Let's see if we can shed some light on our reasoning...
1. First and foremost: Jesus. You see, we could ask him these same questions too. After all, Jesus made wine (and it was the good stuff). He was never afraid to engage his culture 'outside of church' - he goes to weddings, he loves parties, he hangs out with 'sinners.' And it made folks nervous in his day, too (especially religious ones).
It just seems so risky. Wouldn't it be safer simply to avoid it altogether?
Perhaps. Yet as Christ's followers, we need to be very slow to condemn or avoid what Jesus didn't, lest we take traditions of men and make them out to be commandments of God (cf. Mark 7:7). After all, that's precisely what most of us - Christians and non-Christians alike - hate about churches. If Jesus didn't anathematize alcohol (or shy away from making it!), neither should we.
2. This leads to a second point: brokenness. It's very easy to look at alcohol as the problem, to think that simply getting rid of it (or avoiding it) will fix things.
But Jesus views things differently - he insists that the root of all sin lies in what's behind our external behavior; that it actually flows from the dark desires that lurk within our hearts (cf. Mark 7:15-23). In other words, for Jesus, there's a much bigger problem than what-we-do-with-alcohol - it's the why-we-do-it. It's about that hole in our heart that we're trying to fill. It's about the pain in our lives that we're trying to drown.
If we think we're solving those problems simply by saying, "Don't drink!" or "Avoid alcohol!" we're kidding ourselves. And we might actually be distracting others from the real issues. Mere avoidance never gets us to the heart of the problem. Listen to the venerable Martin Luther:
Do you suppose that abuses are eliminated by destroying the object which is abused? Men can go wrong with wine and women. Shall we then prohibit and abolish women? The sun, the moon, and the stars have been worshiped. Shall we then pluck them out of the sky?Now, he's not saying brokenness doesn't matter. He's saying we don't actually solve the real problem simply by banning things that broken people use and abuse. As a church, we need to be careful not to oversimplify brokenness.
3. The same is true for redemption. Jesus claims to be able to do something about our deepest cravings. Whether it's lust for sex or lust for drink, Jesus claims he can quench our thirsts and transform our desires. So while alcohol may indeed be part of the problem, we think it can also be part of the solution. Put simply, we think the church ought to be the place that most visibly manifests Gospel renovation. And that includes our attitudes and practices with alcohol.
As we embrace Christ and grow in our understanding of his gracious acceptance of us (even if we struggle with drink!), we should also start to be freed from fear of drink (what it might do to us), freed from fear of our reputations (what others might think of us if we drink), freed from our need to use drink (to drown our woes or be someone we are not).
The church ought to be the place that illustrates the greatest of liberty without lapsing into excess. A high calling to be sure. But should we settle for anything less?
4. And then there's integrity. Many of us (especially Presbyterians!) enjoy a glass of beer or wine from time to time, and we think it's important that we are never afraid to be publicly who we are in private. Here at All Souls, we see these things as gifts from God, to be enjoyed in community with gratitude and gratefulness. Why wouldn't we want to share that with our friends?
5. But what about the church?!? After all, we're supposed to be in the business of saving souls, not making money by selling beer, right? (Actually, we'd prefer to say that God's the one who saves souls, not us, but for the sake of the argument, we'll go with it for now. The point is that the church of Christ is not really here to be in the business of "being in business." Selling stuff. Making money. We agree with that.)
Fundamentally, Christianity is about spiritual things - things like God, sin, grace, Jesus, Kingdom. We are meant to be a community shaped by the Word, not by our culture (or our desires to be cool and relevant). So it's very important that we pay attention to these things, and that we search our hearts to check our motives.
At the same time, real Christianity is also very physical. God gave us bodies, with flesh and blood and appetites and desires - he gave us food and drink and sex and love, gifts of God to be thankfully received and rightfully enjoyed in their proper settings. He came in the flesh, for Pete's sake. (Speaking of Jesus, what does his choice of wine for the Lord's Supper say about the place of alcohol in the church?)
Real Christianity is also intensely practical (indeed, James 2:17 tells us that faith without deeds is dead). We believe we are called to be a blessing to the communities in which we live, to work for the shalom of the city in which he has sent us (cf. Jeremiah 29:7). This is no mere longing for peace (as in the absence of violence), but rather an active working to undo death and wipe away tears (cf. Revelation 21:4-4) "far as the curse is found."
We are called to labor for human flourishing, not just in the church, but in our cities. And we believe the making of beer can be a part of that. (It's worth noting that in Jeremiah 29:5, the list of activities for shalom-seeking believers to engage in is incredibly practical and down to earth). Indeed, if we pay attention to our history, we discover the earliest commercial breweries were all run by churches (as early as 600 AD). For more than 1000 years, Christians were some of the best brewers in the business. It's still that way in parts of Europe. Why not here in Austin?
So what's the point? What we're really trying to do here is be about Jesus' business. And the very real question for any church (and for any Christian) is simply this: What IS Jesus' business? Is it just "saving souls"? Is he only interested in those who follow him? Or does he have a bigger agenda - like justice for the oppressed, mercy for the poor, putting the whole world right?
If Jesus calls his followers to get on board with his agenda - to be agents of change, in all sorts of places, working for the shalom of our cities and the needs of our neighbors - then the idea of church planting pastor starting a brewery to bless the city might be very Christian indeed.
