Keep Those Sinners AWAY from our Church
From MMI:
So, what would you do if a Hooters-style restaurant decided to set up show directly across from your church? That’s what is happening to the First Prebyterian Church near Charlotte. Church members began circulation letters against the proposed Coyote Ugly Restaurant.
The Beerean puts it this way: “To be honest, I didn’t know what to think when I first read about the situation. I can understand where the church might be coming from. Most of us wouldn’t want a place that is known for half-dressed women using sex to sell booze to horny men moving in next to where we meet to worship. But the other side of me says this is a great opportunity. This is an opportunity to have the lost right at your front door. The people that go to this place, go to try to fill a void in their lives. Those that are in the church have the only thing that will ultimately fill that void. Jesus.”
Here’s more from the newspaper report…
So… what if this happened to your church? Would you oppose the restaurant? Or would you look at this as a great opportunity for more new people to make it into your neighborhood… people that need Jesus who you might be able to reach?
And if you chose the “let’s embrace this” thought… how would you actually use this restaurant as an opportunity to reach people, (and not just to go out and have some good wings after the service)?
May 28th, 2008 at 9:45 am
Well first of all, their wings aren’t that great. Secondly, one of the quotations makes it seem like if you go to hooters, or have been to hooters, you must not be Christian.
Other than that, how can this not be a great opportunity? But I mean, this would be no different than any establishment other than a church opening up across the street, not just hooters. I suspect there are no more people lost there at a hooters than at applebees or starbucks.
On the how…that’s a more difficult thing to think about. If I were at a restaurant and a church group came out to prostelytize me or invite me to their church, I would be pretty annoyed, and I’m a Christian even.
Perhaps working out a ‘relationship’ with the owner(s) of the restaurant to ‘advertise’ for your church, or to get some kind of understanding with the establishment that you could put up a flier pointing to your church… I’m not sure. Who goes to applebees to witness? If so, what are some ways that you go about that anyways?
Joe
May 28th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Or the church could just continue (if they do so already) to be a welcome place for all people and let the establishment be.
Trust me, there’s nothing worse at a Coyote Ugly (or a Hooters) than you can find on network teevee.
Plus, many of the girls (the ones I’ve known anyway) who work in those places do so because they know that can make LOTS of money to pay for things like, oh, education and whatnot.
So it’s not a cut-and-dried exploitation issue either, since they “exploit” the “exploiters.” Checkmate.
May 28th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Well Evan,
That’s a given that the church should welcome all people. And it’s not like the people who work there or go there are bad people because of THAT. There are much worse problems people have than working at or going to hooters, which isn’t ontologically wrong.
Joe
May 28th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Won’t somebody think of the property values!
May 28th, 2008 at 9:59 am
I wouldn’t go to a Hooters, just because of my wife’s desire that I would stay away.
But having them across the street? Great! Any place across the street would be fine, even next door. More people to share with, I say.
May 28th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Well, the church shouldn’t care, since they’re tax-exempt…
Plus, if a Coyote Ugly is going in, I’m guessing the church is in a commercial district. (?)
I dunno. We have Hooters and Coyote Ugly in Memphis. The Hooters locations are in areas whose property values were already tanking due to overdevelopment in the McSuburbs. The Coyote Ugly is downtown in an entertainment district (Beale Street, naturally.)
None of them are nuisances, though.