On May 4, 2014, about 30 people gathered in the banquet room at the former Marietta Brewing Company in Marietta Ohio for a simple idea: drink beer and talk about Jesus.
We’re now 12 years out from the birth of New Wineskins, an alternative type of faith community seeking to live beyond the confines of institutional Christianity and its considerable baggage.
And now it’s time for this chapter to end and for new ones to begin.
Over our dozen years of existence we’ve moved from the first “pub church” in the Mid-Ohio Valley area to a fully integrated online community featuring weekly Zoom gatherings and a robust Facebook presence where we share ideas and discuss issues of importance.
We’ve welcomed people from more than a dozen states and at least two other countries. We’ve hosted artists, authors, musicians, storytellers, activists, poets, community resource leaders, and many others to both our in-person and online gatherings.
We’ve supported LGBTQ+ groups and Pride events both locally and nationally, raised funds to help offset medical debt in Appalachia, collected fresh drinking water for the Southern West Virginia Coalfields, helped support dozens of mutual aid groups, and much more. Our content channel, Accidental Tomatoes, delivered podcast episodes and blog articles covering issues related to justice and liberation, and for the past five years, our New Wineskins Networks nonprofit organization has sponsored the popular Thirsty Goose beer tent at the annual Wild Goose Festival.
It’s been a busy 12 years for our little band of Spiritual Exiles! And while some of our initiatives will continue in new forms, it’s time for our final gathering as a community.
We hope you can join us Sunday, May 3, in the Virtual Theology Pub powered by Zoom for our last-ever New Wineskins Community Gathering. We’ll talk about some of our highlights over the past dozen years, share our favorite moments, and celebrate the community we’ve formed together.
Rather than our usual format, our Last Call Gathering will be open-house style…feel free to drop in & out of the Zoom call at your leisure.
6:00-7:30pm ET: Extended Last Call Happy Half-Hour (join as you’re able)
A Note from our Founder…
Dear Friends,
I still remember sitting at the bar of the old Marietta Brewing Company one April afternoon back in 2014, texting a couple friends about how we could start something new for people in the Mid-Ohio Valley area who were—for lack of a better way of putting it—sick of church. One of the Brewery’s owners stopped by to chat and I asked her just out of curiosity how often they rented out their banquet space on Sunday evenings.
“Almost never,” she answered. “If you want it for a church thing it’s yours…no extra charge.”
And New Wineskins was born.
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