When
His Sabbath is honored and His people commit to holiness,
the Lord
makes Himself present in an unforgettable way
Love
Feast Beginnings
by Tom Bloomer
composed circa October
1998, updated in 2001 thanks to
input from Al Akimoff and Reona Joly
How Did
YWAM Love Feasts Begin?
In 1971 at YWAM Lausanne, there were a couple of serious accidents on
Sunday afternoons, notably sledding accidents. When Loren and Darlene
Cunningham sought the Lord as to the reason, they understood Him to be
saying that there needed to be a new commitment to His holiness,
especially concerning Sabbath observance; and then He would restore His
protection.
One other key influence during the same period was the visit of two of
the
Sisters of
Mary of the
evangelical
sisterhood of Darmstadt
to the Lausanne base, who loved YWAM but were surprised at the
unruliness of the meal times (people jumping up to get things, shouting
across the room, reading their mail at the table, etc.). They told
Loren and Darlene that their meals were times of peace, quietness, and
relationship.
When we came as students in 1974 one of the first teachings in the
school was that a meal could and should be an ordered time of
fellowship. We were taught to stay seated for a full 45 minutes, to
enjoy the meal and talking with the people around us, and to prefer one
another at the table.
Reona Peterson-Joly returned from London in 1971, where she was
pioneering YWAM England and supporting herself by teaching in a school
for Orthodox Jewish children. When Reona heard that the leadership was
studying what the Lord meant by Sabbath observance, she shared what she
had understood from the
Orthodox
Jewish families. To sum up: the house
was cleaned from top to bottom, to purge it of leaven; there was no
work on the Sabbath day; the Sabbath began on the eve of the day, with
the best meal of the week, which meant the best china, the best food,
the best clothes for the family, and most of all, there was a total
focus on the Lord.
Another key influence at that time was Joe and Judi Portale's return to
the base, after visiting believers in Czechoslovakia with Al &
Carolyn Akimoff. Arriving at the house of a Czech elder on Christmas
Eve, they participated in their 'love feast', which consisted of
passing around round, flat bread and telling each person what they
meant to them, and how they loved them. YWAM first heard about this
250-year-old Moravian tradition
in this way, and that's how we began to
use the term 'love feast'.
So, the Cunninghams proceeded to study the relevant passages in the
Word (Is. 56 and 58, among others), and to restore the Sabbath by
adapting the Jewish traditions to YWAM Lausanne:
No work on Sunday -- so
the noon meal was usually cold (salads and
Sandwiches prepared the day before, to reduce the kitchen work). No
sports or hard play either -- not a legalistic rule, but an outworking
of the commitment to 'turn your foot from your own pleasure on the
Sabbath'. The Sabbath was a day of quiet, rest (many took naps), walks
in the forest, and concentration on the Lord. (Of course, there was
church in the morning and the main weekly community meeting in the
evening, too.)
To prepare for the Sabbath, we had a love feast the evening before, on
the eve of the Day of Rest.
What
Were Those Love Feasts Like?
We moved the tables from the crowded dining room into the larger
lecture room, so as to have space for all students and staff to sit
down together, and to have guests as well. The tables were
beautifully
decorated with candles, centerpieces, and flowers. The
best meal of the
week was prepared,
everybody
dressed up, and we set place cards so
people wouldn't always sit next to their same friends all the time.
Best of all, there was a sense of
expectancy
and
holiness
that whole
day; with a commitment to spiritual preparation. Students and staff
both prayed for hours during the afternoon for the love feast. People
would go and knock on each other's doors, to confess things to one
another and ask forgiveness. Nobody wanted to be an obstacle to the
Lord's meeting with us that evening, and each one took that
responsibility very seriously. (A message that Loren preached a lot in
those years was 'The Sin of Achan' from Joshua 6, that one person's sin
could stop the flow of the blessing of God in the community.)
The [younger] children also had their own special meal with
decorations, but it was earlier so they could be put to bed and the
parents could be free to fully participate in the love feast. When
everyone arrived for the meal, they waited together, so all could enter
the lecture room at one time. The joy and expectancy was high, as we
saw people in their best clothes, and people wondered who they would be
seated with (especially the singles!).
During the meal, all remained seated while
one group served the others.
Each week a different group would take that responsibility. Sometimes
there were special songs and music but it was all completely oriented
toward worship to the Lord: it was not just Christian entertainment. At
the end of the meal, the love feast leader gave a meditation on one
aspect of
the character of God,
from the Bible. Then from that
meditation,we went straight into a time of worship, still seated around
the tables.
The worship was not directed from up front, anybody could lead out in
prayer, read a passage
of Scripture, start a song, etc. The worship would last at least an
hour, or even two, time would stand still, nobody wanted to leave.
We waited upon God together,
in His Presence. In other words, it was a
vertically- and horizontally-oriented meal, not just horizontal. When
His Sabbath is honored and His people commit to holiness, the Lord
makes Himself present in an unforgettable way. . . We saw the fruit of
the love feasts over the years, it was one of the only times that all
the staff, with all the students, and without many outsiders, met with
each other and with God. Sometimes guests would make commitments to the
Lord after being there with us.
YWAM Lausanne learned to worship God during the love feasts (because as
late as 1974, we didn't know how to worship yet, we had 'singing').
From Lausanne the love feast spread to other YWAM bases, then in 1974
the Cunninghams took it to Hawaii, and it went
around the YWAM world.
So What
Happened to the Love Feast?
Later, as Jannie Rogers has said, "The god of the weekend stole it
away." He's pretty powerful .... and it's true, it was a tremendous
amount of work. The hospitality crew would spend most of Friday to
prepare the tables, and they prayed about the seating, even which
singles to seat together (really!). Just folding the napkins took ten
people a full hour, after lunch. And as base leader, I took the whole
of Friday afternoon to prepare the meditation for the love feast, and
to prepare myself, and to pray for the evening. Later we switched the
love feast to Friday evening, and took Saturday as a full day off.
In more recent times in YWAM, 'love feast' has come to mean any meal
that's a bit different from the normal ones. Such as the 'love feast'
we attended at one base which consisted of a buffet, then everyone
sharing their most embarrassing experience. No worship, no mention of
the Lord; and the Holy Spirit didn't even visit that one. Fun nights
and skit nights and mime nights and costume nights are great. We had
many of those during our school in Lausanne in 1974, as a matter of
fact we averaged at least one skit per day, and a 'no-talent night'
every three weeks or so. Most bases could use more of these kinds of
evenings, they're tremendously important in community-building.
But let's not call them 'love feasts', OK? Because throughout the
history Of the Church, that term has meant a community meal which is
lived in true Fellowship and in the presence of the Holiness of God.
Is
There a Place for Love Feasts
Today?
Loren and Darlene did a great job of adapting the Biblical and Jewish
Traditions to the hippyish Jesus-movement YWAM culture of the early
1970's. Now we need someone to re-adapt them for postmodern youth. What
could a love feast look like for twenty somethings? It should be very
different from what we had going for those years in Lausanne, but it
would of course include the emphasis on beauty, fellowship, solemn joy,
and the holy Presence of God. When you receive the vision from Higher
Up, please invite me once. I'd like to see what it looks like.
Copyright 1998 by Tom
Bloomer
