"Fasting and prayer?! Some of you may be wondering: did I read that right? What's up with this?

Well, let me add a bit of context to why I am writing this article. At the 264th Synod of the RCUS in May 2010, the Synod made a decision to call upon the churches and members of the RCUS to set aside a day of prayer with fasting for the purpose of asking God to raise up men for the ministry of the gospel. In light of the fact that there are a good number of our ministers who will be coming to the age of retirement in the next few years, in light of the need for ministers to serve the churches and to take up the work of missions, it was deemed good to call upon the Lord to give to His church the gift of ministers (see Eph. 4:11). A call for the church to fast and pray is certainly a rare occurrence among us. The last time the Synod called for a day of fasting and prayer was in 1987. On that occasion we were called to fast and pray that God would grant his blessing on the missionary endeavors of the church. So clearly we consider the setting aside of a day of fasting and prayer to be for extraordinary circumstances.

I admit this subject is in some ways a difficult and seemingly strange topic for us to wrap our minds around. This is an area in which, generally speaking, modern Reformed and evangelical churches know very little about, and, for the most part, no longer practice. I have run into various reactions towards the subject. Most often people think it sounds weird. Some people think that is what Muslims do: Muslims fast. In fact, as I write this article, it is the season of Ramadan, a month in which all Muslims are called upon to fast from sun up to sun down.

There are many valid reasons to be on our guard against an abuse of fasting and prayer. It is not to be done out of custom or superstition, or out of a hope to gain merit from God or the praise of man.

But the real question is: Is it biblical? Perhaps it will come as a surprise to you to know that fasting and prayer is explicitly described, discussed, and commended over seventy-seven times in the Old and the New Testaments. So whether or not you've ever fasted with prayer, or your parents or grandparents ever did, ought not deter you in considering this subject. Christ assumed that His followers will fast when He says, "When you fast, do not be like the hypocrites" (Matt. 6:16). He said in Mark 2:20, ‘It isn't appropriate for my disciples to fast while I am with them now. This is a day for celebration. But after I leave, they will fast.' According to the Book of Acts, the Apostles and early church fasted and prayed at the occasion of the setting aside and commissioning of Paul and Barnabas as missionaries (Acts 13:1-3), and the ordaining of elders (Acts 14:23). The apostle Paul spoke of Christian married partners abstaining from marital relations to devote themselves to a period of fasting and prayer (1 Cor. 7:5). So, the assumption of both Christ and the apostles is that fasting will be a part of our lives on extraordinary occasions.

The church in history has recognized Scripture's teaching on the place and importance of fasting and prayer for extraordinary occasions. Yet this has been all but forgotten by modern Reformed Christians. So in this article I would like to review a small sample of what our Reformed heritage has to offer in shedding light on the purpose and practice of Scripture's teaching on fasting and prayer.

First, I would like to simply note a number of ways our Reformed forefathers spoke of the use of fasting and prayer.

The neglect or misuse of fasting with prayer by the church is not new. As a pastor and leader in the early days of the reforming of the church, John Calvin, writing in the sixteenth century, felt constrained to speak on the subject of fasting and prayer in his Institutes of the Christian Religion. Book Four, Chapter 12:14-21 contains Calvin's reflection on Scripture about the subject of fasting. At the beginning of his discussion Calvin wrote: "Let us, therefore, say something about fasting, since very many, while they do not understand how useful it is, regard it as not very necessary; others also, considering it superfluous, completely reject it. And since its use is not well understood, it can easily lapse into superstition." (4.12.14)

Heinrich Bullinger, another reformed pastor and theologian in the sixteenth century, wrote the Second Helvetic Confession (1566). In Article XXIV, sections 4-8, Bullinger summarized and applied Scripture's teaching on fasting. Listen to the following comments on the use and purpose of fasting: "Fasting is a help of the prayers of the saints and all virtues.... Now, fasting is either public or private. In olden times they celebrated public fasts in troublesome times and in the afflictions of the Church...Such a fast should be kept in this day, when the Church is in distress. Private fasts are used by every one of us, according as everyone feels the spirit weakened in him." So this confession commends the "public" or corporate use of fasting and prayer, as well as "private" fasting and prayer among individual Christians. Bullinger also indicates that calling for public fasting and prayer be reserved for extraordinary occasions.

In the seventeenth century, the Westminster divines included in the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647) the commendation of "solemn fastings" as a biblical practice on "special occasions." (21:5). The Westminster distinguishes fasting from that which is commanded as "part of our ordinary worship of God." Nevertheless, it commends fasting as proper upon certain occasions. Also in the seventeenth century, the great Synod of Dordrecht met in Holland from 1618 -1619. Besides producing the Canons of Dort, the Synod also wrote a Church Order. This Church Order enjoined two types of occasions appropriate for fasting and prayer. In the election and ordination of new ministers (See Article 4); "In times of war, pestilence, calamities, heavy persecution of churches, and other general distresses, the ministers of the churches shall request the government to employ their authority and command that a public day of fasting and prayer be appointed and set aside" (Article 66).

The above is only a brief survey of the expressed convictions of the early Reformed churches in regards to fasting and prayer. But note that over a period of almost one hundred years as representatively surveyed above, the Reformers expressed their judgment, on the basis of Scripture, that fasting and prayer was to have a place in the life of the church, both in public and private.

Since the actual practice of fasting and prayer is rare in the church today, we would do well to look a bit more closely at John Calvin's treatment of the subject in his Institutes of the Christian Religion (Book Four, Chapter 12:14-21). It is about six pages worth of reading, and even if you don't have your own copy of the Institutes it is readily available on the World Wide Web. In this section you will find something for everyone. Calvin addresses pastors and their role in teaching about the subject as well as cultivating its practice. He points to various Scriptural occasions in which fasting and prayer were resorted to and suggests how such examples might apply to the church in all times and places. He also provides a definition of fasting, and why it is done in connection to prayer and therefore not practiced as a thing in itself. Calvin concludes his treatment of the subject by warning of a number of ways this practice can be misused. I would like to highlight a few particularly helpful points of Calvin's discussion on fasting.

First, Calvin takes up his section on fasting in his treatment of Church Discipline. Listen to his thought process: "The remaining part of discipline, which is not properly contained within the power of the keys, is where pastors, according to the need of the times, should exhort the people either to fasting or to solemn supplications, or to other acts of humility, repentance, and faith-of which the time, the manner, and the form are not prescribed by God's Word, but left to the judgment of the church" (4.12.14). So, fasting and prayer can be useful in the cultivation of self-discipline; in particular in the areas of humility, repentance, and faith.

Secondly, Calvin goes on in section 14 to refer to examples in the Law, the Prophets, and apostolic practices of fasting and prayer and summarizes some occasions on which the church might resort to fasting and prayer. "To sum them up: whenever a controversy over religion arises which ought to be settled by either a synod or an ecclesiastical court, whenever there is a question about choosing a minister, whenever, finally, any difficult matter of great importance is to be discussed, or again when there appear the judgments of the Lord's anger (as pestilence, war, and famine)-'tis a holy ordinance and one salutary for all ages, that pastors urge the people to public fasting and extraordinary prayers" (4.12.14).

Thirdly, what is the purpose of "holy and lawful fasting?" According to Calvin, it has three objectives: "We use it either to weaken and subdue the flesh that it may not act wantonly..." This objective, he says, is "more appropriate to private fasting." Then another objective is "that we may be better prepared for prayers and holy meditations..." This use of fasting is for "both the whole church and every individual believer..." Yet another objective is "that it may be a testimony of our self-abasement before God when we wish to confess our guilt before him." This last is also common to both private and public fasting. What is of utmost importance in all such fasting is "the motive of the heart" (All quotes taken from 14.12.15).

Fourth, fasting is to be paired with prayer. This is so because fasting is a "sign of self-abasement" and therefore, "whenever men are to pray to God concerning any great matter, it would be expedient to appoint fasting along with prayer." The purpose is to render ourselves "more eager and unencumbered for prayer" (14,12:16). So fasting is not commended as a thing in itself, but it is an aid or a handmaid to prayer.

Finally, it is worth noting that Calvin denies that fasting is "an external ceremony which, together with others, ended in Christ" (14.12.17). Out of the conviction that the biblical practice of fasting and prayer was not abrogated with the coming of Christ, Calvin counsels that "pastors urge the people to public fasting and extraordinary prayers" (4.12.14). He was joined in that conviction by subsequent generations of reformed pastors, theologians, and ecclesiastical assemblies, as our brief survey above demonstrates. The considered judgment of the churches of the Reformation witnesses to the conviction that fasting and prayer will be a part of the life of the Church and the individual Christian on extraordinary occasions.

I would like to conclude this article by making some applications for the use of fasting and prayer among us.

Fasting and prayer would be called for, as Calvin wrote, "whenever a controversy over religion arises which ought to be settled by either a synod or an ecclesiastical court." For example, when a Spiritual Council is approaching a matter of church discipline or a deep division in the congregation, would it not be wise to fast and pray? Out of acknowledgment of our own weakness as elders, out of the concern that in the handling of the matter before us we might well have erred at numerous points, out of a desire to approach the matter with humility, wisdom, and grace, out of a desire to see God's healing and glory displayed in the case that is troubling the church, prayer accompanied with fasting would seem to be in order. Perhaps when we are frustrated at a lack of faithfulness and fruitfulness and spiritual discernment in dealing with discipline and controversy in the church, it is because we have lacked a fervency of prayer accompanied by fasting in calling upon God for His blessing and wisdom.

Or again, fasting with prayer would be in keeping with the apostolic example of such in the election of pastors and elders, and the sending out of missionaries. Generally speaking, we are quite proficient at the formal process of doing these things. And we do pray about them. But is this not an extraordinary occasion about which we should pursue God's wisdom and spiritual discernment-the matter of ordaining men to the office of minister and elder? Is it not an extraordinary matter that a man is set apart to the mission field to bring the gospel to a dark world?

Finally, take the example of our synod's call to pray with fasting for the raising up of men for the ministry among us. Is this not an extraordinary matter? Our God has mercifully and wonderfully supplied our denomination recently with some fine men for the ministry. They have come from various backgrounds and places and denominations. We praise God for them. But doesn't it make you wonder: where are the young men, or any men for that matter, from among us? Why is the Lord not raising up more men from our own congregations? Is this perhaps indicative of the Lord's chastening of us? Chastening is not always tied to specific sins in our lives. But such a possibility is not to be excluded either (See James 5:13-16).

In any case, in light of a number of men approaching the age where they may have to retire from the active ministry, there is a need for men to be raised up for the ministry. There is always the need for more missionaries. As our Lord taught us, "the fields are white unto the harvest, the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore, pray the Lord of harvest would send out laborers into his harvest" (Luke 10:2). Let us join in prayer with fasting. And if you cannot fast, let us at least pray fervently.

Much more could be said on this subject, but it will have to wait for another time. For now, in this article, I am taking to heart the example and urging of our fathers in the Reformed faith, Calvin and the writers of the Church Order of Dort, that pastors teach God's people about the practice of fasting and prayer, and call them to it. Not because their judgment itself bears the authority of Scripture-it doesn't! But to remind us all that the church in history, and in particular the church of our own Reformed heritage, has recognized Scripture's emphasis on the place and importance of fasting and prayer for extraordinary occasions. Are we wiser than they for the neglect of it?