I’m taking a break from cocktail recipes this week to talk about an awesome event happening in Jacksonville next week: Urban Soul.

The short version:
Urban Soul is a meeting ground
for people of deep faith and people skeptical of faith,
for church people and people hurt by church,
for inspiration seekers and intellectuals
and anyone inundated by life of late.
It’s a middle space for people at all points in their journey
to come together and learn from each other,
and there’s also beer and music.
The featured musician this month is Justin McRoberts,
so mark your calendars for February 28th at Intuition Ale Works!

The long version:
So, here’s why I love Urban Soul and think you will too.
I met Jesus in a bar.
I was at the Jubilee conference in Pittsburgh in 2009. I was still a happily lapsed Baptist at that point, but I had gone to Jubilee because one of the chaplains who protested Franklin Graham with me two years earlier had asked me to. I was prepared to come home totally unchanged, but then I felt an overwhelming and unexpected love at that event. These Christians didn’t debate and argue and bicker like I’d expected. They genuinely cared about the world and the people in it, and it challenged my stereotypes. Feeling bewildered, I decided to flee to the one place where I thought the Christians wouldn’t dare follow me: the hotel bar. As I sat there with a Guinness (my beer of choice back then), I looked around the room and recognized several chaplains, speakers, and conference personnel. A lightbulb went off in my mind:
Christians can drink?
Christians can audibly cuss in public places?
CHRISTIANS CAN BE REAL PEOPLE!?
You know, I think I can do this.
All this happened on a Saturday night, and I was accepted into divinity school the following Wednesday. Life’s funny sometimes.

Five years later, in the fall of 2014, I was new to Jacksonville and hanging out with a friend at Intuition Ale Works when I bumped into Derrick Scott. I knew that Derrick was a Methodist college chaplain; I didn’t know that Derrick was also a bartender. We exchanged contact information, and in the months that followed, Derrick shared a vision: to create a safe space for conversations and questions free from judgment and overflowing with Jesus– a place for fellow travelers on the journey to gather and find a little rest without feeling like they were being forced into church. At that point, The Bar Chaplain was barely a pipe-dream, and I was looking for ways to get to know the city beyond the walls of my church. Derrick’s vision resonated with me; in fact, it reminded me of the experience that led me back to Christ in the first place. I began attending and helping with Urban Soul and was blown away by the speakers and musicians facilitating the event: Lu Rubino, Micah Murray, Derrick himself, and especially Justin McRoberts.

You see, Justin performed at the Jubilee conference back in 2009, and his song Done Living played a big part in my decision to reaffirm my faith in Christ and embrace the call to ministry. Justin’s openness and authenticity make him a natural fit for events like Urban Soul. His music about life and faith is punctuated with Rolling Stones and Nine Inch Nails covers. He doesn’t just try to sell people on Jesus with some coerced altar call at the end of the night; he shares real frustrations and real questions and invites others to do the same. The last time he played Urban Soul, I got to talk with him afterward, and what profound subject matter did we discuss? Star Wars and The Flash– the things that really matter. When I told him about my experience at the hotel bar during Jubilee, he tossed me a free book and friended me on Facebook. In short, he’s a solid musician, and this is a great venue for his style.

So if you’re like I was back in 2009, unsure about the whole Jesus thing, know that Urban Soul is a safe space with good people who will walk beside you and get to know you. It’s a place to explore and experience, and even if you haven’t felt anything profound by the end of the night, I can still guarantee good music, good beer, good food, and good people.

Mark your calendars and reserve your tickets.
It’s going to be a great night.

(P.S.– Jessi read over this, and thought it might be a little too risqué: “You really want to admit to people that Guinness was your go-to beer at one point?”)