eZine 10.14.2003

TheSource4YM.com
	Jonathan’s Resource Ezine

Weekly Resources, Ideas and Articles from The Source for Youth Ministry
Tuesday, October 14, 2003

In This Issue

• Featured: Should youth workers drink alcohol? By Jonathan McKee
  
  

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Featured: Should youth workers drink alcohol? By Jonathan McKee

By Jonathan McKee
October 14, 2003

I received this email recently:

J-Dog,

I am currently a student at Denver Seminary and am writing a paper for my Youth and Family Leadership class. The question I am addressing is on the issue of moderate alcohol consumption by Pastors and/or Youth Pastors. I ran across your web site and wanted to ask your opinion on the subject. Do you think alcohol consumption, at any level, is dangerous and should be completely avoided by a ministry worker? Or does moderate use give the youth a positive role model on how to deal with alcohol as an adult? Even though I do occasionally enjoy a drink, as I follow Christ’s call on my life to be in Youth Ministry I want to be sure that I make the right decision in this area. Thanks for taking the time to consider this.

~ Jeremy ~


I love it when they call me J-Dog!

Jeremy is a brave man- going to a BAPTIST seminary and bringing up drinking. At least he didn’t admit that he danced.

Okay, okay . . . my thoughts.

Personally, I have never acquired the taste for drinking alcohol. And why make myself acquire the taste of something that’s more expensive than Pepsi?

However, I have NO problem with adults drinking in moderation. Drinking a glass of wine isn’t a sin. The Bible doesn’t condemn having a couple beers with some pizza. The Bible condemns “drunkenness.” For those who think that a couple beers will make someone drunk- they better check their data. NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, United States Department of Transportation) calculates on average that a 170-pound male typically would have to consume more than four beers in one hour on an empty stomach to reach a BAC of .08. A 135-pound female typically would have to consume three beers in the same time frame. (note: this varies from person to person, and can affect first time drinkers more than others.) And I’m just using .08 blood alcohol content as a reference point because that’s where laboratory and on-road research shows that the vast majority of drivers, even experienced drivers, are significantly impaired in critical driving tasks such as braking, steering, lane changing, judgement, and divided attention. Bottom line: a couple beers or a glass of wine don’t make tonic-clenching drunks lying in the gutter.

So to answer your question. Is drinking in moderation dangerous? No.

But maybe we need to ask a different question. What is the perception we give?

PERCEPTION
Unfortunately drinking is something that many people abuse. So we need to be very careful because of “perception.”

Years ago I worked with a kid who had an alcoholic father. “Brian” accepted Christ at an outreach event we did, and I had the privilege of discipling him and taking him to church with me every week. Brian had never been to church before, so it was always interesting to watch his perception of people in the church.

I’ll never forget the day that Brian and I stopped by someone’s house from the church. Somehow, we ended up in the kitchen and Brian noticed that this person had beer in the refrigerator. Brian didn’t say anything, but I could see it in his face. For this kid- that was a big deal.

Even unchurched kids perceive alcohol as “an escape method,” “a means to get drunk,” or “a habit.” I remember meeting with a group of unchurched kids in a pizza parlor across from the school. One of the school’s teachers wandered by with a glass of wine in her hand. She said hi to the kids she knew from her class then went to the other side of the restaurant and sat down. When she was out of hearing range, the kids immediately started joking about her glass of wine, jumping to conclusions about her drinking habits. Perception is a reality. And drinking doesn’t have the best reputation.

For that reason, I personally think that drinking wouldn’t be a bad thing for youth workers to avoid. I’m not saying “it’s a bad thing.” I’m just saying that there can be consequences for drinking . . . and there are little consequences if you avoid it all together.

STUMBLING?
Some people like to quote passages where Paul talks about causing others to “stumble,” like Romans 14:19-21:

[19] Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. [20] Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. [21] It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.

If we’re going to use this passage, let’s use it correctly. “Stumbling” is talking about causing a believer to fall into sin because of our actions. In the area of drinking, we shouldn’t put someone in a situation where they are tempted to sin: tempting the alcoholic to drink, tempting the teenager to party.

The gist of this passage is for the Christian to think of everything, not as it affects ourselves only, but also as it affects others. This passage is NOT saying that if one person in the church decides not to drink, NO ONE should drink.

C.S. Lewis says it well in Mere Christianity when he talks about the cardinal virtue “temperance.” (Book 3, Chapter 2):

“Temperance referred not specially to drink, but to all pleasures; and it meant not abstaining, but going the right length and no further. It is a mistake to think that Christians ought all to be teetotallers: Mohammedanism, not Christianity, is the teetotal religion. Of course it may be the duty of a particular Christian, or of any Christian, at a particular time, to abstain from strong drink, either because he is the sort of man who cannot drink at all without drinking too much, or because he is with people who are inclined to drunkenness and must not encourage them by drinking himself. But the whole point is that he is abstaining, for a good reason, from something which he does not condemn and which he likes to see other people enjoying. One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reason? marriage, or meat or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose as other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning.” (Mere Christianity, 1952)

So the bottom line is . . . if you decide not to drink. Good for you. But when others look at you, do you want them to see a condescending jerk . . . or do you want them to see Christ in you. Your choice.

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Youth Specialties/Zondervan is publishing Jonathan’s new book, REACHING UNCHURCHED STUDENTS (coming in 2004), but don’t wait for the book . . . get the training now!

If you missed Jonathan’s training at conferences like DCLA or the YS National Youth Workers Convention . . . don’t worry, you can bring him to your city!

www.thesource4ym.com/reach
or contact him at jon@TheSource4YM.com

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If you have any other youth ministry ideas you want to share, please email me at jon@thesource4ym.com

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

God Bless,

Jonathan R. McKee
THE SOURCE
for Youth Ministry
www.TheSource4YM.com

Jonathan McKee is president of The Source for Youth Ministry and author of the new book “Do They Run When They See You Coming? Reaching Out to Unchurched Teenagers.” (CLICK HERE FOR THE BOOK) Jonathan speaks and trains across the country and provides free online resources, training, & ideas for youth workers at www.TheSource4YM.com