Jesus and Beer
I don’t really get it. Maybe I am just a dinosaur. Maybe I am an old fuddy-duddy that can’t see out of the box on this one. So I have more questions than answers. But shouldn’t we at least ask the questions?
I attended a great church last weekend. Looking around it would appear that God is blessing this church in an amazing way. Lots of young families as well as senior adults. The worship was outstanding.
I really liked the style of the Pastor. Warm. Friendly. Inviting. Great message until he made this statement: “We need to be able to pull up a chair with a friend, grab a beer, start conversation and make Jesus the center of attention!”
The teaching was from Mark 2 where Jesus called Levi to come follow him and the reference that Jesus was eating with the sinner and outcasts.
I struggle with how Jesus and beer can be all about Jesus being the center of attention. Maybe I have just not traveled in the “right” circles. The times that I have been with people who are drinking socially, non-Christian’s and Christians, Jesus has far been the center of attention.
In fact, most sadly, the people that we have traveled with have made the alcohol the center of attention – so much so that in most instances, there were people who were down right drunk.
Can we not have “conversation” about our faith in Christ with a lost world without a beer in our hands?
Do we think that Jesus “lived it up” with the crowd, or did he stand out so that people were drawn to Him because He was different?
This is not meant to be judgmental, but most of my Facebook friends who post pictures on Facebook these days are posting pictures in bars. I don’t see them sitting around tables having conversation with the lost. As I said this might be a BIG judgment. Maybe they are sitting around the table sharing how God has been at work in their lives during the week. Maybe, just maybe they are sharing what they have learned as they have read God’s Word.
Maybe I am sensitive to this because I serve at America’s Keswick where I see firsthand the devastation that alcohol cause families. Maybe I am sensitive because I have not been around people who drink responsibly, but take liberty to the excess.
Do we lessen our impact to this lost and dying world if we don’t drink a beer with them? Or does it really fuel the need we have to be able to get as close to the world without crossing the line without realizing how quickly that line can be crossed?
If we are interested in reaching drug addicts do we feel the need to smoke a joint with them in order to relate, reach or begin conversation with them?
You may be saying, Welte, you are a legalistic, narrow-minded, old fuddy-duddy. But I asked the question. Maybe you can share your answers with me.
How does drinking a beer with a unsaved friend give me a platform for sharing the gospel and making Jesus the center of attention? I look forward to the conversation.
Daily Bible Reading: Exodus 36-38; James 4
Quote of the day: Let us sing even when we do not feel like it, for thus we may give wings to leaden feet and turn weariness into strength. Dr. John Henry J. H. Jowett
Bible Memory: Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promises; then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me, for I trust in your word. Psalm 119:41-42
Freedom Fighters 
i Corinthians 6:12 and 1023 In the KJV says all things are lawful but all things are not expedient. The question that the one who would witness must ask himself is “Why is the other person drinking? what is his motive? will he not ascribe the same reason to the “christian”. Why do we need to drink alcahol is our water polluted? Can we not drink water and make clear to the other that we do not need alcahol but we both need Jesus. When the Salvation Army first started to witness in drinking establishments the soon saw a need for a uniform to help distinguish them from other patrons and they did not need to tempt themselves by going down to lift up; We can better lift up those who need to rise to our standerd by staying above and REACHING DOWN where we are on solid ground. To fall down does not help the fallen. Paul said that if my actions (eating meat offered to idols) causes another to sin he would eat no such meat. If we love others we want them to be safe from temptation not a temptation to us but to them.
Here is one mans concern
The Preacher’s Prayer
Oh that I could sing a song
That would lift your spirit higher.
Oh that I could strike a spark
That would set your soul on fire.
Oh that when I leave this world
After my final minute
May you know your life is better
Because (for a while) I was in it.
For if I should have a haunting fear
Or a concept that I dread,
It is that those who crossed my path
Were given stone for bread.
That those who look up to the pulpit
And prayed to God a special wish,
Did they get from me a serpent when
What they needed then was a fish.
That those who came to our church
After a night at the Orpheum
When they sought from me an egg
Did I give to them a scorpion?
For the images that Jesus used
As He taught men how to pray
Could easily be confused
In the hustle of our day.
For stones have looked like bread,
Serpents like fish without skin.
And a curled up scorpion
Looks like an egg, but then,
When we get past the appearance
And look beneath the shell,
What looked like a promised heaven
Resembled more like hell
So when I preach a sermon
Or share an idle thought
I wonder what folk have learned.
What lesson have I taught?
O Lord, set a watch over me
Over my mind and lip
That I may not cause another
To wreck his fragile ship.
May my life become a blessing
To those who know me well,
Those who know me as I am
(And not just my outer shell.)
Make my heart be true to You,
All that I have and am
Lest just one of your little ones
Because of me be damned.
Let me find in You my hope and Joy,
The focus of my idle thought.
That I might be the teacher of others
Sharing all that I’ve been taught.
Then my life will be to You
Of some special worth,
And this world will be better
Because of my very birth.
First, the ones my mother gave me
That started me in life
Then the new ones that You gave
That ended internal strife.
And the very end of my life
Will be just the turning of a page
As I join the wedding party
With the one (for I am engaged
To The King’s only dear Son)
For when this thought I remember
It helps me through each problem
In the darkest day of December.
ghvs 6/2/96
It amazes me what is coming out of the pulpit today. We don’t need to be like the world to get them to accept us. I just can’t see a connection between a beer and witnessing. Very good thoughts Bill.
Bill I am with you 100%. I left the church in Philly that I’d been attending because of the attitude toward social drinking there, to the point that they hosted a wine tasting at my small group! No thanks. I’m very happily attending Calvary Chapel now. Joe Focht is more my style, conviction wise.
Not drinking a beer doesn’t make us Christians or “good Christians.” However, wisdom dictates not to do so. Those familiar with the ways of alcohol dependency know that sometimes it begins innocently enough, and overtime leads to excess. One doesn’t know ahead of time if he or she is a personality that will be so affected. Further, it sets an example to one’s children that may inadvertently lead them on the paths of dependency, not the paths of righteousness. Where I worked for 16 years many employees would go to the local bars for a little TGIF imbibing after work on Fridays. I did not go. However, perhaps twice a year I would go and order a tomato juice or a seven-up. I wanted to show that I did not look down on them, and that I wasn’t so weak and fearful that I was afraid to enter a bar. A couple expressed surprise to see me there. However, I did not discuss salvation while I was visiting with them, although all knew that I am a Christian. At the same time, I’m not going to take a holier than thou attitude because I know that the Puritans had taverns in their towns. Nevertheless, times are different, and I believe that we should err, if indeed we are erring, on the side of caution, and show godly wisdom in favor of abstinence. Thank you for reading this overly wordy, somewhat convoluted analysis.