Church Army evangelist starts church in a night club

5 March 2007

Church Army’s Wendy Sanderson is one very tired but very happy evangelist after a busy week launching Solace; Cardiff's first church in a club. Wendy who has been a nightclub evangelist for four years along with James Karran, a young priest at Ararat Baptist Church had an opening night for Solace on Sunday 1 April 2007 at Clwb Ifor Bach.

The event was not a typical club night; over 100 people, most of whom were non church goers, turned up for good music, good food and some clean fun. People came to the club in the centre of Cardiff from as far as Swansea through to the valleys and all over Cardiff. There were no pews in sight instead guests sat round tables with drinks in hand, chatting away as they listened to music. "We wanted to create a safe environment where people could meet, somewhere they are familiar with already, where they can have fun and learn about God," says Wendy. "James and I met a year ago and we’ve both got a heart for people in the club scene and that kind of environment as well as people in our generation. We realised that a lot of people we came into contact with were saying they could never go to church so we started thinking about how could we tie in the club culture with church community and make church relevant to people. After lots of prayer meetings and brainstorming, James had a contact with the manager of Clwb Ifor Bach about us using it for a club every week and it all began from there."

Solace, which will meet every Sunday night at Clwb Ifor Bach, hopes to provide a relevant church for twenty-first century Britain. A place where twenty-somethings can go to mingle, laugh, debate, listen to guest speakers plus have a chance to voice their thoughts and be heard. Wendy says, "Most non Christians are wary about giving up their Sunday mornings to listen to a preacher talk for about half an hour, without having any opportunity to ask questions. They come away from services feeling lost after singing three-hundred year old songs in Victorian English that they don’t understand.

"I think when church gets too religious people on the outside are bound to remain on the outside because they can’t find a way they understand in. Two thousand years ago, the church was just a bunch of people, bound together by a common experience of Jesus Christ. There were no preconceptions, norms, or engrained doctrines. There were no buildings, no pews, no stained glass, no hymn books. They met whenever and wherever they could. That’s the whole point of Solace. We want to get back to the core of what church is really all about so that this generation can feel comfortable learning about God and all they can be in him. We want to invite people to come along and join us in tackling some of the really big issues, and trying to get our heads round them together."

Each month the club nights will have a different theme and the weekly events will revolve around the theme of the month. On the first week of each month there will be a 15-minute talk with a chance to 'grill the speaker', followed by live music and videos. The second week will see live bands and acts performing while the third week will be dedicated to heated debates and discussions, followed by a buffet on the last Sunday of the month. On each night, the bar will stay open until the end of the night, giving those over 18 the chance to relax and socialise.

"This is what church is about", says Mark Russell, Church Army’s Chief Executive, "We’re all about reaching out to people where they are in their everyday lives – schools, shopping centres and even clubs. Church Army is eager to reach a new generation with the timeless truth of Jesus Christ in a way that is relevant and easily accessible to them. We want to present the Jesus of the Bible, bold, exciting, radical, and let him speak for himself. We are about helping the church to reinvent itself in a new generation, to be more real, relevant, radical, dangerous, and more fun, and Wendy and the Solace team are doing just that with Solace."

To find out more about Solace, visit www.solace-cardiff.org.uk

See also: Mark Russell on Twitter