Church serves free Beer to congregants during service.

In a bid to attract members, the East Side Christian Church in Tulsa decided to give away beer during service last weekend.

The church posted on its marquee that it is offering Beer and Hymns as part of an outreach weekend discussion forum to talk about the future of the Christian church.

Congregants during the service:

The event, which featured Portland-based religious author Christian Piatt, saw congregants, who were given a two drink limit, sipping on fresh beer and singing church hymns.

In his defence of the church’s decision to host the beer and hymns service which turned out to be a success, Pastor Taylor said it attracted a large crowd and got people talking, Christian Post reports.

He said: “It went really good, we had between 80 to 100 people turn out. Half were members of our church and half were just visitors, or people wanting to see what it was about, or people from other churches.

“We did have some protesters up front. It started with about six, then they left for a while and came back after the event with 20 people. They were just shouting at us that we’re ‘going to hell.

“To people that don’t like it, it might not be for you and not every church service is for everyone, which is why there are 1,000 different churches on every street corner you look at. We reach people, we had many people come through that said they have never felt comfortable enough to come into a church until they saw that sign and they’re not alcoholics, or drunks, they’re just people that like to have a beer every now and again.”

Taylor added that the church is planning to hold another “beer and hymns” night early next year due to popular demand.