Nine MSN News (Australia) has an interesting online video of their story on church in the pub. As far as I can tell it screened first on Christmas Day. You can view it here.
The first thirty seconds is advertising. The most common selection is the ambient Nine National News advertisement featuring the Tears for Fears song, “Mad World” being sung by a childrens choir. It’s written up at Duncan’s TV Adland.
The clip starts with the Nine News presenter saying, “Fewer Australians are going to church each year. That raises a question that’s relevant on one of the most important days of the Christian calendar. How do churches reach out and win the parishioners they’ve lost.”
Mike Dalton takes us inside one Christian groups’ attempt at bringing faith into a relaxed environment where ‘no one will jump down your throat’. It’s set in the Roxbury Hotel, a pub in St John’s Rd, Glebe, Sydney.
The group is led by Dominic Steele, a Moore College graduate who has worked in commercial radio news and now works with Christians in the Media and Anglican Evangelism Ministries, Sydney Diocese. He’s working with Annandale Community Church to lead a series of “Introducing God, a relational course designed to present the Christian gospel based on the Sydney Anglican “Two Ways to Live” presentation. If you’re interested in the ‘Introducing God’ course I’ve written it up at Educating Christians.
It’s interesting to see how the group has been presented in the Nine news clip. We see a deliberate shot of Dominic holding a schooner of beer. Mike interviews the bartender who assures us that the punters do in fact buy alcohol. We’re given sights and sounds of billiard balls, gooseball soccer, and the chink of cold beer or chilled chardonnay.
The message is definitely Sydney Anglican classical gospel. We hear snippets of presentation from the key leaders. “Every time we do the wrong thing, every time we declare autonomy. That’s a snub against God.” “Us ignoring God and living life our own way. What do you think of Jesus dying for that?”
The clip lightheartedly finishes with a halo appearing over Mike Dalton’s head as he leaves the pub.