Happy Hour Gospel

Vince, who is the front man for the gospel- and Motown-inspired band, Reverend Vince and the Love Choir, was raised Lutheran and moved to New York City in 1993, enrolling at Union Theological Seminary, where he studied for one semester. He and Jay met four years ago when the latter began preaching in the backroom of Pete's. Vince had read Jay's book, Son of a Preacher Man, long before their meeting, and while he knew Bakker by reputation, he was wary of his intentions.

"I had seen this kind of evangelical bar church before," Vince says of his initial hesitation. "Often they bring you in with all the grace talk, and then the screws start tightening." He wondered if Jay was the "cool face" of a sinister organization, and if perhaps there was somebody else behind the scenes, pulling the strings. But the first day Vince attended one of Jay's sermons, Jay called him out in the audience -- he was familiar with his music and seen him play. Despite differences of theological opinion, the two hit it off, and eventually Jay asked Vince to join the church as assistant pastor.

"Jay's wonderful gift is that he still believes in the Church, that there's an openness for reform from inside. His focus is really on restoration."

Vince and Jay face challenges ministering to a group of people uncomfortable with the idea of even being part of a church, much less giving like one. Brooklyn-based members of Revolution seem happy to listen in at the weekly Sunday slot, beers in hand, but rarely throw more than a few dollars in the collection hat at the end of the service.

The recession is no abstraction for the two pastors. As employees of a church dependent on donations, they both earn a small salary, and neither have health insurance. While they collect offerings during the Sunday sermons, most donations come through the website. In 2009, even these online donations slowed down to a trickle, and the paid speaking gigs that Jay used to depend on for income dried up as well.

On top of that, with a last name like Bakker, fundraising poses a unique challenge. "I don't like raising money, or talking about money. And of course on top of that there's the whole ‘Look now, that Bakker kid is following in the footsteps.'"

Troubled fiscal waters notwithstanding, Revolution's Williamsburg-tinged version of the gospel carries on. During a sparsely attended sermon in the midst of a holiday blizzard that pounded the East Coast, Bakker discussed Galatians, the book in which the apostle Paul laments that the people of Galatia had been led astray from Paul's Christ-centered teachings. In fact, Bakker is currently working on a book about Galatians, one of his favorite books in the Bible. He later told me why he finds himself drawn to the story.

Paul started a Church in Galatia, where they had really accepted the concept of grace. But then another group of people came in and said, you need holidays, circumcisions, rules and regulations to get closer to God. Paul's letter is a rebuke, a bit of a rebuke to the Church.

As biblical parables go, it's not too hard to see why this one appeals to the evolving and difficult to pin down Christianity according to Jay Bakker. "Too much grace, not enough judgment or condemnation," is how he sums up most of the critiques lodged by his conservative critics. Not that he spends much time paying attention to them -- he keeps himself fairly busy working on his book, speaking at conferences, and planning sermons. He also spends many hours corresponding with friends, colleagues, congregants, and the many Revolution fans who tune in from outside of New York, some of whom pop up every now and then in the back of the bar on Lorimer Street. On a January afternoon, a couple from Philadelphia spoke to Jay after the sermon. They'd been listening to the podcast for a year, and decided it was time to visit in the flesh.

"It was just wonderful to be here and meet Jay, to sit in on a sermon," said Sheryl Bruzek. "It's hard to feel part of a community when you're not physically there -- this really helped me feel a little more connected."

It was fitting that the afternoon's sermon, given by Reverend Vince, had focused on the importance of loving and embracing those we don't know. According to Vince the phrase "love your neighbor" appears only once in the Bible, whereas the exhortation to "love the stranger" appears thirty-six times.

There are few cities in the United States as chock-full of strangers bumping in to each other at such a fast clip as New York City. Jay still seems to be getting used to it, acknowledging that compared to Atlanta, where his ministry overflowed with events and constant entreaties to meet and discuss and offer counsel on personal issues, the idea of Revolution has been a harder sell in a city that privileges the individual. At a recent Bible study meeting publicized regularly at Sunday sermons and on the website, not one member of the flock showed up.