to church and a lot of folks, they may not go to church, but people say that they’re spiritual, but not religious.”
According to Saed, Jesus spent more time talking with people in their homes and marketplaces than he ever did a synagogue.
“So, this is a way, this is a great place to reach everyone, and I don’t have all of the answers,” Saed said. “I don’t have the perfect theology. I don’t know the Bible front and back, sideways word for word. I have to look stuff up, but you know what? It’s something that’s important to me and I want to share with others, so we can all discuss this and maybe get some common ground going, thinking about, ‘Oh, well, we really are in this together.’
“We’re serving either the good of humanity or serving God, depending on what your perspective is, and it doesn’t matter a whole lot. You know, denominations are man-made and so in the spirit of what Jesus did, he’s going to everybody, so that’s why we’re here. People are coming to this place already. They’re coming to eat and drink and laugh and have a good time.”
Saed said he has attended the trivia nights at Lost Street.
“I also should add, you don’t have to drink beer if you come here,” Saed said. “I myself, have been sober for 13 years. This is a non-alcoholic beer. It’s actually a pretty good IPA (India Pale Ale.)” Saed said tentative plans are to have Theology on Tap once a month or possibly every other week. He hopes people will become curious and want to attend, and he agreed this is a fun and informal way for people to study the Bible.
“Church for people who don’t like church,” Saed said, with a laugh. “I’ve heard that phrase used before and you know, the traditional, you read the news, you hear the news and you see it in your churches, that yeah, attendance in church is down. People are, you know, frankly, a lot of people are getting sick of it. They’re getting sick of the divisiveness and the political nature that has seeped into all of our churches. Coming to a place like this where it’s a public house and all opinions are welcomed, I think that’s very liberating.
“I’m hopeful that someday, it would be great if we got some people from other faiths in here. I would love having a practitioner of Islam. I would love having someone who’s Jewish. I would love someone who’s into Native American spirituality, but not into Christianity to come. When we hear perspectives like that, stuff like that is what changes our minds and opens our hearts.”
July’s study was John 3:16. “We do keep it topical, so it won’t be a complete free for all,” Saed said. “We’ll pick a piece of scripture. We’ll read the scripture a couple of times to make sure everybody’s heard it and then it will be an iterative process.”
