What is a consecration fast?

The phrase turns up in a lot of church calendars in January and can be baffling if you have not met it before. It is worth separating the two halves. Consecration means setting apart. Fasting means going without food, or without something else, for a defined period. Put together, a consecration fast is a stretch of time a person or a congregation sets apart, with fasting as part of how they mark it.

Where the practice comes from

Fasting appears throughout both testaments, usually attached to a decision, a crisis or a season of prayer rather than practised as a routine. Moses, David, Esther, Daniel, Anna and Paul are all described fasting. Jesus assumes the practice rather than commanding it, which is a distinction people often notice when they read the passage closely.

When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting.

Matthew 6:16

The framing there is worth sitting with, because the whole passage is about privacy rather than performance. It is one of the reasons churches that practise this tend to be quite relaxed about who is doing what.

The forms it usually takes

There is no single method, and churches that run a consecration period normally offer several so people can pick one that fits their circumstances.

• A complete fast, taking only liquids, usually for a short and defined period
• A partial fast, going without food between set hours of the day
• A Daniel fast, based on Daniel chapter 1, which sets aside meat, sweet foods and rich foods
• Giving up one specific thing rather than food, such as television or social media
• Simple, plain eating for the duration, without the usual extras

Twenty-one days is the most common length, which comes from the period Daniel describes in chapter ten. Seven, fourteen and forty day versions are also common. The number carries no special power in itself; it is a container for the time.

A word about health

This part is not a footnote. Fasting from food is genuinely unsafe for some people, including anyone pregnant or nursing, anyone managing diabetes or blood pressure, anyone with a history of disordered eating, and anyone on medication that has to be taken with food. Churches that run these periods routinely say so, and offer the non-food options precisely so that nobody has to choose between participating and staying well. A doctor is the right person to ask, not a pastor.

What a church usually does together

Alongside the fasting itself there is normally a shared focus: a theme, a daily reading, and a set of things the congregation is praying about together. That corporate part is most of the point. It turns a private discipline into something a whole church is doing at the same time, which is a different experience from doing it alone.

Solid Rock has run a twenty-one day consecration at the start of the year, with a published theme and prayer focuses covering schools, government, families and the church itself. A companion piece collects the passages most often used during a period like that.

If you want to join in

Nobody is counted or checked. If you would like to know when the next one begins, the church calendar carries the dates, and the connect page reaches a person if you have a question you would rather ask directly.

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