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Leeds church holds pub night alternative to psychic evenings
PIC: Bruce Rollinson
IT WASN’T so much a case of blind faith as blindfolded faith when a group of Christians took their message to a Leeds pub.
Drinkers at the Dog and Gun on York Road in east Leeds were invited to get prophetic words to go with their pints when Gateway Church held its Hear from Heaven event.
Part of the evening involved church members donning blindfolds and attempting to give spiritual insight to punters chosen at random.
Pastor Chris Frost said they were inspired to hold the event after noticing the growth in demand for psychic nights at pubs across Leeds.
He said: “People clearly have a deep spiritual hunger and we were noticing more and more psychic nights being held at pubs.
“I’m sure that people enjoy them, but biblical Christianity has something to offer for people searching for spiritual truth.
“The pub’s reaction when we suggested it was very warm and very open – they were quite excited about the idea.
“We promised them a better night than they got with their psychic nights. They said we’d have a big job on our hands.
“Part of the aim of the evening was to challenge people’s expectations of what having faith is about.
“We wanted them to know that this gift of being able to know what we couldn’t possibly know comes from God, and that we’re not from some sort of weird cult.”
As well as giving out words of insight from behind blindfolds, the church members also opened a locked box containing supposedly prophetic messages they had written before the event.
Tony Smith, lead pastor of Gateway Church, which usually meets at Abbey Grange, said: “Any proceeds raised will go directly to the Dog and Gun pub.
“We don’t believe that God charges us for his love, so we will not be profiting from putting on the event.”
The church said it was also happy for people to have a drink while they listened to what was being said.
Mr Frost added: “We believe Jesus showed us it’s OK to have a drink by turning water into wine, so we don’t have a problem with people drinking.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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Comments
There are 5 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
chris frost
Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 12:09 PMHi there, I was the organiser of the event on behalf of Gateway church (www.gatewayleeds.net), thanks for your comments. When booking the pub we promised the landlady a better night than the psychic event that had been held their recently. The verdict from the landlady; “Honestly, yes, it was better.” Many guests at the event were genuinely astounded as they received words that we could not have known without supernatural intervention relating to peoples work (i.e. this is your job), family situations (i.e. you have just moved house) and what people had been doing in the last couple of days (i.e. selling a bracelet). We believe this supernatural gift of the word of knowledge (1 Corinthians 14:8-10) as modelled by Jesus (John 1:47-50 and John 4:15-18) is given to the church to help reveal that Jesus is alive and loves you very much (1 Corinthians 14:24-25). We hope to run another Hear from Heaven event soon. Please email hello@gatewayleeds.net if you would like to be informed of the details. Blessings, Chris
sciboy
Thursday, June 16, 2011 at 07:50 AMThis sounds very good, put you did not tell us what happen in the evening, i would be interested in more stories like this.
tildatwos
Tuesday, June 14, 2011 at 07:28 PMHeard great things about this one. Seems like the messages for people were spot on and more accurate than the psychic evening! Maybe there'll be another one in the future?
1985stb
Monday, June 13, 2011 at 11:32 PMYeah were they better than the psychics? What happened?
kitcharter1
Monday, June 13, 2011 at 06:58 PMChurch does stuff for free? We know that. Church thinks beer's OK? Old hat. Were they any good at the psychic stuff?
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