the local watering hole

'The neighborhood bar is possibly the best counterfeit there is to the fellowship Christ wants to give his church.  It’s an imitation, dispensing liquor instead of grace, escape rather than reality, but it is a permissive, accepting, and inclusive fellowship.  It is unshockable.  It is democratic.  You can tell people secrets and they usually don’t tell others or even want to.  The bar flourishes not because most people are alcoholics, but because God has put into the human heart the desire to know and be known, to love and be loved, and so many seek a counterfeit at the price of a few beers.  Christ wants his church to be a fellowship where people can come in and say, “I’m sunk!” “I’m beat!” “I’ve had it!”'

~ Keith Miller & Bruce Larson, The Edge of Adventure