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Footwashing-why is it necessary?

NightEternal

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Are there any other denominations that practice footwashing? I am not aware of any but I could be wrong.

I have heard Christians from other churches express aversion to this practice. They claim that it is not necessary and it should not be elevated to the level of an ordinance. They say Christ was only trying to drive home a point to His disciples one time and it was not a practice He meant for His followers to carry on regularly until it has lost its significance.

Other non-Adventist Christians claim it is is just 'showboating' your humility to others in a public way.

Is footwashing a purely EGW-based concept that the pioneers formulated? How did we come up with this practice?

Any SDA pastor will tell you that communion day is the most anemic attended Sabbath specifically because of the foot-washing.

Is it really necessary? Should we finally abandon this ordinance that so many people find hygenically gross and uncomfortable?

I
footwashing.jpg
 

RC_NewProtestants

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Foot Washing - Symbolism over Substance

Recently the Adventist Review dealt with the issue of foot washing, that tradition found in the Adventist church and a few others. The Review begins its article How to End your Fear of Foot Washing by Ed Christiansen by saying:


Ask any deacon. It's a well known fact that on Communion Sabbath perhaps only about half the regular members of most congregations will show up. Some slip away after Sabbath school. Others satisfy a longstanding desire to visit the church in the next town. There's something about Communion Sabbath that breeds colds, flu, bronchitis, and gout.
Why is that? I don't think it's because the day is so boring. I don't think it's because people are against celebrating Communion. Frankly, I think it's because many people think of what we call "the ordinance of humility" as an ordeal of humility: they suffer from fear of foot washing.

We call this the Ordinance of Humility though it is more likely an ordinance in stupidity. Jesus washed dirty feet, He was offering to do a real service to His disciples and asking them to be of real service to each other. In our Ordinance of Humility we wash clean feet and pretend that we are doing a service by washing the feet of people who don’t even have dirty feet. We have elevated the meaning of Jesus’s act to a symbolism and the importance of the act, though often addressed is never addressed practically. We don’t offer to help other church members clean their flower beds or paint their house or work on their car or bicycles. We create an Ordinance of Humility as our official declaration of symbolism over substance.
The article later says:
Because this humility is both hard to attain and hard to retain, the ordinance of humility is a precious opportunity for us to humble ourselves as we ought, and its value is inestimable. As Ellen White writes: "Whenever this ordinance is rightly celebrated, the children of God are brought into a holy relationship, to help and bless each other."2​
No! a thousand times no, it is a regular opportunity, that is what Christianity should be about, the willingness to be a friend and a service to others even when it is inconvenient to do so. It is not about playing that this is the way we are in a once a quarter pretend to be humble service inside a church.
As we practice the ordinance of humility it is not only the washing of the feet of others that embarrasses us, but, perhaps more so, having our own feet washed. There's something private about the washing of feet, quite different from the washing of hands. Like certain medical examinations, it can seem an invasion of something that is ours alone.​

No, it is not the washing that embarrasses us it is that it is needless and pointless. How many of us would be really embarrassed to clean the wound on someone’s foot say they had a cut and needed it cleaned and disinfected, I am not talking a disgusting wound that might make some weaker stomachs sick. We would not feel that is an embarrassment and if it was our own foot that needed tending we may be embarrassed by our need of help but we would not be embarrassed for having a real need. We are most embarrassed by having no need of something and pretending that the ceremony does anything. That is the reality of why foot washing is so ill attended. Because we make it a stupid ritual, we can serve other people all the time. It is wrong to insert the foot washing into the communion service. The foot washing of the disciples was a practical example of serving others. The rest of the communion, the wine and the bread are totally symbolic it is a shared experience with history and the God of that history.
We have made foot washing as meaningless as Maundy Thursday and just as traditional. Another sad part of this is that we don’t even ask the people in the church why they avoid this meaningless ritual, instead like the author of the above article the leadership simply assumes they know why. Telling them if the reader could only understand the deep significance of this insignificant activity it would be embraced. With a few anecdotes thrown in to make the event seem meaningful as if relationships were created by foot washing ceremonies.

There were a few good comments on that blog post too.
 
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Eila

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Are there any other denominations that practice footwashing? I am not aware of any but I could be wrong.

I have heard Christians from other churches express aversion to this practice. They claim that it is not necessary and it should not be elevated to the level of an ordinance. They say Christ was only trying to drive home a point to His disciples one time and it was not a practice He meant for His followers to carry on regularly until it has lost its significance.

Other non-Adventist Christians claim it is is just 'showboating' your humility to others in a public way.

Is footwashing a purely EGW-based concept that the pioneers formulated? How did we come up with this practice?

Any SDA pastor will tell you that communion day is the most anemic attended Sabbath specifically because of the foot-washing.

Is it really necessary? Should we finally abandon this ordinance that so many people find hygenically gross and uncomfortable?

I
footwashing.jpg

See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feet_washing There are several groups that do foot washing. As for EGW wikipedia lists the Methodist church as a church that is not unfamiliar with foot washing so I'm guessing it was not a strange or new practice for EGW.
 
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djconklin

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Thank you Elia for setting the record striaght with actual facts.

Is footwashing a purely EGW-based concept that the pioneers formulated? How did we come up with this practice?

"FEET » ashing of, as an example, by Jesus ( John 13:4-14)" &
FOOT » Washing the feet of the disciples by Jesus ( John 13:4-6)

from http://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=wash&qs_version=9

As I recall Jesus pre-dated EGW. So, the innuendo that this is EGW-based is false.

Any SDA pastor will tell you that communion day is the most anemic attended Sabbath specifically because of the foot-washing.
Not at our church--sorry to hear about yours. We have never had any pastor who would have said such a thing. If it were true what does it say about the humility of the members?


If as the Review article stated only half of the members show up--that is actually quite good--most churches I have been in have so many that the deacons have trouble getting through the aisles to serve communion.


Hate to break this to you: but truth isn't found by looking for what is popular and what is not.
 
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O

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For the ancient cultures, feet were the dirtiest things.

Considering back in those times, there were no cars, poor people didn't ride on horses or donkeys, and shoes weren't what they are today. We saw on TV the Iraqi's beat Saddam Hussein's statue with shoes. It is the greatest insult. It must have been a great act of humility to wash someone's feet.

I don't see any issues with foot-washing in the church. But personally I have not been completely comfortable with it either.
 
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NightEternal

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Thank you Elia for setting the record straight with actual facts.

How was the record ever made crooked Conklin? What are you implying?

As I recall Jesus pre-dated EGW. So, the innuendo that this is EGW-based is false.

I made no such innuendo. I ASKED A SIMPLE QUESTION. IT WAS AN HONEST QUERY TO FIND OUT WHERE THE CHURCH GOT THE PRACTICE FROM.

If I was making a case that it HAD originated with EGW I would have just come right out and SAID so. I didn't know THAT'S WHY I WAS ASKING. :doh:

Not at our church--sorry to hear about yours. We have never had any pastor who would have said such a thing.

You think I am the only one who has observed this?

From the Review article in case you missed it:

Ask any deacon. It's a well known fact that on Communion Sabbath perhaps only about half the regular members of most congregations will show up. Some slip away after Sabbath school. Others satisfy a longstanding desire to visit the church in the next town. There's something about Communion Sabbath that breeds colds, flu, bronchitis, and gout.
Why is that? I don't think it's because the day is so boring. I don't think it's because people are against celebrating Communion. Frankly, I think it's because many people think of what we call "the ordinance of humility" as an ordeal of humility: they suffer from fear of foot washing.
 
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freeindeed2

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Footwashing-why is it necessary?
It's not. It's not the blood and the body. It's yet another thing taken completely out of context. Try this. Go to a homeless person (a REAL one!) and give him the choice between washing his/her feet or taking him/her to a nice restaurant. Or offer someone who has lost everything your footwashing or something that ACTUALLY meets their NEED!!!!!!!

Sometimes people are so dense! They're in their cozy little churches ritualistically 'washing feet' while there is a world of people in ACTUAL NEED! How stupid can we be!?!

In CHRIST alone...
 
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Lebesgue

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It's not. It's not the blood and the body. It's yet another thing taken completely out of context. Try this. Go to a homeless person (a REAL one!) and give him the choice between washing his/her feet or taking him/her to a nice restaurant. Or offer someone who has lost everything your footwashing or something that ACTUALLY meets their NEED!!!!!!!

Sometimes people are so dense! They're in their cozy little churches ritualistically 'washing feet' while there is a world of people in ACTUAL NEED! How stupid can we be!?!

In CHRIST alone...

I agree 100% with you.

Why in the 21st century when people have shoes, cars, and bicycles they don't really get there feet dirty like they did when Y'shua was in His earthy ministry.
Y'shua was making a POINT trying to teach the Talmudim(Disciples) something, not institute an ordinace.

I can see footwashing on special communions like during Passover. The Seventh Day Baptist Church I used to attend apparantly did footwashing on communion during Passover ONLY, as does the Messianic synagogue I attend now. But it's not a regular practice, it's confined only to communion that is done during Passover. That seems reasonable to me.

The way SDAs do the footwashing seems pointless and repetitive to me. And I was taught it's partially for a reason I can't find in the Bible, they consider it almost a "mini" re-baptism.

G-d Bless.

Shalom,


Lebesgue
 
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annie1speed

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We don't wash feet, but we do have the Lord's Supper every week.

I view foot washing as an act of humility. When Jesus washed the disciples' feet He was showing them how to treat each other, not considering themselves better than another, serving them in humility and love.

Figuratively speaking, we should wash each other's feet every day. Every act of love and kindness is in a sense washing the other person's feet. Sometimes when I want to help someone or do something for someone and they are resisting I will say, O come on - let me wash your feet.

Does that make sense?
 
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freeindeed2

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We don't wash feet, but we do have the Lord's Supper every week.

I view foot washing as an act of humility. When Jesus washed the disciples' feet He was showing them how to treat each other, not considering themselves better than another, serving them in humility and love.
Hey Annie! Good to see you.

Yes, it was an act of humility, which is the principle we can live by. Just last week I had guests in my house and I made it a point to go to each one of them and wash their feet after their long journey. Walking from Kansas City to Denver really gets your feet dirty!;)

Jesus took the position of a servant doing the customary duties a servant did in that culture. Today we don't have this custom, yet some groups have made a ritual out of it. It's not wrong, but it is certainly irrelevant and impractical at applying the principle and meeting actual needs.

Since most probably bathed before going to church it's even more irrelevant and ritualistic.:D

Figuratively speaking, we should wash each other's feet every day. Every act of love and kindness is in a sense washing the other person's feet. Sometimes when I want to help someone or do something for someone and they are resisting I will say, O come on - let me wash your feet.

Does that make sense?
I would understand it, but it might sound really weird to a non-Christian. I suppose it might provide an opportunity to explain, depending on how they view Christians.

In CHRIST alone...
 
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RC_NewProtestants

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Sometimes when I want to help someone or do something for someone and they are resisting I will say, O come on - let me wash your feet.

Does that make sense?

It makes sense here when you explain it. But unless they already understand what you mean by "let me wash your feet" it may not make sense to them.
 
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