Taste Test Sunday Sunday, March 19, 2023
Overview
In 2008, the Northwest Mississippi Rising Sun Usher Federation designated the Third Sunday in March as “Taste Test Sunday” to promote healthy meals at church functions by serving diabetic friendly desserts. In 2011, the NBCUSA H.O.P.E. Team adopted this observance as part of our promotion of healthy living. On Taste Test Sunday 2023, we’re asking NBCUSA churches to sample diabetic friendly desserts after worship. You will watch members surprise as how good these desserts taste. You should consider promoting a contest in your congregation to collect recipes with healthy substitutions for a “Healthy Desserts Cookbook.” We offer the information in this guide to assist you in planning for this observance.
Download a guide: Taste Test Sunday Worship Helps 2023
Responsive Reading (Sample)
Leader: So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31, NIV)
Congregation: Let us cleanse ourselves from everything that can defile our body or spirit. And let us work toward complete holiness because we fear God (2 Corinthians 7:1).
Leader: And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him (Acts 10:38).
Congregation: I will never forget your commandments, for you have used them to restore my joy and health (Psalm 119: 93, NLT).
Leader: Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:2).
So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).
Congregation: Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again (1 Thessalonians 5:23).
All: Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well (3 John 1:2, NIV).
Litany (Sample)
ONE: In love, God calls us to health and wholeness in our own lives.
ALL: For all who care for us emotionally, physically and spiritually;
For all who hold us, encourage us and challenge us, who stir us emotionally to make healthy responses to the ebb and flow of living;
For all who provide guidance and support for our sexual and mental health,
We give you thanks.
ONE: In love, God calls us to mission among those in need.
ALL: For all who offer food or shelter or a listening heart;
For all who gently hold a troubled hand or sit silently in simple accompaniment;
For all who offer therapy or surgery, who bring intervention or enable rehabilitation with a full measure of hope,
We give you thanks.
ONE: In love, God calls us to care for the least among the children of God.
ALL: For all who honor and care for those who are aging, who rock babies and children in need of comfort in an unkind and terrifying world;
For all who offer care in community clinics and at health fairs, who diligently work to end epidemics, who value the disabled among us;
For all who see each person’s worth and actively oppose discrimination,
We give you thanks.
ONE: In love, God calls us to open our hearts to the meaning of discipleship.
ALL: Grant that we may have the wisdom and will, O God, to embrace the healing and service ministry of Jesus Christ and make it truly our own. Inspire us, Holy One, to trust that your healing love will use our humble efforts to bring health and wholeness to us and to the whole human family.
Source: Rev. William R. Johnson, VP for Member Relations, UCC Council for Health and Human Service Ministries, www.chhsm.org
Published by the Health Ministries of the United Church of Christ