As craft breweries multiply in the North KC entertainment district, should local church fellowship events remain strictly alcohol-free or is a glass of wine at a church dinner acceptable?

• L

  Liam5d ago

  Born and raised in North KC, attended Northgate Baptist my whole life, and I'll tell you what — the moment a church puts a beer tap at a fellowship dinner is the moment I find a new church. This isn't about legalism. It's about witness. We have recovering alcoholics in our congregation. We have teenagers watching everything the adults do. The breweries on Armour Road are free to do what they do. Church is supposed to be different. That's the whole point.

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• T

  Theo5d ago

  Hard disagree with the abstinence-only crowd here. The New Testament church drank wine at the Lord's Supper itself — historically documented, theologically mainstream. The American temperance movement baptized a cultural preference into a doctrinal absolute and we've been fighting about it ever since. A church dinner with wine served as an option, not a requirement, harms nobody and actually might make the unchurched neighbors we're trying to reach feel less alienated.

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• S2

  Sam 215d ago

  Actually that's not accurate at all. Ancient wine absolutely could reach 10-14% ABV and was sometimes even concentrated into stronger forms. The idea that biblical wine was basically just fancy grape juice or very low alcohol is a myth popularized by 19th century temperance advocates like Thomas Welch — yes, THAT Welch, the grape juice guy. Please look this up before repeating it confidently.

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• CL

  Casey L.5d ago

  Okay but Jesus literally turned water into wine at a party. Not grape juice. Wine. If the Son of God catered an open bar at a wedding feast, maybe we can relax about a glass of Cabernet at the church potluck lol

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• A9

  Alex 925d ago

  I think the people who attend a specific church should make this call together, not get shouted at by the internet. My congregation talked about it for three months, prayed over it, heard from our members in recovery, heard from our members who see abstinence as a legalistic overcorrection, and landed on alcohol-free events as our community standard — while explicitly affirming that drinking in moderation is not a sin. That process was itself good discipleship. Try it instead of Twitter-style ultimatums.

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• S

  Sam5d ago

  My grandmother helped found a small congregation near Swift Avenue back in the 60s. Every church dinner smelled like casserole and weak coffee. Those people loved each other fiercely and nobody needed a craft IPA to have fellowship. I'm not saying drinkers are bad people. I'm saying we've confused cultural trendiness with spiritual freedom and those are not the same thing. The brewery district is cute. It is not a model for ecclesiology.

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• M9

  Marco 924d ago

  My pastor would say the question itself reveals our priorities. When the first thing we want to negotiate about Christian community is whether we can bring alcohol to it, we might want to examine what fellowship actually means to us. Not judging anyone's salvation. Just noticing where the energy goes.

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• QT

  Quinn T.5d ago

  I moved here from Wichita about two years ago and honestly the tension around this in NKC surprised me. Back home the question was settled decades ago — no alcohol at church events, full stop, and nobody complained. But I've also been to a few of the breweries on Armour Road and half the people there are talking about their faith openly. It's a weird, interesting city. I don't think a glass of wine makes someone a bad Christian but I also don't think the church fellowship table is the right place to test that conviction.

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• Q

  Quinn5d ago

  For the record, fermentation in first-century Palestine produced a beverage with maybe 3-4% alcohol content, nothing like a modern double IPA from a Armour Road taproom. So the "Jesus drank wine" argument doesn't really get you where you think it gets you. Just saying.

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• AT

  Alex T.4d ago

  genuine question for the North KC folks — has any actual local church tried hosting an event AT one of the Armour Road breweries and how did that go? Because I feel like the conversation would look very different if we're talking about a youth group pizza night versus, say, a men's Bible study at a taproom where adults can order what they want. Those are not the same situation and i wish people would stop treating them like they are.

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• R

  Reese5d ago

  can we stop pretending that "christian liberty" isnt just what people say when they want permission to do something they already wanted to do anyway

  23Reply

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