St. Charles church moves services from donut shop to downtown brewery

Bethany Covenant Church in St. Charles will move its services from a donut shop to a brewery with the first service to be held at 9 a.m. on Sept. 29.

The Evangelical Covenant church has been holding its services in Dimple’s Donuts at 1307 E. Main St. for the past two years, and is moving to Pollyanna Brewing and Distilling Company at 106 S. Riverside Ave. this month in order to have more room to grow.

Pastor Laura Tarro said when the church first opened they saw about 10 to 15 people each week. Now they have about 40 members at each service and are growing steadily.

Holding services in a donut shop, and soon a brewery, is not the only thing that makes Bethany Covenant unique. Tarro said they have a much more relaxed approach to worship compared to the large masses in traditional churches.

Bethany Covenant ditches the pews and dress codes and aims to make everyone feel welcome. Members sit at tables together during services and they often pause during teachings to allow members to engage in group discussions.

Tarro said a lot of their members have come from large churches where they felt disconnected. She said they are very intentional about being relaxed and hospitable, and making their church a place where everybody has a voice in the conversation.

Tarro said their services are a more casual version of the liturgy, which includes lots of music and often sharing food together after the service.

“At a lot of churches, you have the expert on the stage teaching, and we really try to decenter that,” Tarro said. “We follow a fairly traditional worship set, with written prayers, singing, creeds and all the stuff, but we do it in a more relaxed way.”

Worship leader Ethan Bryant is in charge of organizing the church’s volunteers, planning the songs and leading the music during services where he plays guitar. He and Tarro have been leaders of Bethany Covenant since it opened.

Bryant said they see a wide range of ages and demographics, with newborns to seniors, several multi-generational families and a lot of teenagers. He said another unique aspect of their church is that it is led by two female pastors and they do communion every week, which is very different from most Protestant churches.

Several times per year they hold Youth Sundays, where they let the younger members of the congregation lead the services. Tarro said those are always fun services and they allow the young members to grow into leadership roles.

Once a month, they have a potluck after the service, where members stay to share a meal and get to know each other.

Tarro said in addition to the added space, the new location allows them to get into the community in a different way. She said the owners of the brewery are very involved in the community, giving back in different ways, and they hope to join in those efforts to connect more with the community.

Tarro said they hope to keep adding members, especially from the St. Charles community, and she thinks the new space will allow for the next two years of growth. She said their goal is to eventually have their own permanent space in the community, but for now they are happy to have a space to rent once per week that fits their needs and allows them to build community connections.

“We’re just excited to see what happens in this new location,” Tarro said.

Bryant said the response from church members to the move has been very positive. They tried out the location for a service in August that was attended by about 75 people, who he said were enthusiastic about the space.

Tarro said it takes a certain amount of humility for a church to operate out of someone else’s space. Bryant added that it also shows a commitment from the congregation, and their members have embraced the change.

“I think it says something about a church when they’re willing to meet in unique spaces,” Tarro said. “It definitely brings some challenges with it, but we really enjoy having those connection points and our hope is to be a good neighbor to all of these different businesses around St. Charles.”