Issue: The use of alcohol, and Christians utilizing establishments that serve alcohol.

CRN/Slice Take: Last summer, Ken Silva made a great deal of sound and fury that Rob Bell’s “Everything is Spiritual” tour was not being held in church buildings, but in nightclubs and other establishments which served alcohol.

More recently, an outreach ministry (NOTE: Not the church, itself)  of The Journey, an emerging church in St. Louis, has started meeting in the Schlafly Bottleworks on Wednesday nights, as a way of engaging people in the culture of their city.  Predictably, Slice 2.0 does not approve.

Paul Walker sniffs:

Alcohol consumption issues aside, the real problem is a complete misunderstanding by the church in, “How does God convert the human soul?” If salvation of the lost depends on my fleshly efforts, then I’d better use any idea or method I can think up (even free beer night). But, if salvation is by grace and God’s Holy Spirit moving lost men to regeneration and repentance through hearing His precious Word, I’d better not waste time on beer ,pretzels and artsy chat, but rather, proclaiming the Word He commanded me to.

Bob Hyatt, who sits on our blogroll, is pastor of the Evergreen Community Church, a “pub church” in downtown Portland, Oregon.  Over the past few years, he has received a great deal of grief from Ken, Ingrid and company for the mere location of his church.

On alcohol usage, itself, Slice 2.0 has remained silent, though disapproving in aside comments.  Slice 1.0 was a bit more vocal on the subject, but… (you know that story).  On a blog post we recently linked to, Anthony, who seems to be a supporter of the CRN/Slice viewpoints (though I fully admit that he may be an outlier on this, in the absence of other data), writes:

Why is it ok to drink alcohol now & then? Either it’s sin or it’s not. If it’s not sin drink all you want. You’re either hot or cold. Jesus will spit the lukewarm from His mouth. Rev.3:15 Tell me how drinking alcohol brings any glory to God & I will head straight to the nearest wet town & buy some!

My Take: I would divide this into two parts, one of which I suspect I will get some agreement on, and one of which I suspect will be a bit more contentive.

1) Meeting/Witnessing in establishments that serve alcohol:   The old (and sometimes not quite dead enough) legalist in me wants to talk about avoiding even the appearance of impropriety, and to quote I Peter 2:11-12:

Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

The problem with this is that most (if not all) people who would see this as an ‘appearance of impropriety’ are going to be immature or legalistic Christians.  It is not the pagans that would accuse you of doing wrong just for meeting in such an establishment!

When asked why he robbed banks, Willie Sutton, the infamous bank robber said, “Because that’s where the money is.”   Why would Christians who want to reach the lost people in this world want to go into places where the people of the world gather?   The answer is rather evident.

All too often, we as Christians fall into the same trap as the rest of the world, thinking that certain places (like, say, church buildings) are “spiritual”, while other places (like, say, bars and stadiums) are “secular”.  We then fall into the same trap by trying to compartmentalize other parts of our lives as “spiritual” or “secular”, when God makes no such distinction.

However, I think it is also important that this not be the only association/context in which Christians meet, and that in addition to witnessing to the lost that they be deeply rooted in a godly community.  It is important that we can be relevant to the lives of the lost but that the company with which we identify in our hearts and minds, and with our tongues, is that of other believers.

Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”  (I Corinthians 15:33)

2) Use of Alcohol: Here’s where it gets a little tricky, because it is VERY contextual.

I think that most Christians, even those opposed to all forms of alcohol, would agree that the Bible does not forbid drinking of alcohol (which is actually condoned, in some references) but that drunkenness is a sin.

To answer Anthony’s question above – “Tell me how drinking alcohol brings any glory to God” – I would answer that it brings glory to God in the same way that eating or drinking other food and drink brings glory to God.  Who made it?  Who gave you the ability to produce or buy it?  For what purpose was food and drink made?  To eat and to drink!  In doing so, we glorify the God who produced and provided it!

Contrary to his claims, this has nothing to do with the admonition to the church of Laodicea, which the Slice crowd seems to consistently misapply.

In the US, if you’re under the age of 21, drinking alcoholic beverages – even in the privacy of your own home – is sinful, because it is in violation of governmental law

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king. (I Peter 2:13-17)

If you are 21 or older, it is much more of a judgment call, and it should be based on putting everyone else before you as prime consideration.

If you are personally convicted that you should not drink alcohol in a particular situation, and that to do so would be a sin, then by all means do not – because you would be sinning.  Making a conscious decision to do something that you believe is sinful would be viewed by God as sin, as well, even if it is not defined as such in scripture [though the converse of this is NOT always true]. However, do not expect that every other Christian must come to the same conclusion as you.

With alcohol, there ARE some key dangers:

• Each person’s biochemistry is different, and what may not cause drunkenness in one person may push the one next to them completely over the edge of sobriety.  So, it is difficult to know where the limit is, and with some people, the closer you are to the limit, the less likely your judgment skills will be able to ascertain this.
• Enough studies have been conducted on alcoholics and their descendants to know that some people are incredibly susceptible to this horribly destructive disease.  For people with this susceptibility, the ‘trigger level’ may be very low, and once crossed, it cannot be ‘uncrossed’, and that desire/temptation will burn like it never had before
• Driving an automobile with ANY amount of alcohol in your system is dangerous, and being in an accident that injures you or others – whether you are above or below the ‘legal limit’ – would be devastating to your witness.

In light of these dangers, I advise my own children that, when they turn 21, it would be best if they never decided to drink just for their own enjoyment, for the safety of themselves and the ones they love.  We do cook with some alcohols (like an excellent Jack Daniels marinade my wife makes for chicken and beef), but we’ve made it clear that all of the alcoholic content is burned off in the cooking of the meat (though we’re very careful when we buy the liquor with which to make it, so as not to purchase it in a venue that might make someone else stumble).

However, they also have to recognize that there may be some times where it might be OK, particularly in the privacy of their home for a special occasion, or where it would be common courtesy to at least drink a toast or sample someone’s homemade wine/beer (i.e. where it would be a better witness for Christ to drink the alcoholic beverage than to make a show of abstention).

If there is a possibility that, by exercising your freedom in Christ to drink alcohol, you might lead someone else to stumble in their own walk, then it is incumbent upon you to die to your own wants and desires and to abstain from doing so.  It is in this manner that I see many ‘emerging’ Christians (and myself, though not with alcohol, but with other freedoms) struggle.  By all means we have freedom in Christ to drink – so long as we do not become drunk.  However, when that freedom coincides with our own wants and desires, it is all too easy to demand the exercise of that freedom, even to the detriment of others who are weaker than we may be.

Is there a simple rule of thumb? I don’t think so, but there is a test I’ve become familiar with, which could be applied here – specifically if you believe that you are going to a bar to be a witness to others.

Are you willing to go to a pub and witness to others there – to just hang out – without drinking?  Honestly.  If someone else asked you this question just before you entered the pub, would you be offended? Honestly.

If you are willing to go to the pub and witness without drinking, then I would suggest doing exactly that.  Only if you are specifically asked to join someone in a way that would require you to truly offend them and would shed a poor light on your witness should you exercise that freedom you have in Christ.

If you are NOT willing to go to the pub and witness without drinking, then I would suggest that the exercise of your freedom has become more important than the willingness to die to yourself and your desires and to love others as Christ loves them.

If someone else asked you this question before you entered the pub, and it would offend you, then I would also suggest that perhaps your motives and/or your pride are at work here, and that – once again – this is what you should do.  I would suggest that we all consider the words of Paul:

“Everything is permissible” but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible” but not everything is constructive. Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

Eat anything sold in the meat market without raising questions of conscience, for, “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.”

If some unbeliever invites you to a meal and you want to go, eat whatever is put before you without raising questions of conscience. But if anyone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, both for the sake of the man who told you and for conscience’ sake  the other man’s conscience, I mean, not yours. For why should my freedom be judged by another’s conscience? If I take part in the meal with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I thank God for?

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God  even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved. (I Corinthians 10:23-33)

Grace and Peace,

Chris