Comments on: Drinking Beer for Jesus http://davefagg.com.au/2009/09/drinking-beer-for-jesus/ Sat, 03 Jul 2010 02:27:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: KarenL http://davefagg.com.au/2009/09/drinking-beer-for-jesus/comment-page-1/#comment-13 KarenL Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:09:20 +0000 http://davefagg.com.au/?p=520#comment-13 Hi Dave, While not in the same situation, I had to make a leadership call once on alcohol and hospitality, and I'm still pretty sure it was the right one. I had a group of 50 pilgrims in Germany for World Youth Day, mixed between over and under 18s. As there was a bit of "I'm going for the German Beer, and the God stuff is a nice extra" mentality amongst some of the people, we'd made a no drinking rule, and the over 18s were going to avoid drinking in solidarity with the under 18s. However when we got to the three day homestay part of the journey, that all fell in a heap. The Germans don't have a "legal age" and the host families hospitality included offering thier guests the local beer that they were very proud of, as well as home made wines. It would have been rude to refuse, and sometimes language barriers made it harder to explain why the pilgrims were refusing. So as a group we made the decision that moderation in a hospitality setting was acceptable for this part of the trip, and that when we got to Cologne, we'd all be back on the wagon. It actually strengthed the group, showed the young people that they were trusted to be sensible (and they were in 99% of the cases) and that it was important to be true to the people that they were journeying with, and the hospitality of their hosts. It was a perfect case of "What Jesus would do"... Hi Dave,
While not in the same situation, I had to make a leadership call once on alcohol and hospitality, and I’m still pretty sure it was the right one.

I had a group of 50 pilgrims in Germany for World Youth Day, mixed between over and under 18s. As there was a bit of “I’m going for the German Beer, and the God stuff is a nice extra” mentality amongst some of the people, we’d made a no drinking rule, and the over 18s were going to avoid drinking in solidarity with the under 18s.

However when we got to the three day homestay part of the journey, that all fell in a heap.
The Germans don’t have a “legal age” and the host families hospitality included offering thier guests the local beer that they were very proud of, as well as home made wines. It would have been rude to refuse, and sometimes language barriers made it harder to explain why the pilgrims were refusing.

So as a group we made the decision that moderation in a hospitality setting was acceptable for this part of the trip, and that when we got to Cologne, we’d all be back on the wagon.
It actually strengthed the group, showed the young people that they were trusted to be sensible (and they were in 99% of the cases) and that it was important to be true to the people that they were journeying with, and the hospitality of their hosts.

It was a perfect case of “What Jesus would do”…

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