Wine and spirits: Part 2

Editor’s Note: Last week’s issue of The Daniel Island News featured a discussion with Rev. Wendy Hudson-Jacoby about her church, Two Rivers United Methodist Church, which currently meets Sunday mornings inside Three Lions Pub at the Charleston Battery’s MUSC Health Stadium on Daniel Island. Rev. Hudson-Jacoby answered a series of questions about the origin of her church, its progressive theology, and more. This week, in part two, reporter Heath Ellison asks Rev. Hudson-Jacoby to share more about her congregation, the power of communicating via social media, and why her approach is resonating with those who have a wide variety of beliefs.

DIN: This may be an open-ended question, but why have so many churches not adopted more progressive political philosophies?

WHJ: I would say that we don’t adopt a ‘political’ philosophy. It’s that our particular expression of Christianity would be a theologically progressive one, not a politically progressive one. But, I think that, especially here in the south, we’ve been very culturally shaped in many ways in our experience of Jesus, and the church. We are one of the most church-going regions of the country, but when you look at studies and statistics, you’ll see that even in this most religious area of the country, there’s still a huge portion of people who are not connected to a congregation. I think that part of it is just having exposure to different influences. I love social media. I think it’s a great thing, and I think it offers up an opportunity to hear different voices and to see different experiences. I think once we start having encounters with people who are different than us, then we start to see that there’s value, we start to resonate with other people’s experiences and our own experiences. And I think we get to experience the presence of God in new ways.

DIN: Why do you think so many churches avoid topics that Two Rivers discusses?

WHJ: One the great gifts of being a new church is that we’re able from the very beginning to say ‘this is who we are, this is what we believe, this is why we believe x, y, and z.’ So when folks come to us, we welcome everyone. You don’t have to have a specific belief system to find a place and find community with us, however we’re very clear about who we are and how we live our lives together. One, so that people aren’t surprised. Two, so that people have the chance to maybe meet a need that wasn’t met before. There are no barriers to entry to our community. In traditional churches, you’ve got 50, 100, 300 years of folks that have come in. So you have people who have a really wide difference of beliefs, all under one roof, which brings its own set of beauty, but also challenges. When you’ve been one way, one expression, or one way of thinking for decades or centuries, it’s really hard to make a shift. For us, it’s a gift and duty of being new. We get to shape and determine who we are from the beginning.

DIN: Some of your church sermon livestreams on Facebook have received well over 200 views. Have you been surprised by the out-of-state viewers tuning in?

WHJ: One of the gifts of being United Methodist is that we are a worldwide church, so I have connections all over the country and all over the world. But, I also think that there are people in lots of places who are really hungering for a new experience with Jesus. They’ve been told or taught that they aren’t welcome or they aren’t good enough, or that questions are not allowed, and we want to be a place of radical openness to people. We have people of no faith, we have people of questioning faith, we have people who are lifelong committed Jesus-followers. I have a couple people who come to church and say ‘I do not like God, but for some reason I like this community,’ and we say ‘you are welcome here.’

DIN: You made a comment that Two Rivers is not a part of the pub theology movement. Why do you believe that?

WHJ: ‘Pub Theology,’ in my experience, is more like Bible study in a bar. We’re worshipping. We won’t stay there forever. It’s been a great place for us to start our life in the community. We’re excited to see where God might take us to the next unusual location. For us, being in the pub has been all about access to doing something different. We can encounter God, and we can encounter scripture, outside of the four walls of a church, and that really is at the heart of what pub theology is. And in that way, I would say that we are connected to that philosophy of offering people a new place and a new way to experience God.

For more information on Two Rivers Church, visit their Facebook page or visit https://tworiverschs.org.

Daniel Island Publishing

225 Seven Farms Drive
Unit 108
Daniel Island, SC 29492 

Office Number: 843-856-1999
Fax Number: 843-856-8555

 

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