Alcohol and service in the church

If'n I were your pastor, your honesty would go a long way with me. My one concern would be that you not flaunt it before the weaker members.

 

I am not one who thinks drinking lightly or in moderation is a sin. My question is since you are willing to abide by the church's constitution and abstain from drinking while in fellowship with them why bring up the issue at all? Unless you are asked to communicate your position or asked to teach against your conscience I don't see the benefit. Aside from that, if you planned to continue to partake of alcoholic beverages while serving then in my opinion you would have a dilemma, but it doesn’t sound like you intend to do that.


At my church one of the clauses in our church by-law written decades ago says that deacons shall not partake of alcoholic beverages. Our senior Pastor has directly stated from the pulpit that drinking in moderation is not sin; however, the church by-laws predate him and still contain the abstinence clause. If I were nominated to be a deacon I would either have to decide to totally abstain or disclose that I very occasionally have a beer. It sounds like you have decided to go ahead and abstain from drinking alcohol so it appears to me any potential issue is avoided.

I guess my short answer to your question no, there is no problem because you are voluntarily observing their standard even if you disagree with the biblical basis for such a rule

 

If you have a good relationship with the pastor, i'd give him a heads up if he thinks you'll teach his position in a class. Just ask him not to put you or him in that kind of situation. If he's the kind of pastor he ought to be, he'll understand and appreciate your honesty. If he's going to go a little crazy on it, better you know now than later.

I'd rather know than be caught unaware by a disagreement among church leaders and workers.

 

If you disagree with any policy of a church you need to make clear to the Pastor/Elders (in the case of a baptist church the Pastor/deacons) what you disagree with prior to taking any position. That way they can either accept you with your disagreement or reject you from serving. Saves a lot of heart ache later down the road.

 

Interesting. That would make me start thinking too. I would assume that since you are voluntarily compliant anyway that when you tell him it will be well received and you both move forward together.

 

It is like the answer to 99% of the other questions on this board, it is up to the local church.

 

You are being deceitful if you do not let those above you know that you are in disagreement with the written view of the church.

If you do, you are free from future condemnation, and it frees them to not assume you are what you are not.

If you do not, you are letting an area in which the enemy may destroy and cause hurt.

Often, great damage is done at a later time (depending upon the work of the enemy) if something divisive becomes an issue in the fellowship and authorities are obliged to take sides which destroys the unity.

You need to let those in authority know your view, and abide by their decision as to whether you continue with that assembly in any capacity.

For those who responded that they serve irregardless of the founding documents, either you are obliged to leave, or the founding documents need to be revised.

The founding documents is the basic agreement in which the assembly has as the basis for church discipline and fellowship. No proper assembly fellowship and church discipline can be proper without these agreement(s).

The enemy is willing to wait for decades before destroying a fellowship, and most times it is over an assembly that did not review, update and keep the original founding statements of faith and constitution applicable to all who are members of that assembly.

 

In such a church, yes it is. One cannot claim to hold to fellowship in a church and not practice the beliefs of the church. Even if those beliefs are outmoded or just plain wrong, if one is going to say "I belong to this church and will serve in it" but then fails to uphold the principles of the church, one is a hypocrite, Better to leave the church and join another more in line with one's personal non-doctrinal interpretations.

 

I guess the sticking point for me is what is meant by "uphold the principles of the church". If it includes how one thinks or believes about tertiary cultural issues then the logical end to all this is that eventually we will all attend a church with a membership of one. One of our Baptists distinctive just about guarantees we will disagree on one biblical interpretation or another.


This is by no means a tertiary issue but just for fun ask your membership to write a one page summary describing the Trinity and see how many Modalists and Arians you have to kick out. How many were deacons and teachers? Be sure to tell them "No fair looking at someone else's work". By comparison, whether one believes that drinking in moderation is a sin or not seems like a tempest in tea pot. But again, we are Baptists so according to our practice if not our policy, the reasons for splitting a church or leaving one for another are is a long list indeed. At least this one wouldn't be unique.

I hope all goes well