To the pub

The church study group that I attend is planned to meet in the local pub (bar/hotel/alcohol joint) to 'be in the community' and maybe have some conversations with the denizens.

Firstly, I doubt that we would have any useful conversations with the denizens, but perhaps.

Secondly, if we want to visit the pub for a social evening, all well and good. Just don't drink too much and don't get into any fights (more a problem in some places than others).

Thirdly,  "whaaat?!" As the 'medium is the message', as Marshall McLuhan has written, we submerge our message into a contradictory medium and align it with a dissonant message. The message of the pub is not the message of study. I wouldn't have gone to the pub to study my finance textbook so why would I go there to study the Bible?

This would be a 'show-off' stunt. Most patrons would see it as seeking to show them up as lesser people, even with a jar of ale on our table.

Moreover, if we prayed, we would be praying on the street corner for all to see, against the word of our Lord in Matthew 5:5-6:

When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

 In fact, the whole thing would be a street corner event. Not good.

In none of the pagan cults I've encountered was this ever a recruitment approach. Sure some members might have gone to pubs for quiet conversations as individuals; but generally their intake was via free talks about self-serving quasi spiritual techniques and success stories, or 'club' type events, entertainment evenings (music, film) and supper afterwards with no pressure, some promotions for innocuous weekend courses or 're-calibration' meditation, etc. but no pressure.

What might work is a parson in the pub event monthly from, say, between Easter and Advent, as long as the parson brought a few pals to order beers and was a great raconteur.