First, a little upfront disclosure.

1. I’m a relatively new Christian.
2. I went to college.
3. I grew up in a Mormon family and spent much of my youth trying to not be a Mormon.

What is the summation of these items? I have had a beer or two in my life. In fact, some times I had a few too many.

After spending my high school and college days always having a little bit of guilt along for the ride whenever I would drink beer (or any other alcoholic beverage), I was ecstatic when I discovered:

• Grace
• Reformed Theology
• Christian Liberty (read: Presbyterians drink beer?)

However, since becoming a Christian, I’ve witnessed times, among brothers, when these liberties resulted in nothing other than outright sin (this is not accusatory, I was a participant). I’ve also been a part of gatherings when alcohol was served, but was so far from being in the forefront that it would not have changed the mood of the occassion one way or the other.

Where am I going with this?

Today I saw this.

Priceless! A ministry for people who enjoy “talking about God with a quality brew in their hand.”

Among other objectives, they include the following:

• To model and exhort enjoyment in moderation of God’s gifts; quality over quantity.

No issues here.

• To break down misconceptions about the Biblical view of alcohol.

Okay. Sounds good.

• To resume the Church’s historical role as making the finest beer in town.

Historical Role? Tradition, maybe? But role? Someone out there tell me what I’m missing.

• To build community and friendships through a common bond.

Common bond = The Gospel… or the Beer?

I dug a little deeper. Riverbrew is associated with Riverview church, located in East Lansing, Michigan. Hrmmm… a college town (see number two above).

Their statement of faith is not the worst I’ve seen… way out in left field on baptism, but hey, so is Piper.

So what kind of church is this?

We are not your father’s church, per se. We are very casual in our attire, services, and worship, but conservative in doctrine as a non - denominational church. We serve gourmet coffee and have overstuffed couches and chairs. We want to be a church where anyone and everyone really does feel comfortable checking out God stuff. If you are searching spiritually, we’re the place to hang out and learn about Jesus.

So, in short.

We are so NOT the church you grew up in.
You can wear jeans
You can sit in a comfy chair…
… with a latte
and the first Monday of each month you can get together, drink beer and discuss Homebrew Theology.

While this church is not the worst thing in state of Michigan, something here makes my stomach feel like I just drank a warm, non-quality beer, while sitting in an uncomfy chair. But what?

At this point I would like to lecture about Christian Liberty and our responsibilities. I’d like to mention that we need to be very careful about not letting things we feel are okay (or even good), be spoken of as evil (Rom. 14:16). Or I’d like to mention that the use of our liberty can injure weaker brothers (Rom. 14:20). But I won’t do that

Wait. It just hit me. Now I know what makes me uneasy!

Why is this a church ministry? Why is Riverbrew in the same list with things like compassion, sexual impurity and pre-marriage ministries? Why is time even being spent on this?

Hmmm… “Honey we need to be more involved. You do MOPs, I’ll do Beer Theology.”

I’m afraid these folks are putting forth a lot of effort to get to the point where they can gather together, have some beers in good faith, all the while making sure the whole church knows about it and supports it. Are they flaunting it? It sure seems like it.

I do pray these guys are doing this in faith. Even so, we are told to keep our faith in things like this between God and ourselves (Rom. 14:22). Parading our faith in these matters in the front of the church is bad enough. Taking the risk of causing brothers to take part in what they secretly condemn only compounds the sin.

My solution? Go help the poor, feed the hungry, heal the sick, care for the widow–these are the real trails to blaze. Once all that is done, we can get together for a beer afterwards.