“Each week we BBQ, drink beer, and hang out together,” said Pastor Smets. Nearly all of the people at The Resolved live in Pacific Beach and work there. At Sunday’s service, six of the seven people who attended worked within one block of each other, on Garnet Avenue in Pacific Beach. “I work in a record store, two people work in coffee shops, and two at a clothing store. We all ride bikes to work. I haven’t bought gas in a month-and-a-half,” said Smets.

“Since we all ride bikes, we started a bike gang called the DreadKnocks,” said Joe Foster, a congregant of the church. The name, DreadKnocks, came from the Cobra gang in G.I. Joe that hangs out in the swamp. Foster and the gang wear denim vests with their gang’s moniker on the back. Foster said that a local rival gang has felt threatened by them. “We’re thinking of challenging them to a jump duel to end the rivalry once and for all.” Foster moved to Pacific Beach from Nashville after he met Smets and Bragg at a conference about starting new churches. Foster said this church has been a departure from past church experiences. “If you are looking for someone to give you all the answers and pump you up to make you feel good, you won’t like this church. If you want honest people that talk about how we can deal with the human condition from a Biblical perspective, you will like it. This is a nonthreatening environment for people to learn about the Bible.”

Full Article: The Resolved Church