Is the Love Feast essential?1
The Love Feast faces a critical moment: will Christians in general, and Brethren in particular, seek to reclaim the Love Feast as an essential communion practice post-COVID? Or…will COVID put a metaphoric nail in the already waning practice of the Love Feast?
These past two years have brought a crisis and a challenge to understanding what church practices are “essential.” Due to COVID, many have attempted “virtual” and “social distancing” “essential only” church practices. This has forced ministers and leaders to consider what practices qualify as “essential.” Does the Love Feast meet the cut? Is the practice of Love Feast for followers of Jesus Christ in the post-pandemic world “essential?”
Admittedly, many challenges to participating in practices that require in-person, physical elements, such as the Love Feast, have emerged. As one who believes that the Love Feast is essential, I struggled with what to do in these past two years. As a pastor, the two churches I serve have only held one Love Feast since the pandemic began. It seemed obvious in the early shutdowns of the pandemic (March and April of 2020) that Love Feast would not happen, especially since even our Easter Sunday service was virtual and not in person. I encouraged people to participate in our Church of the Brethren’s denomination-wide virtual Love Feast.2 This was the first step I took to try to communicate the Love Feast being essential without actually participating in it, thinking by the fall Love Feast, we would be back to normal. In fact, our churches were planning a large Love Feast on Saturday evening October 10, 2021 as part of the Nettle Creek Church of the Brethren’s 200th Anniversary celebration. Again, due to COVID cases, this was canceled. By Maundy Thursday of 2021, only White Branch was willing to host the Love Feast, and only a small number of people opted to come, about 15 out of a congregation numbering around 50. This past World Communion Sunday, October 3, 2021, it was postponed again, as there was a COVID case connected to Nettle Creek. All of these led to waning participation in and understanding of the value of Love Feast in our congregations.
However, in the midst of these challenging times, it is important to consider if the Love Feast qualifies as essential? If so, it is also important to consider how the practice is being communicated as essential and what innovative and creative ways the practice can continue. This has been one of my challenges and I conjecture it is true for other leaders and ministers.
Many Christians, including many Brethren, do not regularly participate in the threefold communion practice of Love Feast, including a combination of feetwashing, fellowship meal, and bread and cup communion around a table setting in a community of believers. I noticed that many in the two congregations I serve, including many long-time members, were not participating in the Love Feast practice. By their actions, they did not consider it essential. Only one-third of active members actively participated in Love Feast prior to 2018. According to a 2008 national survey of Brethren conducted by Dr. Carl Desportes Bowman, 65% of Brethren participate in at least one Love Feast a year, but that number drops to 39% for more than one per year.3 These numbers indicate that even for Brethren, many members do not regularly participate in Love Feast. These truths led me into my D. Min. doctoral work focusing on reclaiming the value of the Love Feast in my setting, the Nettle Creek and White Branch Churches of the Brethren.4 (Note: This work was completed just before COVID, so the challenges then were different).
To confirm this, at the beginning of the project, only seventeen of the forty-five respondents to a survey I conducted considered the Love Feast to be a command of Jesus. Thirteen considered it a good, but not essential practice. Four considered it a narrow, Brethren interpretation of Scripture. Four considered it unnecessary to following Jesus.5 The majority then did not consider it an essential practice.
The current crisis in the Love Feast practice mirrors what the 1950s Church of the Brethren faced. The Brethren’s desire for “church extension” and outreach beyond those who were raised Brethren, led to a crisis moment in the Love Feast practice. Since that time when the Brethren sought to intentionally become more mainstream and allowed for bread and cup only communion practices in Sunday morning worship, the threefold Love Feast practice of communion has been on the decline. Similarly, the COVID pandemic crisis has again put the Love Feast practice in danger of decline.
In the 1950s, the Brethren intentionally separated the bread and cup communion from the Love Feast, as a Sunday morning worship option. As part of a “church extension effort,” the original intention was to broaden the reach of the Church of the Brethren to those who were not raised Brethren. At this time, many Brethren sanctuaries were also being built or re-modeled. Those sanctuaries were not built for Love Feasts.
Many original Brethren meetinghouses were built with pews that folded into tables for the practice of Love Feast. Many newer Brethren sanctuaries added a baptismal but dropped the Love Feast tables. Instead, the Love Feast moved to the basement or a side room. Brethren Historian Dr. Donald Dunrnbaugh notes, “Congregations or the architects they hired gave little attention to the central liturgical act for Brethren–the love feast. This was often relegated to the basement or all-purpose fellowship hall.”6 With it, the Love Feast itself seemed to move to a secondary position in the life of the church. In other words, the post-1950s Brethren non-verbally communicated the Love Feast was not “essential.” The result was a waning value and participation in the practice of the Love Feast amongst Brethren. Durnbaugh asserts, “Instead of attracting at love feasts the largest number of congregational members for the entire year, as had previously been the case, in many churches attendance dwindled to a fraction of the membership.”7 While the verbal communication may still have been, “Love Feast is essential,” many Brethren began to view Love Feast as a non-essential practice in the life of the church, due to this type of “non-verbal” communication.
In the 1950s, many Brethren did not desire to see the Love Feast practice wane. However, the church “non-verbally” communicated that the Love Feast was not “essential.” Similarly, many Brethren during the pandemic would not desire to see the Love Feast practice wane. However, has it been “non-verbally” communicated as “non-essential?”
What has been the “non-verbal” communication about the Love Feast from church leaders and ministers during COVID? Has it communicated that Love Feast is “non-essential? Have church leaders and ministers communicated to people that these practices are not “essential” during the pandemic? If so, it is possible, these practices will continue to wane in the coming years. For this reason, it is important for church leaders and ministers to examine what is “essential” to the faith upon entering into the post-COVID world. If the Love Feast practice is to prevail and be renewed, it must be viewed as “essential.” If it falls to the category of “non-essential” then it may never be fully recovered and reclaimed in the post-COVID world.
The Brethren have traditionally understood interpreting Jesus’ commands as literal for His followers. Their emphasis on the ordinances has been on a literal and physical interpretation. In John 13:14-15, and 17, Jesus said, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you…Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”8 In this case, Jesus set the example, washed the feet of His disciples, then commanded His followers to do the same. This would indicate the practice of washing one another’s feet is essential.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 says that on the night Jesus was betrayed he took the bread and the cup and proclaimed a new covenant and instructed his followers to do this practice in remembrance of him. Along with the three synoptic gospels, these four references have been taken as a command of Jesus for the church to participate as an act of remembrance and proclaiming the Lord’s death until he comes.
The setting for the three synoptic gospels and well as 1 Corinthians 11 was a meal. 1 Corinthians 11:20-22 infers a meal setting for communion as some are getting drunk and overeating, while others are not getting anything to eat or drink. Acts 2:42-48 also infers a meal setting as the distinction between breaking bread for communion and breaking bread for a meal is a fine line. Thus, the Brethren have considered eating a meal with other believers as an essential fellowship practice.
Physical elements matter and they cannot be completely replaced by “virtual options.” People are designed to use all five senses in worship. This makes the Love Feast will an essential practice.
One of the Brethren contributions to Christianity in general, and the non-Catholic, Reformation world of Christianity in particular, has been its focus on the physical practices of the faith as obedient actions to Jesus, called ordinances. Physical elements, touch, and community have been at the centerpiece of Brethren practices: trine immersion baptism, laying on of hands, anointing with oil, the holy kiss, and the Love Feast. Each of these is nearly impossible to replicate “virtually.” A case could be made, and many have attempted in this past two years, to replicate the “heart” of these practices “virtually” and “socially distanced.” But, if the heart of these practices, must have physical elements that involve the five senses of touching, tasting, feeling, seeing and smelling and physical proximity to other believers, then it is nearly impossible to make the case they can be done “virtually” and “socially distanced.” Other Christian groups, like Quakers, for example, have argued for “spiritual” practices that do not need to include “physical” elements. The Brethren, on the other hand, have argued strongly for the need of the “physical” elements, not so much in a sacramental way, but still as “essential” to the faith.
Physical proximity still matters and it cannot be completely replaced by “social distancing” options. In marriage, physical intimacy is a sign of relational health. Babies and children are meant to be held and hugged. A handshake, a pat on the back, a high five are physical expressions of appreciation. Eating together and washing one another’s feet expresses communion, not just with God, but with each other, as the body of Christ. The Love Feast, therefore, will be reclaimed and renewed as an essential practice in the post-COVID world.
Other Christians, particularly the Catholics, have emphasized equating the body of Christ with the bread. In fact, many sacramentarians speak of the “real presence” of Christ in the eucharist. Brethren, however, have also noted that 1 Corinthians 12:27 says, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” Interestingly, this chapter is the chapter that follows the communion instructions given in 1 Corinthians 11, which also has a strong emphasis on the communal aspects of communion. In fact, the root of the communion idea is having a “common union” (or koinonia). This koinonia is both with Christ and His people. The two are deeply connected. For example, the two greatest commandments of loving God and loving others are interconnected.
Since 1 Corinthians 12:27 identifies the people, the community of faith, as the body of Christ, who are filled with the Holy Spirit. Thus, the “real presence” of Christ is also found in the people of God, the body of Christ. Earlier in 1 Corinthians 3:16, it reminds the church, that they are the “temple of the Holy Spirit.”
If this train of thought is followed, it is certainly possible, if not likely, that participating in communion in an “unworthy manner” and “sinning” against the body of Christ mentioned in 1 Corinthians 11:27 would include sinning against other people, or members of the body of Christ. The context bears this out as Paul rebukes the Corinthian church for getting drunk and overeating, while others get nothing. Paul says they should instead eat at home if they are hungry, so they can wait for each other. (1 Cor. 11:33-34) This communal aspect of communion makes the Love Feast an essential practice.
The New Testament communion was birthed at a Passover meal. This Passover meal was a prophetic meal symbolizing salvation and deliverance. It signified the salvation and deliverance the Lord brought to the people of Israel, in delivering them from the bondage of Egypt and making them a free people. Jesus also used that meal to share the salvation and deliverance from sin that He would bring. Followers of Christ today partake in the Love Feast as a prophetic meal symbolizing salvation and freedom from sin.
Revelation 19:7-10 has also been used to indicate a future celebration of Christ and His Church called, the “marriage supper of the lamb.” (KJV) The Love Feast is a prophetic celebration looking forward to the culmination of redemption to come. As a prophetic meal, the Love Feast is essential.
In the last section, I have given my understandings, based on Brethren interpretations of Scripture, why the Love Feast is essential. This section will provide a few suggestions on how to move forward. First, study and pray and determine if the Love Feast is an essential practice. Second, consider how to communicate both verbally and non-verbally that it is essential. Finally, consider potential innovative and creative ways to help the practice continue and move forward, without compromising its core elements.
Start with study, prayer, discussion, and discernment This is a good time to do the necessary biblical study and theological thinking to solidly determine if these practices are indeed “essential” by reading and studying the Scriptures on feetwashing, eating together, and partaking of the bread and cup communion. Maybe use Advent, or the New Year, or Lent 2022, to study the Love Feast Scriptures once again, individually, or as a church, small group Bible study, or Sunday school class. Those Scriptures could include 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, Luke 22:7-30, John 13:1-17, John 6, Acts 2:42-48. Ask yourself, or the group, questions like these: “What did Jesus do?” “What did Jesus command?” “What did the early church do?” “Are these practices essential to all generations and cultures? Why or Why Not?” “Have you ever participated in a Love Feast?” “If so, what was your experience like?” “If not, what has held you back from participating?” “Do you think these practices are essential for us today?” “How can we participate in these practices in the post-COVID world?”
This is also a good time to be intentional about both verbal and non-verbal communication. Consider what has been communicated as “essential” or “non-essential” in these past two years. Even if the frequency of the practice of the Love Feast has declined, how can the Love Feast practice be communicated, both verbally and non-verbally, as “essential” moving forward?
Also, consider how to be creative and innovative with the essentials of the Love Feast. Can Love Feast elements be brought into other settings? In my own family, for example, I have brought bread and cup communion to our celebration of the Thanksgiving meal. This combination allows for the Thanksgiving meal to become a Love Feast, of sorts, as a true Eucharist, or expression of blessing and thanks to God, instead of simply a cultural day of feasting.
Another example is weddings. When my wife and I were married, it was a Love Feast, of sorts. We both washed each other’s feet and took the bread and cup communion during the ceremony. This was followed by the meal at the reception. Thus, our wedding ritual was exemplified by the Love Feast. Are there other innovative ways the core elements of the Love Feast can be entered into other settings?
The post-COVID world has brought rapid change to an already rapidly changing world. Many have already suggested that the western world is a post-Christian, post-modern world, due to massive cultural shifts. It is hard to foresee how different the post-COVID world will be from the pre-COVID world.
As every area of life has been impacted by COVID, the church practices have also been impacted. However, if the Love Feast is an essential practice, it will continue in the post-COVID world. As the Brethren in the 1700s reclaimed what they saw as the early church’s communion practices of Love Feast, there will likely be other groups that will reclaim and recapture these practices in the future.
My efforts in my doctoral project brought about moderate changes in how the Love Feast was viewed in my churches. By the end of the project, those who viewed the Love Feast as a command of Jesus increased to twenty-two of thirty respondents, compared with seventeen of thirty in the midpoint and seventeen of forty-five in the beginning. Those stating a good, but not essential practice dropped in half. Those stating a narrow, Brethren interpretation dropped from three to only one.
By the last survey, not one respondent claimed it was unnecessary to following Jesus, compared to four at the beginning.9 These results lead me to believe that there was a level of success in reclaiming the value of the Love Feast, by increasing those who viewed it as a command of Jesus and decreasing those who viewed it as not essential, a narrow Brethren interpretation, or unnecessary.
In conclusion, I have a bright outlook for the future practice of the Love Feast. I believe Jesus has commanded it and as Head of the Church, Jesus will see that it continues. He will build His Church and the gates of Hell cannot stop it! (Matthew 16:18). Therefore, the Love Feast will not fade away but will be reclaimed and renewed as an essential practice in the post-COVID world.
- Love Feast in this piece will be defined as a three-fold communion practice in community with other believers. Those three parts are: feetwashing, fellowship meal and bread and cup communion.
- This worship service can still be viewed at this link: https://livestream.com/livingstreamcob/lovefeast2020/videos/204317150?fbclid=IwAR2DzT5Dqc39MP5_8NRs0Z7JENbWTxYdm9A4Njro0W2E6l-6gvwjLY-OVMY
- Carl Desportes Bowman, Portrait of a People: Church of the Brethren at 300 (Elgin, IL: Brethren Press, 2008), 48, 116.
- Note: This work was completed just before COVID, so the challenges then were different and do not directly correlate to the COVID pandemic.
- Brian Mackie, “Reclaiming the Value of the Love Feast as an Agent of Reconciliation in the White Branch and Nettle Creek Churches of the Brethren,” D. Min. Thesis, Anderson School of Theology, 171.
- Donald Durnbaugh, Fruit of the Vine: A History of the Brethren 1708-1995 (Elgin, IL: Brethren Press, 1997), 513-514.
- Ibid., 519.
- All Scripture references will be taken from the New International Version, 1984, unless otherwise noted.
- Brian Mackie, “Reclaiming the Value of the Love Feast as an Agent of Reconciliation in the White Branch and Nettle Creek Churches of the Brethren,” D. Min. Thesis, Anderson School of Theology, (172).
Brian Mackie pastors the White Branch and Nettle Creek Churches of the Brethren and is the host of The Good News with Pastor Brian Mackie. He holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Anderson University and a Master’s of Divinity degree from Bethany Theological Seminary.