Church Partners With Bar to Win Souls

Tulsa, Okla., has a rich spiritual heritage. Kenneth Hagin Ministries and T.L. Osborn Ministries are based there, as is Oral Roberts University.

But even these pioneering ministries may not have come up with an idea quite like this one: bringing the church to a bar.

A pastor and a tavern owner are teaming up to get the gospel outside the church building and into the four walls of a— yes—bar.

“When the churches and the bars are working together to share Jesus, you know God is going to do something good,” says Eastman Curtis, pastor of Celebration Church in Tulsa.

Curtis knows what it’s like to suffer from alcohol and drug use. He was expelled from three schools for abusing drugs before Jesus radically changed his life in a college dorm room.

Now, Curtis believes in getting out into the highways and byways and compelling people to come. He wants the people of Tulsa to experience the love of God.

Curtis turned to Joe Beene, owner of the Drunk Monkey Tavern and a member of his church, to roll out a unique outreach. Beene believes that people who come to his bar need to hear his pastor’s messages about Jesus. So Beene is live-streaming Celebration Church services into his bar on a jumbo screen.

The Drunk Monkey will stream the first service on April 29, along with free brunch. The only catch—you have to be at least 21 to attend.