Today’s guest post comes from CJ Mills. CJ is the author of Visual:Trademark::Blog. Take some time and go read about his family’s amazing journey as they had their son, Asher, 2 months early and on vacation away from home.  CJ is an amazing man of faith and a great father and husband.

I want to thank CJ for helping out theBeerean.com this week while I take a break to spend time with my son.  I know all too well now how stressful a new kid can be, but he decided to write a guest post anyways.  Thanks CJ.

Not all of us have the power to turn water into wine, or your favorite lager. So, for those of us who are stuck paying for the drink, let me tell you how this drink is made.

The first step in brewing is called malting. This involves mixing grain with water for several days until it beings to germinate, converting the grain to a type of sugar, eventually creating malt. After a few days, the malt is heated and dried, preventing the malt from further germination – a process called kilning. After kilning, the malt is processed in a mill, which cracks the outer coating of the grain. The cracked malt is then moved to a mash tun and mixed with hot water for one to two hours. This process, called mashing, breaks down the sugars in the grain and releases them in water, producing a liquid known as wort. Temperature and amount of time affects the body and flavor of the beer.

The wort is then transferred to a large brew kettle and boiled, sterilizing the wort and killing any bacteria that could spoil the wort during fermentation. During this stage of the brewing process, hops are added to provide flavor and to balance out the sweetness of the wort.

After brewing, the wort is cooled, strained, and then transferred to a container where it can ferment. Yeast is then added into the wort to allow fermentation. When the yeast has consumed the fermentable sugar, wort officially becomes beer. The beer is then transferred to an airtight container where the beer becomes naturally carbonated through an aging process, lasting a few weeks to several months. To kill any remaining yeast after the aging process, the beer is heated to 180°F after it has been sealed in cans or bottles and then packaged for shipment to a town near you.

For a look into a microbrewery, take a look at the video below:

photo by: maccanti

ChristiaNet.com just came out with the results of a poll that they took on their site asking the question, “Does drinking alcohol hurt a Christian’s witness?”. The results I must say were pretty interesting/annoying/dumb/”who said you could have a web site”.

To quote the article:

Out of 2,300 Christians surveyed, a whopping 66% felt that drinking alcohol would hurt a Christian’s witnessing ability for Christ.

Whopping?! I didn’t realize that 66% was considered whopping. That last time I checked you had to have at least 85% to even consider it a whopping.

So from the results of this poll they determined that it would hurt a Christian’s witness if they drank alcohol. The president of ChristianNet.com even said:

Christians should attempt to avoid drinking alcohol, especially when in the presence of non-believers.

Here is the thing that really makes me mad. When did we start determining our theology based upon popular vote? I say give up the polls and look at what God’s word says on the subject. Are we free to drink (in moderation and consideration of those that have issues)? If we are, then I would say God gave us that freedom so we can use it to give Him glory. Instead we are taking polls.

The other thing that makes me mad is who are they asking this question. If our theology is based upon what the bible says, then what determines our methodology? I would say our cultural context (it’s kinda how Jesus did it). Now I could see how a poll like this could help us to determine our methodology. The only problem is we are asking the wrong people. If you want to find out if a freedom that we have is hurting our witness, don’t ask a bunch of stuffy Christians who think drinking is wrong in the first place.

Ask the people who need witnessing. Ask those on the outside, “Would you respect the Christian faith if Christians showed you that you can enjoy alcohol yet not let it overtake your life?” Ask them if they would be more willing to listen to what a Christian has to say over a nice cold one in a bar or in picket line in front of the bar.

To summarize, let me drop the Piper bomb real quick:

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

God is not most glorified when we hole ourselves up in our Christian ghettos and throw gospel tracts at the lost when they get near. But God is glorified when we show our complete satisfaction in Him in all areas of our lives…even drinking a beer.

So here is my response to your poll ChristiaNet.com. Does drinking alcohol hurt a Christian’s witness? No. I say NOT drinking alcohol hurts a Christian’s witness.

Photo by: rick

With my recent post on how Christians that love beer are called to be missionaries to the world of beer, I thought I would give you some quick tips on how to be a missionary at your local bar.

1. Leave a big tip.
   In the words of one of my friends, “Your Father owns the cattle on a thousand hills, but you’re leaving a 5% tip.”  What is it with most Christians being so tight with their money?  I workded as a waiter through college, and I have to say that I was embarressed to be a Christian sometimes.  I didn’t work on Sunday’s, but the people that did hated it.  And it was all because of the Christians that came in after church.  They were rude, annoying, and terrible tippers.  In the world of waiting, this is like having Satan as your customer.  Show so some love and leave a nice tip.
2. Don’t be afraid to be a Christian.
   Now I’m not saying walk into the joint carrying your John McArther Study Bible, wearing all white, having a huge comb-over and singing Amazing Grace (you’ll get your ass kicked).  What I’m saying is to not be afraid to share the hope that you have inside of you.  Whether that means spending some time reading your Bible while enjoying a nice cold one or helping someone get through a tuff situation by sharing about Jesus, don’t worry about openly being a Christian (whooo! that was a run-on sentence).  The reality is that most people are actually really cool with it (and sometimes really curious).
3. Get to know your bartender/support staff by name.
   Bartenders and support staff are normally nameless faces.  You’ll be amazed with how much further a relationship will go if you know someones name.  Enough said. 
4. Care for the people that work there and the regulars.
   I’m not talking about superficial-I’m-pretending-like-I-care caring.  Actually care for the well being of these peoples lives.  This is both spiritually and here on earth.  Care about their lives, their families, their finances, their jobs, their souls.  Take interest in them and their lives.
5. Pray for them.
   This kind of goes in line with the previous tip.  The reality is that if you care about their lives you should be praying for them.  When they tell you about their troubles, pray for them.  When you think about them during the week, pray for them.   As you get to know them better, ask if you can pray for them right then and there. 
6. Bring your Christian friends with you.
   God has designed us to work together as a body.   We called to work together.  We are called to unity.  We are called to lift each other up.  We are called to use our gifts where they are needed.  So why do we always think of evangelism and missions as a Lone Ranger affair?  If you are doing this alone, I would say that you are working from an area of weakness and not strength.  So don’t go it alone.  Plus, you just look weird drinking by yourself.
7. Listen.
   This goes hand in hand with the caring tip, but I think it deserves to be by itself.  You need to listen to the problems of those that are around you.  Bars can be a breading ground for loneliness and dispair.  Be observant of those that around you in the bar.  Be there to listen.
8. Toast “to the glory of God.”
   You might think this is corny, but it works for me.  It helps me remember why I’m at the bar.  It’s a reminder of what my ultimate purpose is.  It helps me to remember that there is Someone greater than beer.
9. Pray for yourself.
   “Pride comes before the fall.”  Don’t think that you can do this without God.  He is your ultimate strength.  Pray for strength.  Pray for guidance.  Pray for opportunities.  Pray for humility.  Pray for patience.  Pray.
10. Share the gospel.
    In in the end, missionaries share the gospel.  You can be nice.  You can pray for people.  You can listen to their problems.  You can do all this and more, but if you don’t share the gospel, it’s pointless.  The gospel is the only thing that has the power to change anythig in their lives.  If you don’t share the gospel, you’re nothing more than a nice guy who likes to drink beer. 

 

photo by: Penningtron

I got an email from Brad Ruggles (of BradRuggles.com go check him out) asking the following questions:

On a side-note, have you thought about reviewing any micro-breweries around the country or having readers submit reviews? I came across a neat one in Nashville when I was there a couple of weeks ago that I might hit again on the way back. I would also like to know if there are any others around the country I could hit on my travels. Do you know of a blog/web site that has these kind of reviews?

At the moment I don’t know of any good sites for this (if you have any leave them in the comments below). Originally, I had thought about doing reviews of local pubs, bars, and micro-breweries. But there isn’t much of a demand for knowing about where to get your drink on in Albuquerque.

So here is the challenge. Send me the reviews of your favorite place to get a drink. Here is the info that I will need:

• Name
• Address
• Web Site (if they have one)
• What beers do they carry (brewed on location, local only, domestic, imports, everything under the sun)
• If they brew their own beer, give us the best beers to try
• Whats good to eat
• What makes it your favorite place to go
• At least one picture of the place (preferably with you in it)
• Any other good information about the place (history, best/worst times to go, owners names, inside info, ect.)

When you get your review all together nice and neat like, you can email it to “reviews [at] thebeerean.com” (of course you need to format the address the proper way changing [at] to @ and taking out the spaces). I will then put your review on the site (ok some might not make it due to unforeseen reasons, but pretty much all of them will make it out). Depending on how many I get and how often, I’ll probably try to space them out a little bit.

There are some plugins out there for WordPress that will let you plot your posts on a map. I’ll do the leg work on finding the right one, and then I’ll post your reviews with them also having a place on the map. Then we can easily find a good place to get a beer no matter where we are (well unless someone hasn’t done a review for that area).

There are plenty of blogs that focus on one or the other, but not both. That’s just one place that we can look at the lack of the Christian influence on the world of beer. You can go into almost any bar, pub, or micro-brewery and see this even more. The only influence I’ve ever seen in a pub is the presence of Monk’s Ale.

So what does this mean? Why should we care? What difference does it make whether Christians have an influence in the world of beer. Well I would say we should care because there are lost and dying people in the world of beer who don’t know about Jesus.

If we are to be followers of Jesus, we must be about what Jesus is about. In Jesus’ words, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” We should be about the same thing.

Unfortunately for decades it has been taboo for Christians to be in the world of beer (and still is in most places). So we have stood on the sidelines of the world of beer while people have died and gone to hell. But Jesus has told us to be, “in the world.”

If you go by the name of Beerean, you are called to go into the world and share with them the hope that they can find in Jesus. It is no accident that you are Christian that likes beer.

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. – Psalm 37:4

Jesus gave you the love for beer that you might take His light into the dark places. He gave you a love for beer that you might be able to share the hope that Jesus has given you with those who would probably never hear it otherwise. He has given you the love of beer that you might be a missionary to the world or beer lovers.

So to my fellow Beereans out there listen to Jesus and, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” If you don’t go, who will?