Frequency of Communion?

[Tim Bonney]

In recent years do you remember any Baptist denomination making any recommendations on frequency of communion?

Several denominations, the ELCA and the UMC both, are recommending an eventual move to weekly communion. I think the ELCA is further along with this than the UMC is. My church's services are a mix at this point. Twice a month on Sunday morning. Every Sunday evening at our contemporary service, and once a month at our Saturday service.

Just curious. If there isn't newer recommendations there won't be much to discuss.

[Haruo]

I'm not a denomination, but Ilike frequent communion .

[Dave Roberts]

The often practiced Baptist way was to have communion on the first Sunday of each quarter. I much prefer at least a monthly sharing of the Supper.

[Tim Bonney]

My home church growing up, Kirkwood Baptist, had monthly communion. I considered that the norm until I got my first part-time Associate Pastorate in seminary. That church had quarterly communion which felt too infrequent to me.

I suppose Baptist polity might preclude any of the denominations thinking they could or should suggest a frequency of communion.

I'm now used to weekly communion and would miss it at a lower frequency. But that could just as easily happen the next time the Bishop decides to move as most UMC churches in Iowa seem to be on the once a month schedule.

[William Thornton]

Quarterly or monthly has always been the standard in my experience. Some of the popular guidebooks for pastors may suggest a frenquency but i don't recall ever hearing any denominational standard.

I think I'm safe in saying that weekly service would be viewed as too RC and the immediate implication would be that the focus of worship would be tranferred from the preaching of scripture to the elements. From there a redesign to shift any pulpit to the periphery and allot sacerdotal status to church staff, replete with costumes, regalia, and paraphernalia.

Liberal Baptists are just slow Catholics, which is why we've seen decades long SBC clergy convert to episcopalianism and Rcathoicism.

[Ed Pettibone]

Ed: Burnt Hills BC, has Communion the first Sunday of each month. I have been in Baptist churches that have it as infrequently as twice a year. I do not recall a Baptist church that has had it every week. However being Baptist I am content with leaving the frequency up to the local church. Most of us have a real need to step up our frequency of Baptizing new believers.

[Sandy]

Since I view communion as a time of memorial and personal reflection, and not a sacramental dispensing of grace through the elements, the frequency of it bears little importance. It's not mentioned anywhere in Acts, and Paul only gives it a passing reference in I Corinthians, without instruction as to its frequency, and only a note on its symbolic value in proclaiming the Lord's death. I think a pastor is probably better capable of discerning the need of his congregation in needing to use this particular illustration to remind them of Christ's sacrifice than a denominational leader.

I do appreciate the creativity that many pastors put into how communion is served. I've been in small churches where the whole worship experience was focused on it, and where foot washing was included as part of the experience. I've been in "common cup" ceremonies. And I have to say that, in spite of a difference of opinion on symbolic or sacramental, one of the most meaningful experiences I've had with communion was in St. John's Church in Washington, DC. They have a noon service every day, and instead of just ritual questions, the priest asked specifically if there were things in my life which needed repentance before I was worthy to receive, and then prayed with me before serving. He didn't ask me to confess to him, but it was a very personal touch that demonstrated the sanctity of the moment.

If you hold a sacramental view of baptism and communion, where does foot washing fit into that? It's part of the experience, and it is in the narrative in the same context as the supper itself.

[Tim Bonney]

[Sandy]

[Tim Bonney]

Sandy,

I certainly agree that making communion a meaningful part of the service is key no matter what the frequency. I'm always concerned when communion seems to be a perfunctory addition to the service or when it seems to be done so quickly that it seems like an after thought.

Having grown up with monthly communion I guess I never have figured out how that particular frequency became the norm in that Baptist church. But I took monthly communion for so many years that when I was at a church that was quarterly it seemed to take away from the meaning. The pastor seemed to almost forget how he wanted to conduct the service since he did it rather infrequently.

I don't know of any Baptist writings on frequency. Maybe that is something I missed in Baptist studies.

[Haruo]

At Friends Memorial Church, an Evangelical Quaker congregation, they had weekly Communion. We do at Fremont, too, but we call it Coffee Hour...

[Tim Bonney]

[Tim Bonney]

Here is an interesting article about SBC communion practices I just found.

http://www.bpnews.net/38730

57% of SBC churches have communion quarterly, only 18 percent monthly.

[Tim Bonney]

You might also notice that in 39% of SBC congregations most Christians baptized as infants would not be able to commune. That is a higher percentage than I would have guessed.

[linda]

Ya'll may already write me off as an heretic, and for sure now that I am officially in a church in the Wesleyan heritage.

I like weekly communion, can live with twice month or monthly or even quarterly. But our pastor makes no bones that he "can't figure out what to say to make church meaningful AND have communion." And that he is "afraid of it." So only if the board pushes do we randomly and occasionally have communion.

We love this church except for this. We looked at our Sundays and realized that after services we go home and do a Sunday meal together. We have added a brief prayer confessing our sins and needs and asking Christ to meet with us as we remember Him, and take part in a simple communion service. We were already, as more liturgical than this church (denom has both styles), lighting a candle on the Sunday table in the correct liturgical color for the week, discussing the season (Lent, Advent, Pentecost, Ordinary Time, etc.) We simply put the elements on a plate and in a small glass below the candle, and after prayer those who wish may partake.

Hope this doesn't put us too far out there but we find it deeply meaningful within our family circle.

[Tim Bonney]

Linda,

What your doing might not be per "the rules" but I certainly don't have a problem with it. I'd certainly think about doing home communion if I could find it at church.

I wonder why your pastor feels that way? Even fairly liturgical communion doesn't have to take that long. And I find the celebration of communion to be very meaningful in many different traditions.

[Dave Roberts]

If we look at the scanty evidence of how the NT church did communion, it is evident that it was probably done in homes. Of course, the churches were often house churches. There is certainly precedent for Linda's practice. Nothing in the NT, IMHO, demands the presence of an ordained minister or priest for proper communion.

[Tim Bonney]

United Methodism doesn't support home communion. But I can't imagine being in a situation not to get communion. I'd rather do it at home than nothing.

[Sandy]

[Tim Bonney]

Sandy,

You've lost me on the trip into the mind of Mark Coppenger. I'm not sure why you quoted him? As an alumus of MBTS I won't type here what I think of his leadership (Or lack thereof.) While he was the President of MBTS he also declared those who supported women in ministry to be heritics. Not just in disagreement with Baptist doctrine but heretics. So forgive me if I don't take much of anything he says seriously. He is generally a theological extremist within a conservative denomination.

Also you might want to know that you are not interpreting "worthiness" for communion in the way that even most Baptists use that scripture. The meaning of the phrase is not to take communion "in an unworthy manner" and not that you, me or anyone is ever worthy to take communion. Its a confusion of the KJV that is correct in more modern translations.

Given that, I can tell you that the UMC view is that the table is open to all. None are worthy but Christ. It is Christ's table and Christ invites all. John Wesley even believe that you should allow non-Christians to commune as they might experience conversion at the Lord's table. He called it a "converting element" and as such saw communion as an evangelistic opportunity to meet Jesus.

As to your whole experience with "inoculation" etc., that is so foreign to my own soteriology that it is hard to wrap my brain around the idea that an early, yet incomplete, experience with God would some how interfere with your salvation? I don't believe in "event" salvation. I haven't for a long time, even before becoming a United Methodist. I see salvation as a journey with God that may begin at baptism as in infant. But salvation is a life long journey with God and not an event.

[Sandy]

Coppenger was a sidebar quote in the presentation and graph that you linked, used in support for closed communion. Since it was one of the only quotes in that presentation that supported closed communion, I cited it for the discussion. I don't believe in closed communion, in fact, I find it interesting that Baptists, even more conservative ones, would support it, given their interpretation and view of ecclesiastical authority.

I see salvation as both an event and a process. Consequently, if I approach Christ's table with an unrepentant attitude, I see that as being "unworthy" to commune. If I've received his grace, and been indwelled with his Holy Spirit, I'm not unworthy. That's my view. So I don't see that a church or a pastor, whether they are given some kind of ecclesiastical authority or not, can determine who is "worthy" and who isn't.

And as I said before, frequency isn't really an issue in that perspective.

[Tim Bonney]

Sorry to get us off the original topic Sandy with the post about who can/can't commune. I didn't see the sidebar quote. So that makes more sense. Yet why Coppenger would be quoted as an authority on baptism is beyond me? I suppose since Baptists don't have anyone with official theological authority then people end up looking to folks who have held positions of leadership. Seminary presidents, convention leaders, etc.

Because some years ago I accepted the idea of prevenient grace (not a particularly a Baptist notion) I stopped considering one's salvation to be an event, though it might be seen as a series or string of events on a life long journey of faith. I don't believe in instantaneous conversion.

At any rate, you all have answered my question about frequency. It doesn't seem to be much of a conversation among Baptists given that each local church does whatever they feel led. Nor does there seem to be a Baptist theology of frequency that I can find.

[Shawn Koester]

As a Disciples seminarian seeking dual standing with the American Baptists, my personal preference is for weekly celebration at the Lord's Table given my Stone Campbell leanings. Quarterly and once a year are too infrequent. I can deal with monthly. I respect my sisters and brothers in Christ and their soul liberty to celebrate less frequently.

[Haruo]

As I recall reading in Vedder, one of the main reasons the Kentucky Baptists refused to let Campbell in was his "popish" view of Communion as evidenced by his insistence on its weekliness.

[Tim Bonney]

As I understand it, what would be the oldest Baptist church in KY went "Cambellite" and is now a Disciples Church.

The UMC is encouraging an eventual return to weekly communion. I've got a way to go in my current congregation but I'm working on it. Twice a month on Sunday morning, monthly on Saturday night (an older crowd) and weekly in the Sunday evening contemporary service. So counting all those services I'm serving communion I think seven times a month. When we get to twelve (weekly in each service) it will be mission accomplished. (That is if I am here that long.)