A denominational leader chairing a new pastor's ordination council noted that the young man had failed to sign the abstinence pledge on his paperwork. He hadn't forgotten to sign the pledge. He didn't want to sign it. Why be a hypocrite?
"You do know it is our policy that clergy abstain from alcohol," the elder minister said to the candidate.
"Yes, I'm aware of the policy," the young pastor replied, and the discussion ended. Neither one seemed interested in pressing the issue. The young pastor never signed the pledge. Now, other pastoral candidates have named the newfound loophole in the man's honor.
Their search for a workaround demonstrates a shift in attitudes among Christian leaders, especially younger leaders, toward alcohol. Even in denominations and traditions that championed prohibition and railed against those who drink, smoke, or chew (or go with those who do) many leaders see such restrictions as inappropriate today.
"The doctrines that get nailed down in one generation become the next generation's 'What?'—like a dog turning its head when it hears a strange sound," said Matt Russell, founding pastor of Mercy Street Church in Houston, Texas, a United Methodist ministry that reaches many people with addiction issues. "The emerging church is raising its own generational issues—poverty, illness, disparity of resources. In our time, these are the issues of holiness just as abstinence from alcohol was for our grandparents.
"Sometimes a beer is just a beer," Russell said with a chuckle, alluding to Freud's famous quote about his cigar. But oftentimes "just a beer" is enough to cause a row.
And in the argument we risk the larger questions of contextualization of the gospel in a society of drinkers, spiritual liberty and pastoral responsibility, and the hermeneutics of demon rum.
Brewhouse brouhaha
When Darrin Patrick agreed to have an NBC News crew visit his church's discussion group, he probably had no idea the stir that would result. Patrick is pastor of The Journey, an emerging congregation in St. Louis. The meeting place was The Bottleworks.
"Followers say they may come for the beer, but they stay for the Bible," the reporter said. "At the brew pub, it's about saving souls, one beer at a time."
She was right. It was about saving souls. The Journey's outreach to unchurched people met in a place where unchurched people gather—a bar.
Who could object to reaching young adults?
Some churches have made opinion on liquor more important for fellowship than the nature of salvation.
Southern Baptists.
The Journey, which grew from 30 to 2,000 attenders in five years under Patrick's ministry, was started with funds loaned by the traditionally prohibitionist denomination. The statewide debate that ensued revealed The Journey is part of Acts 29, a church-planting network that includes congregations from many denominations. It is headed by Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle.
Driscoll—called "the cussing pastor" until a friend called him on it and he stopped and apologized—is now called by some "the drinking pastor." In his book Radical Reformission, Driscoll says he reached his conclusion that abstinence is unbiblical while he was preparing a sermon on John 2, where Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana. (The chapter is called "The Sin of Light Beer.")
Driscoll contends he is in good company. "Further studies of church history have led me to discover that a number of God's people down through the years have greatly enjoyed alcohol," he said. Driscoll points to Martin Luther as one example, whom he quotes: "While I sat still and drank beer with Philip and Amsdorf, God dealt the papacy a mighty blow."
Baptist Press reported that Mars Hill Church sponsored a New Year's Eve Party that featured a champagne bar, and the church's website advertised "beer-brewing lessons—whenever a large group of [Mars Hill] men get together."
Another Acts 29 church's site said "beer is one of our core values." And another sponsored a poker night, inviting the men to bring beer.
That may not raise an eyebrow from some Catholics or Episcopalians, but to Baptists whose younger leaders were teaming up with the Acts 29 network, it was shocking. Some wanted their loan money back from The Journey.
Patrick defended his congregation, saying many leaders in Acts 29 hold a more open view of alcohol use than his own team does. And he redirected the discussion to evangelism strategy: "We try to choose venues for these events where unchurched members of our community would feel comfortable," Patrick said. "Others have taken place at restaurants, coffee shops, office buildings, and cafes."
It's not just Baptists
Missouri Baptists later passed (by a 58 percent favorable vote) a non-binding resolution prohibiting people who use alcohol from holding office in the state organization. In Florida, a similar, but binding bylaw amendment was approved after a year-long debate at the grassroots level. And at the national convention, a resolution condemning alcohol use also passed, but not without controversy.
"Sadly, I would never have believed that I would see a 45-minute debate at the Southern Baptist Convention on a resolution on abstinence from beverage alcohol," said Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He called it "a critically important resolution, in light of some pastors who now openly boast of imbibing alcohol."
That Baptists voted against alcohol is not surprising. What is surprising is the number of church leaders who criticized the declaration. Some critics called it "extra-biblical," pointing out that prohibition is of recent vintage, squeezed from the Temperance movement of the late 19th century.
"I am not too pleased with our alcohol position, not because I am a champion for serving beer at Wednesday-night dinner," wrote blogger Jerry Grace of Clinton, Mississippi, "but rather because of the convoluted way we reached this much-beloved stance. Our position on alcohol is one of recent historic origin, not scriptural."
Others warn that such public statements not only divide Christians from non-Christians, but Christians from other Christians. Historian Mark Noll, formerly professor at Wheaton College and now at Notre Dame, observes: "Some evangelicals have made opinion on liquor more important for fellowship and cooperation…than attitudes toward the person of Christ or the nature of salvation."
It's not just Baptists who are wrestling anew with the issue of alcohol. Pastors in a variety of traditions—some teetotaling, some not—are dealing with new issues raised by the drinking debate.
For some, it's whether to go against their denominations when the written policy differs from Christian positions held before Prohibition. For others, it's the conflict felt by pastoring people who officially espouse abstinence but still lift a glass to personal freedom now and again (46 percent of Southern Baptists imbide, according to a survey in the 1990s). For still others, it's reaching a position on alcohol that is biblical, moral, and defensible.
And for everyone there is this question: How do we take a stance on alcohol that does not distance us from the very people we are trying to reach with the gospel, and without compromising the gospel or our personal witness?
These issues may be grouped in a few categories:
Text and context
Driscoll is a lightning rod for controversy, so it's not surprising that his stance on drinking clergy has become central in the renewed debate. His better contribution to the argument is on the larger issue of contextualization of the gospel in a society of drinkers.
Driscoll agrees that the Scripture opposes drunkenness. He says drinking itself is not a sin, as prohibitionists would contend. He argues that it is unreasonable to be captive to others because of the possibility of their weakness, as abstentionists would advocate. Driscoll says moderationists "rightly teach that drinking is not a sin and that each person must let Christian conscience guide them without judging others."
Driscoll's position has been commended, even by some who disagree with his conclusion, as being biblically reasoned and unhindered by his personal baggage: "Driscoll did not come to his conclusions lightly," reports one mission-focused blog. "Sadly many of us proclaim and hold to legalistic positions regarding alcohol use. (Is anybody else tired of the 'My daddy was a drunkard, so every use of alcoholic beverage will lead to people becoming like my daddy.' If so, note that Driscoll came from an entire family of abusive alcoholics, and he does not have the same conclusion.)"
Driscoll outlines three categories of faulty contextualization:
- Pharasaic separation from culture: creation of laws that keep people from getting too close to sin;
- Sadducaic syncretism: adopting compromising behaviors for the sake of speaking to the culture;
- Zealous domination: enforcing moral laws through political means that may inoculate people against the gospel.
In Reformission, Driscoll concludes that these faulty forms of contextualization will lead to either sectarianism or syncretism. "Sectarians love God but fail to love their neighbor. Syncretists love their neighbor but fail to love God. Jesus expects us to love him and our neighbor (including our enemies) and says that if we fail to do so, we are no better than the godless pagans who love their drinking and strip-poker playing buddies (Matt. 5:43-57). To love our neighbors, we must meet them in their culture. To love our neighbors, we must call them to repent of sin and be transformed by Jesus."
But critics may respond, Can we really call people to repentance while nursing a rum and Coke?
Liberty versus responsibility
"In trying to avoid legalism on the subject of alcohol, I believe we have come dangerously close to promoting license," said Harvest Bible Chapel pastor James MacDonald in a sermon to his youngish, metropolitan congregation. "The Bible does not require total abstinence, but it recommends it as the highest and best course."
The Prohibitionist argument is not dead, even in the age of barstool Bible studies. Last year in a dry county in Mississippi, a vote over legalizing beer sales polarized the churches and pastors over this point: Is any use of alcohol a sin? If so, how do we account for Jesus' celebration of Passover and Paul's medicinal exhortation to Timothy?
In Ann Ross's comic novel about life in a small Southern town, the firebrand Presbyterian pastor railed against alcohol. He explained that at Cana, the wine-from-water Jesus created had no time to ferment, so Jesus clearly did not approve alcohol use. Not even Ross's main character, uptight Miss Julia, bought that argument.
MacDonald's position, which Driscoll would name abstentionist, is one that many conservative pastors now a generation or two removed from their prohibitionist forbears, have adopted. For the Sola Scriptura crowd, this gets at the first question we must answer: What does the Bible say?
"Drinking alcohol is not expressly forbidden in the Bible, but drunkenness is forbidden," author Jim Davis stated. "While there are no direct commands against drinking in the Bible, there are principles of wisdom that should be applied that would support abstinence or a very restricted use of alcohol."
This then frames the tension between personal liberty and pastoral responsibility. If the Bible does not expressly forbid alcohol use, then why shouldn't a pastor share a beer with friends?
"One person having trouble with alcoholism could be severely damaged by our liberty," Davis wrote. "Although I believe Jesus celebrated the Passover as the Jews have for millennia with wine, today we use grape juice for this reason. Consideration for the weaker brother should extend to areas of conscience as well."
Dr.Welch would be glad to hear that argument, even if Driscoll and moderationists don't buy it. It was for the sake of communion served in the Temperance era (and concern for those tempted by strong drink) that Welch invented a grape juice that doesn't ferment.
Linda Rinzel is a pastor at City of Grace Church in Mesa, Arizona, and in recovery herself for almost 20 years. For her, the weaker brother argument definitely holds water. "For me personally, I would not have a drink in public (or in private either, as someone in recovery). You never know who you are influencing," Rinzel said. "As clergy, God has called us to places of leadership, and people look to us as examples. As a pastor leading a recovery ministry, I couldn't ask people to do what I don't do myself."
The holiness quest
For Matt Russell and his Houston congregation of recovering addicts and former street people, the issue of alcohol use becomes very personal. But he warns against limiting the discussion to a single issue. The larger topic is personal holiness.
"The recovery movement is helping the church to contextualize the issue of holiness—that there is not a single litmus test, such as drinking, that can be applied across the church," Russell told Leadership.
"I think we have to elevate the dialogue," he advised. "If it gets stuck on behaviors, then we have missed the point. To borrow from Bonhoeffer, a true ethic asks 'Who is Christ? Where is Christ? And what is my responsibility?' before it makes a list of behaviors."
Many credit Celebrate Recovery, a Christian version of the Alcoholics Anonymous twelve-step program that was developed at Saddleback Church, with bringing a new awareness of alcohol and addiction issues into the church. What Donahue and Oprah made permissible daytime conversation two decades ago has now entered the church's vocabulary: disease, addiction, and recovery (rather than our former terms: wanton, drunkard, and sot). That awareness may make it easier for pastors to approach the issue of alcohol.
Preaching on demon rum
One last matter for pastors to consider, after choosing drinking companions on Saturday night, is what to say about it on Sunday morning. Have you heard a good sermon on alcohol lately? Have you preached one?
John Piper served up the topic early in his ministry at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. While alcohol use shouldn't be a condition for church membership, he said, Piper took a pledge of total abstinence. And he called his congregation to make the same commitment.
"What I choose to say is 'Stop Drinking, America!' Or since America is not listening to me, 'Stop Drinking, Bethlehem [Church]!' And I choose to oppose the carnage of alcohol abuse by boycotting the product. Is it really so prudish to renounce a highway killer, a home destroyer, and a business wrecker?"
Piper is right in this: America is not listening. "Pastors quit preaching against alcohol because they saw it wasn't reducing alcoholism," said Jerry Law, former pastor, recovering alcoholic, and now a Christian counselor. "It just drove people to hide their drinking."
Rinzel agreed: "I don't know that 'just say no' as a preaching tactic works. We would like to say no to a lot of things, but we do them anyway. Instead we have to help people accept their new identity in Christ."
The new component in preaching must be education, Law contends. "The most irresponsible people in this country are the alcohol manufacturers who say in their advertising 'drink responsibly,' because they don't say where drinking can lead. The same applies to pastors who demonize rum without explanation about the biological, psychological, social, and spiritual effects.
"It's time again to stand right up and talk about it.
Eric Reed is the news editor for Leadership.
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