Gilead is a queer storytelling bar church that meets…somewhere… at 5 pm on Sunday nights. Each week, we have at least two storytellers, telling short (4 - 5 min) stories.
Our storytellers come from all over, and have all kinds of connections to Gilead. Many are friends, supporters, and congregants, others are Chicago-area performers, writers, comics whom we invite. We never ask (like, we don't care) our tellers if they're Christian or religious and many are neither. We don't ask tellers to say anything religious — unless their story is about religion.
We do affirm that every person's story is sacred (whether it's about partying with the NY Giants after they won the Super Bowl or coming out) and so we say a very churchy thing after each story, that in some churches gets said only about scripture: "This is the word of God for the people of God." You don't have to think we're right about that; we just didn't want you to be surprised.
We ask tellers to arrive by 4:45 but other than that, it's wide open. Wear what you want, participate as much or as little as you want. No one will think anything one way or the other. You're totally welcome and we're grateful to have your voice in the mix!
We don't have any restrictions on language (except, obviously, anything hateful or disrespectful. We're a lot of LGBTQ+ folks and affirm everyone as they are). We are trying to cut back on f-bombs these days, but any language you've got that's integral to the story is fine with us.