It’s no secret that fewer young people are attending weekly church services, so one Halifax youth pastor has decided to bring church to them, in a nightclub.

To an onlooker, it appears to be a regular Friday night at The Dome, one of the busiest nightclubs in downtown Halifax.

Bouncers check IDs, the band warms up the crowd, and the celebration gets underway. However, it’s Sunday night, and there is no alcohol on the menu.

Instead, youth pastor Mike Miller serves up the gospel to 300 parishioners.

“I don't think it's our lights, or our posters. I don't think it's our band, though they're really good,” says Miller. “I think it's the average young adult that's passionate about life and people remember their face and their life and their life speaks louder than my message.”

Miller says he is throwing all the rules out the window with his Church in the Club idea.

“It’s not inside stained-glass windows, nothing wrong with that,” says Miller. “People think ‘I’m not going to church. Like, I would not walk into a building.’ But they know this building.”

The concept has resonated with parishioners like Matt Starrett.

“If we say that Jesus loves everyone, but we just stay in our traditional church building, let's show Halifax that Jesus loves the people that come in here,” he says.

The event at The Dome is an extension of what happens every Friday night at Dalhousie University and Saint Mary’s University. University Church began six years ago as a way to bring church to students, so they didn’t have to worry about getting there.

“People think young adults don’t want to go to church, well we’ve shown that they do,” says Miller.

University Church now averages about 200 people every Friday night.

Jamie showed up to University Church the day after St. Patrick’s Day, hung over. That was over three years ago. Before that, she says she was more likely to be found at a club than a church.

“Every time, when I woke up the next day, that void was still there, that insecurity was still there and it didn’t matter how much I drank, who I was dating, or what drugs I took that night, it was always there,” says Jamie.

She says she now fills that void with God.

But it isn’t just University Church breaking from tradition. Miller is the youth pastor at The Rock Church in Lower Sackville, where parishioners believe religion isn’t about rules.

“I believe there's ways to do church no one has ever thought of,” says Miller. “As long as we keep the why, keep the message, keep why we're doing it, the how can change all day long.”

As for University Church, the youth come because they believe, but Miller says he is there because he believes in them.

“People think teenagers, all they want to do is sleep in. Or they're all getting high all the time. Or that, you know, they're not going to move out of their parents’ house until they're 30,” says Miller.

“I've come to believe that this generation, that this generation is actually the one that wants to change the world.”

With files from CTV Atlantic's Kayla Hounsell