The title is a take on the song from “The Unsinkable Molly Brown” called “Belly up to the Bar, Boys.” (I looked for a Youtube clip to embed, but couldn’t find one. Copyright stuff, I’m sure.)
Click over to an article from Christianity Today called “Should Churches be as Friendly as Bars?”
Do we want a friendly, affable, chatty place to go ‘where everybody knows your name’ or do we want something more?
In a place where people really belong, they are free to talk about the most uncomfortable things—sin and salvation, hate and forgiveness, suffering and hope, death and life. And they learn the fine art of forbearance and forgiveness. Merely friendly churches avoid such unpleasantness. But churches that take people seriously cannot avoid it.