by Lamar Wadsworth » Sun May 13, 2012 5:34 pm
My practice has been open communion throughout my ministry. I usually say something to the effect of "All who love the Lord Jesus Christ, who look to him alone for the forgiveness of their sins, and desire to live a life pleasing to him are welcome at the Lord's table." I will never forget a Sunday morning service at Unity Baptist Church in Dalton GA when I was pastor there. We had observed communion, and after the service a young woman who attended but was not a member waited to speak to me. She said, "I don't know if I should have done what I did, but you did say, 'All who love the Lord Jesus Christ...'(she proceeded to quote my words back to me). I do love the Lord, he has forgiven my sins, and I do want my life to please him, so when the bread and grape juice were passed to me, I took it." I assured her that she had done the right thing. She replied, "I guess that means I need to be baptized." I told her, "I guess it does." I baptized her and her 11 year old daughter the next Sunday. (Not realizing that she didn't know how to do evangelism, she led her daughter to faith in Christ all by herself without my help.
I know it is the tradition of many Baptist churches including most in this area, but I can find nothing in scripture that makes baptism a prerequisite to the Lord's Supper. Indeed, as I learned by experience, the act of taking the bread and the cup can be one's first profession of faith in Christ. I do like to observe communion in conjunction with baptism. My favorite way to do it is on a creekbank dripping wet with baptismal water. When I served Hill City Baptist Church, a rural church in Gordon Co. GA, we often baptized in the creek, followed by communion on the creekbank, using the hood of Deacon Will D. Haley's Ford pickup as our communion table.
I can't bring myself to begin a Lord's Supper observance by talking about who is NOT welcome at the table. That would be like having guests in your home at mealtime and telling them that the meal that is prepared is only for the immediate family, but they are welcome to sit in the living room and watch you and yours gather around the dining table and enjoy your meal.
Two of the most meaningful Lord's Supper observances that I have been a part of:
One was at the kitchen table of a couple who have been friends of ours since seminary days. They had been forced out by a faction in the church after only ten months. We spent the day with them, helping them pack, basically grieving with them. At the end of the day, we embraced them and prayed with and for them. I asked Carol to get a piece of bread from the loaf on the kitchen table, and my wife Marilyn got the small bottle of grape juice we bought on the way from her purse. I told them that I believed in church as formal organization, but I also believe in church as a phenomenon that occurs whenever two or more gather in Jesus' name. Their kitchen table became the table of the Lord.
The other was when I was the supply preacher one Sunday at a church in Baltimore. I drafted a 7 year old girl named Emily who had been baptized the previous Sunday to assist
me at the communion table because I won't lead a communion service where only men are allowed to serve the bread and the cup. It was her first time to take communion, and she served the elements to the deacons--including her father and both grandfathers.