Church Army Evangelist Opens Night Club Church in Wales

A Church Army evangelist has launched Cardiff's first church in a club - Solace, last week.

Wendy Sanderson who has been a nightclub evangelist for four years along with James Karran, a young priest at Ararat Baptist Church had an opening night for Solace last Sunday at Clwb Ifor Bach.

The event was not a typical club night, Church Army said, with over 100 people, most of whom were non-churchgoers, turning up to the Cardiff nightclub from as far as Swansea through to the valleys.

The fresh expression of evangelism saw guests sat round tables chatting away as they listened to music. "We wanted to create a safe environment where people could meet, somewhere they are familiar with already, where they can have fun and learn about God," says Sanderson. "James and I met a year ago and we've both got a heart for people in the club scene and that kind of environment as well as people in our generation.

"We realised that a lot of people we came into contact with were saying they could never go to church so we started thinking about how could we tie in the club culture with church community and make church relevant to people. After lots of prayer meetings and brainstorming, James had a contact with the manager of Clwb Ifor Bach about us using it for a club every week and it all began from there."

Solace, which will meet every Sunday night at Clwb Ifor Bach, hopes to provide "a relevant church for twenty-first century Britain. A place where twenty-somethings can go to mingle, laugh, debate, listen to guest speakers plus have a chance to voice their thoughts and be heard", Church Army said.