How does your church celebrate the Lord's Supper?
Like most churches in its denomination, my church celebrates the sacrament of communion in a way that's probably familiar to most Protestants: a plate of small squares of bread is passed around, followed by thimble-sized cups of grape juice, both of which are imbibed quickly and quietly during a reading of the appropriate liturgy, followed by a closing prayer.
I have a love/hate relationship with this style of communion celebration. Let me explain.
What I love about this is that it forces me to think through, and take seriously, my participation in the Lord's Supper. My church usually reads through a preparatory exhortation about communion the week before communion is celebrated, with the goal of encouraging the congregation to spend at least some of the week leading up to the Lord's Supper thinking about what it means. The reading of the liturgy, and the long pauses for reflection throughout, during the celebration of communion itself make me feel a connection to hundreds or thousands of other churches that celebrate in the same way: this isn't some crazy practice that my own church came up with; it's an act of worship that I practice along with fellow Christians all over the world.
What I dislike about this style of communion celebration basically boils down to this: I can't think of anything that feels less like sharing a communal meal with Jesus and my fellow believers than nibbling tiny bread squares and sipping a spoonful of grape juice out of a miniature plastic cup.
I often ponder a fantasy version of the Lord's Supper in which the entire church gathers for a huge meal—a community event marked by laughter, fellowship, and prayer and closed with the breaking of the bread and drinking of wine. (Except you'd get to eat a whole piece of bread if you wanted, and drink wine out of a real glass.)
I'm not saying there's no place for the somber, quiet version of communion. But I find it a little difficult to use words like "celebration" and "meal" in reference to the bread-cubes-and-grape-juice style of communion.
Surely, there are a lot of churches out there that celebrate the Lord's Supper in different and interesting ways. Does your church celebrate communion like mine does? Have you ever tried something different or unusual? Or do you prefer the quieter, more reflective communion celebration?
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Comments (31)
We celebrate a closed communion for the immediate church membership only, with unleavened bread and 'fruit of the vine' (i.e., not wine).
This is done once per quarter.
One can defend the approach as very biblical, but some have a tendency to get into a mode of 'that is our exegesis, and all others are bogus by definition' to which I fall short of subscribing.
One prays for the return of Christ to settle all of the thumb-wrestling. ;)
I love the fact that we celebrate weekly, and I love the format because it feels more like a communal meal than other formats I have experienced. I sometimes wish we used actual wine, and I also think that the use of individual tiny cups takes away from the symbolic value of the single cup - but I have to watch that I don't allow myself to get into too much of a critical spirit.
I do know of another PCA church in the area that celebrates the Lord's Supper as a meal, as you described in your blog post, though I have never attended.
One of those services (usually the first weekend of the new year) is different than the other three. That's an AGAPE feast. We do it outside of the regular worship time, usually Friday night. We have nicely decorated tables set up in the fellowship hall and there's as much bread and grape juice as you want. We sit around and tell God Stories (what God is doing in our lives right now). We also have a time to do actual footwashing. It's a great service.
The other three are a bit more traditional. During the worship time with small bits of bread and thimble of juice. We still take time to wash one another's feet (although no one is forced to do that). While the bread and juice are being distributed we have a roving wireless mic so people in the congregation can share a short God story.
That's how we do it.
I disagree that opening something to innovation is bad. I think tradition lends itself to a hardness of heart and forgetting the meaning behind the tradition. Jesus roundly criticized the Pharisees for their traditions - please be careful, brother.
In services, our church does it by intinction. We usually have four couples up front serving and we all line up sort of like cattle and file through, pulling off a piece of bread and dipping it in the cup. It really isn't too bad as a recipient but I recently was one of the servers for the first time and I hated it. I felt like I was on an assembly line.
Except for one thing ... the first person in line at my "station", rather than dipping her bread, took the cup from my hands and drank deeply from it. My first reaction was to wrestle her to the floor for the cup, all the while screaming, "Look lady, that's not how we do it here!" But then, as I relinquished the cup, it was a beautiful scene to watch her drinking in His fullness and power and blood.
Not sure what the others behind her in line thought about it though ...
We also, like some of you, have a loaf of bread which we breake, which picturises the sacrifice of life. There was a leaf, there is broken one. I am really happy for all those churches, who do it this way, becouse this is what was intended (1Cor 10:16-17). Using those small pre-prepared bits again, shows, each one has got it's own small loaf of bread and no participation in one great loaf, thata was broken for us.
Basically, I think many problems of US church would be fixed if only you would back to biblical way of celebrating this ordinance. It would teach you - simply as it was intended to do it - through it's celebration the nature of grace. ALL Scriture should be followed - especially Christ's ordinances!!!
As one in whose life alcohol has played a devastating role, I am also grateful for the grape juice. I would not be able to drink wine if it were offered (the smell of alcohol makes me sick to my stomach).
you see, your arguments are pragamatical and esthetical. The problem I see with it is that both pragmaticism and esthetic should be subdued to the greter cause of picturing grace during Lords Supper. Also, I see nothing wrong in isolating unbelivers - this is the way they learn the basic
distinction that exists and once will be seen in the sharpest possible way - faithfull to the Lord and those, who are not. I see no profit in being gracious to those, who should be exhorted. As to your stomach, certianly the Lord will teach you how to drink wine with gratefulness , since it's His
ordination. Maybe it is also a question of quality of wine. If it is very dry, it could couse some
problems. But there is no necessity of using dry wine. In our church we use a delicate semi-dry or semi-sweet. Noone had anytime any problems
Thank you again for your response. It is exciting to me to be able to speak with you although you are so far away. I wonder what city in Poland you are from?
Our church celebrates communion every week and in differing ways. Most of the time, people get out of their seats and go to where the little cracker bits and plastic cups are in trays. Still, it's different from passing down the aisle; our way tends to encourage more interaction. It's still pretty quiet/reflective, though; I tend to like that, but I also tend to want something different from time to time. We also pass the tray about once a quarter, or have individuals serve the sacraments to each other while saying a short blessing ("The body of Christ, broken for you; His blood, shed for you").
I like all of them for different reasons. The only thing I don't like in other churches I've attended is not celebrating communion weekly. But that's a whole 'nother can of worms!