I don't understand the question

This was written for another blog in response to the following question:
"Where are the Christian hang out spots?"...


What I'm about to say must be seen in the perspective of one recently out and back in the world from three years at Seminary in lalaland in the southern districts of the North American Oilfields...where I had to sign a piece of paper promising not to use tobacco or liquor nor wear flip-flop sandals or jeans on campus while feeding on God's Word and centuries of male dominated church history...

To quote some popular wristbands and other fridge magnets:
"What would Jesus do?"

If you don't like smoke or intoxicated people, then the botanical gardens sound like an option. Personally, I welcome the patrons' original conversations and lack of pre-rehearsed excuses for their unbelief in the locations you've described above, precisely because their intellectual fears and need for social acceptance seems to be taken care of by beverages served in the hang-outs where they choose to go to...as a follower of Christ, I often enjoy being a fly against the wall with a whiskey on the rocks as I spy on the reality of those who I feel drawn to love for His sake.

As a non-smoker (ever) myself, I really start praying when my sinuses are protesting but generally the challenge of making friends in communities where saints fear to go over-ride my personal preferences for convenience. Ironically, every time I pull on my leather jacket and pick up the faint scent of last weekend it fires up my determination to be pleasantly surprised by a future conversation with a fellow mortal who doesn't know all the answers...

If the music is making me aggressive or too flirty, I leave.
If the guys enjoying their beers are singing rugby-songs, I don't even enter the building.
If I have to dodge balloon-swinging-face-painted-toddlers at the salad-bar or listen to non-stop bitchy comments about horrible office colleagues, I consider watching a movie instead.

I admit: I don't check before hand if I have sufficient shampoo/washing-powder/hot water to deal with the price of being alive/able to spend time and money on activities of leisure/whether I am determined to win a soul for Christ today.
I just dump my smelly clothes in the laundry bag and crash in my comfy bed.

With my ears still ringing from sternum-throbbing-music, I find my favourite position amidst an ocean of pillows and duvet-waves smelling like fabric-softener. As blood returns to my shoeless toes, I am dumb-founded by the fact that despite several layers of clothing, smoke can still find a way to the item of underwired underwear I planed to wear to church tomorrow...

Why do you want to hang out?

If you need a break from wherever the week's demands consume your energies - by all means hit the coffee bars' non-smoking section as Roger suggests...or go to the theatre for movies, dance or drama...or just have a milkshake at a nursery and enjoy the quiet beauty of God's creativity.

If you want to avoid offensive, lonely and often selfish people who need God, stay at home, take a bubble bath and read very selectively.

Like I say, I don't understand the question....

If we're serious about being what this blog/conference/conversation is about etc....we need to:
ask the right questions and be willing to adjust the parameters which determine our personal concepts of comfort when we find the answers.

My default-guide-to-wisdom-question as asked by a fellow traveler to Amahoro:
"...why were the prostitutes, tax-collectors...(fill in your preferred choice of outcast-demographic here)...so comfortable with Jesus?" - Bob Pyne -

...I am still trying to figure this one out...