Preaching in a Pub 

 
Through the Lord’s leading, as a church, we had a wonderful time of outreach during Advent. We started with a week of prayer before doing street ministry, assemblies, door-knocking, carolling & preaching at care homes, and putting on Gospel-sharing services.
But I have to say, the highlight for me was preaching in a pub for the first time. I have been encouraged by others to share about this opportunity in the hope that it might give others boldness to step out in faith. Let me explain how it happened.

In September, the Lord laid it on my heart to contact our local pub and asked to meet with the managers to discuss the possibility of carolling at the pub at Christmastime. They agreed and we met in the pub to talk about it. During the conversation. I asked if it would be alright to give a short Christmas message too. The response was an unconcerned yes.

When the night came on Monday, 15th December 2025, after doing a funeral all day, I went with eight of us from church (including my 8-year-old daughter) to the Dog and Bacon. We arrived around 6:50pm and our guitarist said something like ‘this is rather different.’ We had come with carol sheets, chocolates and tracts. And it was FULL - around 50 people. There was that feeling inside that we just had to go for it.

I addressed the whole pub, inviting them to join in. We sang five carols, some people joined in, all was good. And then came the chance to share the Gospel with these people.

I shared an illustration and a parable. The message of the parable was ‘Jesus came to pay your tab.’ It was just a few minutes, and then we moved on to our final carol.

The pub manager came up to me, thrust £50 cash into my hands and said ‘a gift for the church’ – this really took me by surprise! We then went round giving out chocolates and Gospel tracts round all the tables and at the bar before chatting with people over a mince pie and mulled wine.

As I was walking home with my young daughter, I reflected on what just happened: 

• In a full pub, we sang about Jesus, we talked about Jesus.
• No-one walked out, no-one heckled.
• People turned, listened to the message, joined in the singing.
• And, we were paid to do it! 

I thought of our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world who could only dream of this kind of opportunity to proclaim the Gospel. How wonderful to sow seeds in this way!

I thought about all the worst case scenarios that went through my head, and how this surpassed all my expectations.

Finally, I thought back to our week of prayer. How important it is to pray into the things that God lays on our hearts.
 
Before I finish, to offer some further encouragement to be bold, I just wanted to share a graphic that came as a result of the street ministry we did over Advent. 

We had a banner that invited people to describe Christmas in three words. We chatted with people, shared the Gospel, prayed and gave out copies of Vaughn Roberts’ tract ‘Christmas in 3 Words.’ Two things stood out to me:

• So many people have never heard the Gospel. People had no idea that Jesus came to do something for us. It was a holy moment to share with them.
• Many people don’t like Christmas. 

These were the words that people said to us. The biggest words were said most commonly. Pay attention to some of the smaller words.
 
The Good News of Jesus needs to be shared. People need hope. My encouragement to us all would be to keep praying, keep listening and paying attention to the ideas and opportunities God puts before us. Be bold and step out the boat as the Lord leads. He will ‘equip you with everything good for doing his will’ (Hebrews 13:21).
 
Rev Jon White