Sharing Jesus at a Cynical Poetry Bar in Denver

With shaky hands, Justin walked up to the stage. 

The opportunity was months in the making. The Denver City Team had begun frequenting this poetry bar early in the year, building relationships with those they met.

Each week as the various poets had artfully and passionately spoken on the evils of God and religion and celebrated their freedom from it, the team members had sat in the audience and prayed, asking God to show them His heart for these young people and to open a door to communicate His love and truth.

And then, finally, He did.

“Johnny is like the king of the room - very influential. And his piece was hard. It was heavily against Jesus, to the point where I was super offended. I wanted to go up and confront him afterwards but then the Holy Spirit spoke to me, ‘No. Listen to what he’s saying. Listen to his heart.’”

When the slam ended that night, Justin walked up to Johnny. “I said to Johnny, ‘Dude, your word was really good - it was hard for me at first. I was offended because I’m a Christian. I believe in Jesus. But then it switched and instead of being offended, it intrigued me.’ 

So we started having this conversation and I asked him, ‘What is it between you and God? Where’s the hurt? Where’s the anger?’ And he said, ‘It’s my grandma.’ Well my grandma raised me. So we connected over that. And then Johnny said, ‘When do we get to hear you?’ I said, ‘No, no, I don’t do that. What would I even do it on?’ Piper said, ‘Do it on your faith!’

“They literally invited me to share Jesus from the stage. They wanted to hear it. And on the way home that night, the Lord started pouring words into me.”

Five days later, at the open mic night, Justin took the stage. “They called my name and I was just trembling. I’d been praying, ‘God, your will be done.’ I didn’t look at anybody, I was just staring at my screen. I got to the end of it and I heard clapping and cheering and snaps. So I did one more, and then one more. At the end of that, I went back to my seat and Johnny walked across the room, he shook my hand and he said, ‘Thank you.’”

The story is far from over, but since that moment, the community at the poetry bar have welcomed the City Team in with open arms. Influential poets in the scene have invited them to writers groups and book clubs, and the discipleship relationships are getting stronger. Other followers of Christ who were a part of the community are becoming bold with their faith and are speaking the name of Jesus on stage.

“Even the atmosphere in the room is changing,” team member Emma shared. “It used to be ice. Unless it was something hateful, whenever anybody got up on the stage and talked about God, everyone would tense up or boo. But the room is changing.”

Please join us in praying that the culture of this poetry bar would continue to change as our Denver City Team continues to show up and relevantly communicate the hope of the Gospel.