CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? CHURCH AT THE STRIP CLUB BAR (part 3)

the John Sleeman mansion

I will grant you, it's a stretch. Jack and Sharon and their ministry colleagues are teaching, sharing, singing, and being gospel, good news, in the most likely of places. If you have been following the past two articles about this, here's a recap with further details to make your mouths drop open.  The Manor in Guelph, Ontario is promoted as Canada’s premier Gentleman’s Club located just 40 miles west of Toronto. The Manor is self-touted as one of Ontario’s most elegant strip clubs and it is located in the historic John Sleeman Mansion built in 1896. In this exceptional building with elegant decor, signature VIP Room and Bottle Service Lounge, beautiful dancers serve and entertain patrons at almost all hours of a work week. But for a few hours on Sunday afternoons the interior is transformed and the emphasis and message and music is changed in ways that seem to be incompatible.

The Manor Gentlemen’s Club

How can there possibly be any harmony, any congruence between liquor excesses and lifestyles that are endorsed in this facility and the three hour truncated gospel communication. Well none at all. That's the astoundingly dramatic impact of the Church at the Manor. That's why it is working. The contrasts are so vivid that for people whose lives have been screwed up by bad decisions, addictions, violence and abuse, the authentic loving welcoming news demonstrated in real, live people is not lost. It's more real than anything they have ever experienced in the name of Christianity or Christ. Faith becomes a viable option. Jesus Christ becomes a sustainable Saviour. Jack and Sharon Ninaber and friends put food in people's stomachs, redemptive seed thoughts in their minds and contagious love into embraces and sincere conversations. Does it get any better than that? Only as some of the seekers become believers and then are baptized and become disciples of Christ and that is already happening. The question might be asked, "then shouldn't those new converts leave such a place?" It's probably the wrong question.  Rather, "now that you have trusted in Jesus and you sense your freedom and strength and you see the changes happening in your attitudes, conduct and choices and family life, don't you want to share that with a few other people?"

CHURCH AT THE STRIP CLUB

It is perhaps, short of a prison cell, the most emphatic demonstration of the truth that church happens anywhere. A gentlemen's club is an urbane title for what is commonly known as a strip club and bar, and that's the way the New York Daily News alluded to the venue of the church begun by my friends, Jack and Sharon Ninaber. But this is not an American story. This church meets at the Manor in Guelph Ontario. The Manor was once the home to Guelph's beer baron George Sleeman and it is now a tough stripper bar. One does not customarily associate finding Jesus in such a location, but that would underestimate what God can do. The Manor is now owned by Roger Cohen, who also has a side project next door, called Sue's Inn, a transitional housing unit for homeless folks who are struggling with additions or recently out of jail and want to be clean and free. Sharon and Jack shared their vision with Roger and he bought and caught and champions it. He himself attends every Sunday service at the Manor and urges others to attend. Roger says, "you can get busy dying or get busy living. I think God can bring hope to people and enrich their living. But it starts with relationship."

Jack and Sharon have pastored conventional churches and could not imagine they would be doing this but I know they are transfused with huge doses of faith, joy, courage and adventure and God is using them. For the past eight months Church at the Manor has ben operating. Jack says, "Jesus was called a drunk and a friend of sinners in his time because he hung out with these people. For us, it's not telling people to go to church. It's telling people they can have a relationship with Jesus. Even in a bar." Doors open around 12:30 and there is grand array of foods. Some attendees have come just for the food. Some come so hungry because they haven't eaten for days. Some come angry at God, and finding that no one reams them out for their attitude but an offer of another sandwich, they begin to talk and they return the next Sunday.  They hear stories by people whose lives have been changed and they hear live music – uplifting, Christian rock, singable with lyrics anyone can sing in an atmosphere which has been transformed from Last call Saturday night. Topless girlie posters and $4 beer signs are covered and appropriate signage to draw attention to hope and healing and God. On their opening Sunday, they had none other than Bobby Clark, hockey great, shared his own story of recovery and the place God had in that.

I'll tell you more about the Manor tomorrow.