A church in South East England is taking a different approach when it comes to gathering and sharing God’s Word, especially for those who are fans of heavy metal music.
“Fire and Blood” was created when friends Rob Byrne, Roger Kiralfy, and George Papachristodoulou decided to incorporate their love of Jesus with their passion for heavy metal, the BBC South East reports.
“I was exploring metal and the Christian faith and how they can work together,” Papachristodoulou said. “I think that God placed me in the area to start a metal community based on the Christian faith. Everything the metal culture stands for is very close to the Christian ethos.”
Another element that sets Fire and Blood apart from other churches is that it doesn’t hold worship gatherings in a traditional church building. The group meets in a nightclub called Tap N Tin in Chatham, Kent, on the first Sunday of each month.
And they use the Metal Bible during their services, which is a special Bible edition designed for metal music lovers.
It contains the New Living Translation’s version of the New Testament along with testimonies from popular Christian and secular heavy-metal bands, including Korn’s Brian Welch, Stryper’s Michael Sweet, Tourniquet’s Ted Kirkpatrick, and Iron Maiden’s NickoMcBrain.
“I think that God placed me in the area to start a metal community based on the Christian faith.”https://t.co/6C23oJJYEk
— BBC South East (@bbcsoutheast) November 10, 2021
Church members are also focused on challenging the false notions that heavy metal music and Christianity aren’t compatible.
“If you encounter music that you feel, for whatever reason, is leading you away from God, then I’d discourage that person from listening to it,” Byrne told the BBC. “But that’s always going to be a personal thing and I can very easily find a lot of that in pop music rather than heavy metal specifically so I think it’s not a genre-specific thing.”
Members of Fire and Blood say they’ve even received criticism from Christians and non-believers over their different approach.
“We were expecting to have issues with Christians judging us,” Papachristodoulou noted. , However, he said, “The atheists were the ones that tried to fault us more.”
Ultimately, Fire and Blood is just trying to offer a comfortable place where like-minded people can come together and share God’s love.
“This is really my opportunity to talk to people with similar tastes to me … maybe the same sort of attitudes,” said Kiralfy. “It’s somewhere I can be myself.”
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