Deep Dive: Lent Feasting Liturgies

This year our theme for Lent is Feasting in the Wilderness, a motif that recurs in the Bible (think manna, or the feeding of the 5000), and the liturgy for Wednesdays in this year’s Lent Guide is a liturgy for Feasting (though by that we just mean eating together). The hope for the Feasting liturgy is to encourage our church, particularly in community groups, to gather and rejoice over how God has provided for us on every level, from the food we eat to the saving work of Jesus on the cross.

So, for CGs, here are four logistical things on how to do these Feasting liturgies:

1. Try including a meal (if you don’t already) with your community group gatherings during the five weeks between Ash Wednesday and Holy Week (so between March 6 and April 9). I realize that isn’t feasible for every group, but there are a number of things you can do to make it way more manageable, like having a rotation of people who will cook each week, throwing a good ol’ potluck, pooling money to order dinner, or by having people bring their own food and just eating together.

2. When you get ready to eat, use one of the liturgies where you would normally have someone pray for your food. Note, there are portions to be read by either one person or everyone in the room, so it’ll help to have extra copies on hand so folks can read their part (also read through it beforehand so you’ll have things prepared; no lie, two days involve glass clinking).

3. The communications team placed the Feasting liturgy on Wednesday for ease of use, but for groups that don’t meet on Wednesdays, feel free to swap the Feasting liturgy with the liturgy for your normal meeting day; ex. if you meet on Thursdays, do the Presence liturgy on your own on Wednesday and the Feasting liturgy together on Thursday.

4. Feel free to treat this like you do the weekly discussion questions – you can add to these Feasting liturgies for your group, edit/modify them, or write your own. If you think something else will better fit your group or particular events in the lives of your group members, please do so.

This is the first time we’ve done something like this as a church, so if we’ve missed anything in these logistics, or if you have further questions, just let me know! You can email me at eric.spivey@vintagenc.com. Hopefully these liturgies, and the treat of eating together with your community, make Lent a joyful season this year for you and our church.

Click here to see the full discussion guide that goes with this Deep Dive.