c. 2008 Religion News Service

CARLISLE, Pa. _ Perhaps the last person you want to see at the bar is your minister.

Or maybe that’s just what you need.

Chuck Kish, 44, a senior pastor at the Bethel Assembly of God here, is launching a program at a local pub next month to put chaplains in bars. They’ll offer help to folks who might have ended up there for reasons other than relaxing and socializing.

Kish said he and the chaplains he trains will not be there to preach against “the evils of drinking” or to evangelize.

“We’re simply going to be there to help anybody who wants it. Sometimes people really just want somebody they can talk to who is not going to be judgmental, but be sympathetic,” Kish said from the dining room of the Market Cross Pub.

“Some people may think this would be a strange place to find a chaplain. But we need to go where the people are.”

Kish said chaplains will work in teams, one male and one female.

About five years ago, Kish and a few others became a corps of volunteer chaplains for local police departments. He said he believes that putting chaplains where people’s lives are under stress can help.

“Sometimes, just having a chaplain present can de-escalate things,” he said. “Sometimes people come to a bar because they’re really hurting about something. Bartenders and the owners are pretty good about reading their customers, some of whom they’ve known for years.

“So on the first Friday of every month, from 9 p.m. to midnight, we plan to be here so somebody can say, `You know, there’s a chaplain over there. Maybe you’d like to talk to him _ or her.”’

Kish is starting out in one location to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t, and then he’ll expand the program to other local watering holes.

Jeff Goss, the owner of the Market Cross Pub, said he did a “double take” when Kish approached him with the idea.

“I thought, a chaplain in a restaurant and bar? And then I thought, that makes sense,” he said. “I have a lot of regulars, and they’ve all probably had some tough times now and then.”

Bartender Liz Horn, 24, said she would have no problem suggesting a customer talk to a chaplain.

“Sometimes a bar is a place where people go when they’re down. You can usually feel people out, especially regulars,” she said.

Kish said, “You know, I’m not going to be walking around getting into people’s spaces, handing out religious tracts. It’s not that kind of operation. I’ll be there if people want to talk to me. I’m there to help. We’ll be looking for people who are over the edge.”

(T.W. Burger writes for The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa.)

KRE DS END BURGER450 words

A photo of Kish and Goss is available via https://religionnews.com.

Eds: a version of this story is also being transmitted by Newhouse News Service