Dry All-Year-Long

I subscribe to a running and fitness magazine. Imagine my surprise a few days ago to discover an article encouraging readers to consider a “Dry January.” The article stated: “If you’re curious about the benefits of sober living, January is a good time to try it out… Cutting alcohol out of your life can make exercise easier, but that’s only the beginning. People experience better skin, weight loss, increased energy, and sounder sleep after a month without booze. #TryDryJanuary”

From our origin, Nazarenes have embraced abstinence from alcoholic beverages, January through December, and for reasons even better than these.

One of the first funerals I performed as a pastor was for a young man whose death was due to alcohol consumption. I will never forget the grief of his parents. Such tragedies—whether caused by the alcohol consumption of the deceased or by another person—tend to be, shall we say, sobering. It makes so much sense to call people to a higher standard.

As I look back over our history as a denomination, it seems that there have been three general stages in our approach to abstaining from alcoholic beverages.

The First Stage: “We do this for others.” I believe that this was the primary motivation of Dr. Bresee’s ministry to those with hurts, habits, and hang-ups in downtown Los Angeles. We wanted to provide a church that was a safe place for those overcoming addictions, so we abstained in solidarity with them. We refrained from drinking alcoholic beverages for the sake of the other. Even today, churches with Recovery Ministries are often growing churches that see the compassionate wisdom in abstaining in solidarity with those to whom they are ministering.

The Second Stage: “We do this for ourselves.” Somehow, over time, our holiness lifestyle began to be tainted by legalism, and abstinence became a badge of our “separateness.” Our primary rationale for avoiding alcoholic beverages became our desire to avoid being tainted by the world. We abstained primarily for the sake of our witness.

As a district superintendent, one of my darkest days was the day I was asked to bail a pastor out of jail for DUI. Sadly, the consequences of his conduct were suffered not only by the pastor, but by his family, by the congregation, and by his colleagues. Abstaining for the sake of our witness is not a bad idea.

The Present Stage: “Why are we still advocating for abstinence?” There seems to be a growing unwillingness to abstain for either others or for ourselves. It appears the increasing desire is not to change the culture, or bear witness to the culture, but to fit in with the culture. 

Some pastors, upon arriving at a new church, discover that our perspective on alcohol consumption has not been communicated well to individuals who have become members of the church, and in some cases, become leaders in the church. Addressing such a situation in a healthy and helpful way requires wisdom, grace, and courage. I am grateful for pastors who are doing this well.

A few months ago, I had lunch with a new acquaintance—a hospital executive—who has a different faith tradition than I, but whose denomination also expects its members to abstain from alcohol. He was telling me of a conversation he had with a leader in his denomination, in which he asked the reasoning behind continuing such a counter-cultural expectation. The concise response he received: “Because that’s who we are and it’s who we’ve always been. It’s in our DNA.” I asked my new friend what he thought of such an explanation. “Made sense to me,” he replied.

Makes sense to me, too.