Weird Pentecostal: My Journey Toward Embracing the Liturgical Calendar
Evangelicals/Pentecostals celebrate "special days" -
Christmas, Easter, Pentecost - instead of holy seasons.
A day is not able to mine the deep truths of the church's story.
It creates an episodic high followed by a big let down.
Easter is not over. It has just begun.
- Dr. Cheryl Bridges Johns
After we returned to campus for the Spring semester, Melody became agitated and started attending the local Methodist church instead of the campus Pentecostal church. She explained to me that it didn't feel right to her that we were completely ignoring the Liturgical Calendar. I had no idea what she was talking about.
Melody realized that she would have to explain everything about Lent to me. So, she did and it surprised and inspired me. Suddenly, I saw the rest of the Christian world through a different lens. I thought that all the older denominations like Methodists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Catholics practiced a dry, dead ritualistic faith. So, I was amazed to learn that all these denominations participated in a form of fasting for forty days before Easter. They deprived themselves of food to remind themselves of how much Jesus gave up for them and to prepare their hearts and minds to truly appreciate the meaning of Easter. I thought that only Pentecostals cared about fasting and praying. I hadn't imagined that the "frozen chosen" would be willing to do something like that, too. Wow.
The more time I spent with Melody, the more she messed up my preconceived notions of what Methodists and Baptists were supposed to be like. She wasn't perfect but neither was I. I expected her to be practically ignorant about the Bible but she actually knew a lot and she was always studying on her own. She was serious about seeking the truth and learning how to live out the convictions of her faith more consistently and authentically. She just went about it differently, sometimes.
After Melody explained Lent to me, I decided to observe it with her. So, I spent weeks denying myself meat. We found ourselves having to explain our "diet" over and over again but, during that time of self-denial, I found myself more closely attuned to the story of Jesus' life. I found my prayer life growing richer and I found self-discipline and serenity taking root in me. That year, I participated in Holy Week with much more understanding and intentionality. By Easter morning, I had developed a sincere appreciation for the value of Lent and the Liturgical Calendar. I have observed Lent ever since then. I decided that if it was good enough for the early Christians, it was good enough for me!
Other things that added to my appreciation for ancient traditions of the Church was a class I took at Emmanuel on Spiritual Formation and a pastor who practiced the tradition of guiding our church family through the liturgical season of Advent. The Spiritual Formation class gave me an opportunity to study the spiritual disciplines, monastics, and some of the mystics of the historical Church. I especially remember reading the writings of St. Theresa of Avila and studying St. John of the Cross, and Brother Lawrence. I was surprised and delighted to find that Holiness-Pentecostal theology and experiences were echoed in their writings. It was eye-opening to learn that I could look back for more than just one-hundred years of church history to find Christian heroes and mentors. Now, I could look back for almost 2,000 years and find Christians that I could identify with.
I have also noticed that Pentecostal and Evangelical churches do not give much emphasis to The Lord's Supper. This is very contrary to Christian tradition. However, when my children were small, we had a pastor who began to offer communion on a more regular basis. Prior to that, our church only took communion about four times per year. This pastor was different. He was seminary trained and had been raised Methodist. So, he wanted to offer communion more regularly. His approach to serving communion was also different than what I had seen before. He provided one large loaf of bread and one cup. Each person came and pulled from the same loaf of bread and dipped their piece of bread into the grape juice from a beautiful communion cup. As we did so, we were each told, "This is the body of Christ broken for you." "This is the blood of Christ shed for you." No one had ever said that to me before. It made communion seem so much more personal to me. I later learned that this method of serving communion was called intinction. I liked it because I saw meaningful symbolism in taking from the same loaf of bread and drinking from the same cup.
That pastor eventually moved on to another ministry assignment and our church reverted back to giving very little attention to the Liturgical Calendar. So, for years, our family has observed the liturgical calendar on our own. Chip and I have celebrated many Advents with our children at home. I sometimes go to a Methodist church on Ash Wednesday to receive ashes and I observe Lent on my own if no corporate fast is encouraged by our church. When we have realized that we have gone months without communion, we take family communion at home. Because of that, my children have learned to highly value the Eucharist/communion and I think that's a good thing.
Now, I am a seminary student. I have spent three years studying different aspects of the Bible, Christian history, and theology as it relates to ministry and church life. At the beginning of last Advent season, I received a special gift; a great planner that is centered around the Liturgical Calendar. It is called Sacred Ordinary Days and it does help to make my ordinary days more sacred. I love the daily, weekly and seasonal reflection and rhythm that it helps to provide for me. It makes me feel more connected to the larger Christian community outside of my own denomination and centers me around core values and traditions of the Church.
So, although I may seem like a weird Pentecostal to some people, I feel that I am actually more of a traditional Pentecostal or maybe an ecumenical Pentecostal. Pentecostals pride themselves on trying to be as much like the early church as possible but I have noticed that most of us have not actually done a very good job of studying the first 1500 years of the Church. We tend to skip from Pentecost to the Reformation and then to Azusa Street. That's unfortunate because I have enjoyed finding examples of Pentecostals all throughout Church history. Often, they were called, "Mystics."
We Pentecostals often say that we don't like meaningless tradition but we actually have plenty of traditions of our own. We have our ways of starting and ending a worship service. We have certain things that we say when we are praying, etc... So, I hope that more Pentecostals will soon begin to take more of an interest in the history of Christianity and develop a greater appreciation for the meaningful traditions of the Church. I think that if Pentecostals can find value in the doctrine and spiritual practices that are mentioned in the Bible and in some of the traditions of our grandparents and great-grandparents, surely we can also find value in stories and Christian practices from the other 2,000 years of Church history.
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For more about the practices of the Early Church:
Worship in the Early Church: Did you Know? Christian History.
Access my Holy Week Facebook Music Posts here:
Link to Karen Lucas Facebook Videos
For more information about the "Sacred Ordinary Days" Planner:
Sacred Ordinary Days Website
