Bars and coffee shops were the few places that he would be able to meet with unchurched and non-LDS folks. Starting a Bible study in a bar could potentially be an issue, so he asked for permission from his boss and got a green light.

Very few things take church planter Charles Hill by surprise.

But when a group that agreed to support his new ministry work in the middle of a predominantly Mormon community suddenly pulled its financial backing and gave him the boot, he was totally caught off guard.

Hill had just begun to host Bible studies and reach out to the unchurched and those who were seeking something outside of the dominant religious preference in Utah – where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is headquartered – when he got fired.

He was allegedly let go because he drank half a beer in public during the new “Beer and Bible” meeting he started last month.

While he was told that was the main issue, he doesn’t have all the details because he didn’t receive a phone call or e-mail from the decision makers, he said. His boss, whom he respects and who had given him permission to conduct “Beer and Bible,” broke the news to him a couple of weeks ago.

He now has less than 60 days before he and his family – wife and three kids – are cut off from all funding and left “abandoned,” as he put it.

“It’s troubling,” Hill told The Christian Post. “We’re out here trying to reach people as Jesus would.

READ MORE: http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100426/church-planter-fired-over-beer-and-bible/index.html