What a beautiful church....I mean bar?

I've intended to write this post shortly after the event but after procrastinating for a while I decided to save it for a rainy day. And today is that day. Not that this post is extremely interesting and merited anticipation, it just never got posted and is still a slight point of interest to me.

On my way home for Christmas I stopped in Pittsburgh to visit my good friend Gustav. The evening I arrived we decided to go out for dinner and in an effort to avoid popular chains and get some local Pittsburgh food we decided on a place called "The Church Brew Works."

The food was great but even better was the setting. The restaurant is an old Catholic church turned into a microbrewery.

To be honest I didn't know what emotion to feel as I walked in; I didn't know whether to lament or rejoice and in fact I think i felt a little of both.

The lament came from seeing what seemed to be a once beautiful church vacated and left empty until the brewery took over. This seems to be a classic example of the church fleeing the city and leaving huge vacant buildings as signs that seem to indicate God's abandonment. This is such a sad state because in reality it is not God who has abandoned the city and its people but rather God's people who have abandoned the city.

Along with this very basic realization I also grieved when i walked inside. Where a baptismal font once would have stood to remind people of their baptism now stood a small sign that read "Please wait to be seated." To the right where the confessionals would have been now stood a long bar encompassing almost the entire wall. By far the most saddening sight was at the front of the church. There where the altar once stood - where the Eucharist was prepared and the word was proclaimed now stood a huge micro-brewery.

Now I say all this as lament not because I am a staunchly opposed to alcohol. Yes, I have never had a drink of alcohol, but I am not opposed to it's use in moderation. I lament these replacements because it seems to indicate a larger problem - namely the church fleeing the city, this signs of grace leaving the life of the city in favor of something else. Now, to be sure, it could merely indicate the church outgrew it's building and build another one 3 or 4 blocks over or maybe as people left the city the church was left with no congregants (but I highly doubt these scenarios). I am saddened by the replacement of grace-filled things for that which (though can be used by God) are not necessarily designed for that purpose. Although I was saddened by these things, I was also happy for a few reasons.

It was good to see a once abandoned building being used for some purpose and helping the economy of Pittsburgh. It was also great to see the beauty of the architecture of the building still intact and what seemed to be pointing to God. I was blown away to see that the Latin above the altar was still intact and that our waitress knew what it meant (something similar to: "By faith in Jesus Christ the Son of God we are saved."). Apparently they have been asked enough that they tell their servers what the saying means (that or we got a waitress who knows Latin...that would be awesome!) Oh and the food was great!

All that to say that The Church Brew Works is a very cool place. Yes it's sad that a church has been left behind, but maybe God is using this place as a small means of grace to help reach to people of Pittsburgh. Maybe the Latin causes curiosity, maybe the architecture points to the transcendence and maybe just being there makes people long for home and rest in Christ. Maybe none of this happens and it's just sad and depressing. I'm not passing judgment I'm just relaying my experience.

So I guess my post ends there..."and it was cool."