Betsy Nelson, right, lights the second candle of an Advent wreath as Gene Shank looks on during a Sunday morning gathering in December known as “Bar Church” at Dunnigan's North Shore Pub & Grub in Two Harbors, Minn.

TWO HARBORS, Minn. — It was a Sunday during Advent, and inside a small pub a few blocks up from the north shore of Lake Superior, 17 people gathered around four bar-top tables shoved into a ring.

Betsy Nelson, the bar’s cook, lit two candles with a cigarette lighter as Addison Houle strapped on an acoustic guitar and sang a slightly off-key rendition of “We Three Kings.” Curt “Fish” Anderson sipped a beer as TVs overhead flickered with NFL pregame shows.

“Father, thank you for this time we can share on Sunday morning with new friends,” prayed Chris Fletcher, an emergency medical technician, part-time bartender and seminary student who has led this service every Sunday morning at Dunnigan’s Pub & Grub since last summer. “We’re getting to know you, and getting to know each other better.”

Spending Sunday mornings in a bar sounds like an activity for those running from God. For this small group in a watering hole in Twin Harbors, about 160 miles northeast of Minneapolis, it’s about chasing God. It’s one unconventional place of worship around the country fostered by an evangelical movement known as “the emerging church.”

“I feel closer to God here than I do at a conventional church,” said Nelson, 56, a lifelong churchgoer who until recently could be found every Sunday morning in the pews at First Baptist Church nearby. “Jesus said we’re supposed to be a light to the world. What better place to do that than at a bar?”

After the opening prayer, Fletcher read a brief passage from the Bible before opening the floor to a group discussion. Gene Shank, a 68-year-old retired police officer making his first visit after reading a notice Fletcher put in the local newspaper, confessed to a bit of discomfort.

“I’m a reality person, and I’m finding a little too much established religion here to be honest,” Shank said. “I believe, I pray — but I don’t like structured religion.”

Fletcher responded that, while he wants to be as informal as possible, the main goal is still “creating an open space for Jesus to come into our lives, then he does the transforming work.”

He quickly adds that anyone who questions the way he’s running the service has come to the right place.

“We’re all messed up,” he said. “We’re all screwed up some way.”