Christian Praise Finds a Place in Downtown Melbourne Nightlife

MELBOURNE — Among the club beats and country line-dance hits of the downtown Melbourne nightlife, bar crawlers in recent months might have encountered something unexpected: the sound of Christian praise.

While Marcela Rojas has been evangelizing in downtown Melbourne for close to two years now, she quit her job in March to expand the effort into a full-time ministry. Her small team can be found weekly providing a message of hope through music and evangelism and inviting locals to a new Sunday gathering in the heart of downtown.

“We don't want to chase the bars away; we want to meet people there,” Rojas said of the effort. The vision is to “be there and available” for clubgoers in need of hope.

From Bartender to Christian Ministry

Rojas, who is friends with the local bouncers, is no stranger to the nightlife. She worked as a bartender in downtown Orlando in her early adulthood and dismisses concerns about her safety working downtown Melbourne with the assurance that she’s “seen worse.”

“It doesn’t offend me,” Rojas said of the scenes she encounters in her late-night evangelism efforts. “People ask me if I'm afraid to be out here. I'm like, no. If the devil couldn't destroy me when I was out there in the palm of his hand, I don’t have anything to be afraid of now that I’m in the palm of God.”

Rojas’ path from working bars in Orlando to street evangelism wasn’t direct. While her father was a minister, Rojas credits the prayers of her son for bringing her back to the church and Pastor Ken Delgado of the House Church in Palm Bay, who she calls her “spiritual father,” for discipling her in her Christian journey. She earned both her bachelor's and master's degrees at Life Christian University, where Delgado serves as campus director and where Rojas now serves as a professor teaching personal evangelism.

But her experience in what she calls her “B.C. era” (before Christ) continues to impact her ministry today.

“I heard a lot of stories then, but I didn’t know where to point them to,” Rojas said. “This is different. I can point them to… Philippians 1:26… I can point them to the joy of my Christ. I know where to point them to, who has the answer, who can make a difference in their life.”

While Rojas is comfortable navigating occasional late-night skirmishes and intoxicated conversations, her friendships with local bouncers provide an added layer of safety for her team. She recounted with a laugh how she “checks in” with the bouncer at Foo Bar before heading out for the night. The bouncer at Mainstreet Pub, a fellow Christian, also keeps an eye out for the group and has attended several services and Bible study sessions.

God Moments on the Streets

It’s the God-inspired moments, however, that keep Rojas coming back.

One night, while playing the Chandler Moore song “God I’m Just Grateful,” Rojas recalled that the song stopped a man on his way to the clubs. “That’s my favorite song!” he screamed from the middle of the street. “I have no business being out here… I’m going home.” He turned and left.

Another encounter brought a new member to her team. Naomi has been serving with the outreach since she met Rojas on the streets last October.

“It was like 11 p.m. I was setting up my karaoke speaker, and she and her friend came out,” Rojas related. “She said, ‘Hey, are you gonna sing?’ And I said, ‘Oh, no, I don't sing. I'm preaching the good news of the gospel.’ And I said, ‘Do you sing?’ And she looked at her friend and she smiles. She goes, ‘I do worship.’”

Rojas told her to grab a mic and pick a song. That night, seven people came up for prayer, and she and Rojas prayed over them together.

On her birthday, Naomi reached out to Rojas asking if she could serve again. “She was like, ‘Hey, it’s my birthday weekend. Can we do that again and pray for people?’” Rojas recalled with a laugh. “I was like, ‘You want to turn 22 with me?’”

“That's how our friendship and ministry together have been developing,” Rojas said. “When people ask me, ‘What are you doing?’ I’m like, ‘God's developing that. I'm showing up.’ And then he shows me another part of it, another step of it.”

Naomi has been serving with Rojas ever since, both through worship and prayer on the streets and with one of the latest “next steps”: a Sunday afternoon fellowship designed to bring Christian service to the people of the downtown nightlife.

A Fellowship Downtown

Lux Church, named after the Latin word for light, began meeting at Holmes Park by the downtown riverwalk seven weeks ago. The simple service starts at 1 p.m.—late enough for Saturday night clubgoers to recover and make the gathering.

Rojas was impressed with a vision of the fellowship after undergoing a 21-day fast in January, but, thinking she needed a building, the vision was put on the shelf. That was until Delgado urged her to take a step of faith.

“He goes, ‘When are you doing Sunday service?’” Rojas related. “I was like, ‘Well, when we have a building.’”

Delgado didn’t seem to think that was a sufficient reason for delay. “Or you could just go out there like Jesus did,” Rojas recalled him saying. “I said, ‘But it's 110 degrees and it's raining.’ And he goes, ‘So?’”

And so Lux Church launched in the open-air park. The service schedule fits well into the downtown outreach routine. Worship volunteers practice at the park in the early evening on Thursdays and then run through their set on the New Haven Avenue bar stretch into the night while prayer and outreach is taking place.

Friday and Saturday nights, Rojas is usually out late with whoever is available to volunteer, sometimes until 3 a.m. or “until the cops tell us to go home,” offering prayer and inviting the people to the Sunday fellowship.

In addition to the Sunday fellowship, Rojas hosts a Wednesday night Bible study also at the park and has been known to host spontaneous Bible studies in nearby bars.

The vision for the fellowship is to be a “consistent outreach post,” Rojas said, emphasizing the goal of consistency and the fruit it’s producing in the downtown nightlife. “This is like shooting fish in a barrel.”

“People go [to the clubs] to have a fun time, but it's not fulfilling. It doesn't satisfy. And so after they get out of there, or even on their way there, they can meet us, and we can point them to the one that satisfies,” Rojas said.

The long-term goal is still to have a building, and Rojas has been speaking with the city about zoning and regulations while looking at locations. Real estate downtown is expensive, but Rojas is confident God is leading the effort and will provide for the vision planted in her heart.

For now, they will continue to hold service on the streets, “like Jesus did.”

Find Lux Church on YouTube @PastorMarceleLux or visit Holmes Park for Sunday Services at 1 p.m.

— Connor Mahoney is a Brevard County native and graduate of Florida Institute of Technology. He attends Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Melbourne.

— Christians of Brevard is a multi-church initiative that seeks to amplify the voices of local churches and ministries for the purpose of encouraging the local body of Christ and advancing the Kingdom of God. Join our Facebook community @ChristiansOfBrevard