EVER considered asking your church minister to pull you a pint? Probably not, until tonight.

The Griffin pub has waved its magic wand, and convinced Halstead’s church ministers to spend their Friday night serving punters behind the pub’s bar.

The pub hopes the evening will enable residents to meet with their minister in a relaxed environment, and prove church leaders aren’t just for Sundays.

Bar manager Gilly Ryan said: “When I was working on the Town Team I met with Sean Carter and we thought it would be an interesting idea.

“Youngsters, and people in general I think, don’t realise that ministers actually have lives outside of the church.

“There is also the common misconception that they only work on Sundays, which simply isn’t true.

“They are available all the time, and are always happy to talk to anyone about anything, but people definitely don’t realise that.”

Reverend Sean Carter from Halstead Baptist Church will be joined behind the bar by Katie De Bourcier of St Andrew’s Church, and others from the town.

Gilly added: “We have been planning the idea for a while, but wanted to give Katie a chance to settle in first.

“It is quite a quirky, unique concept, that we haven’t really done before.

“None of the ministers have really done anything like this before so they are a little nervous, but it should be good fun.”