Does this mean that I've heard everything yet?
Church by day, nightclub by night, straight from one of the Top 10 drunkest cities in America.
Between Saturday night and Sunday evening, the former St. Elizabeth Church in the Strip District transforms like a theater set between acts -- from The Altar Bar nightclub to the Steel City Church. It's the mission of a 31-year-old pastor who offers a new take on what the Christian life, and nightlife, can be.
The Steel City Church held its first service Sunday for about 250 people. Earlier in the day, the pastor, Damian Williams, and his wife, Anne Williams, carried sofas and chairs from the wings and configured them around an empty dance floor for the 6 p.m. service. It was a cross between coffee house and talk show, with a rolling video presentation and food.
As offbeat as the setting is, the message is grounded in Christian orthodoxy, said Mr. Williams, who resists the title reverend.
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The setting -- with its disco lights and alcohol, neither of which is activated on Sundays -- belies the commitment of a year's worth of outreach to create "cells" of neighborhood apostles.
"The real church is what we do through the week," said Mr. Williams. He runs a cell group in Mount Washington, where he and his wife live with two children.
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