I had been the lead pastor of my church for about a month when I noticed that the Lord’s Supper wasn’t on the official church calendar for another couple of months. Attempting to be a good Baptist pastor, I called the chairman of deacons. “Hey, how often do we take the Lord’s Supper around here?” I asked.
He replied, “Hmm. I think we do it a couple of times a year, but check the church constitution.”
Of course! What was I thinking? The answer had to be in the church constitution, and indeed it was. It was clear as day; the church was to come to the Table quarterly. Four times a year we were to eat little wafers and drink a shot glass of grape juice.
Since then I’ve asked several church members why they think we should or should not take the Lord’s Supper more often. I’ve heard answers all over the spectrum, but most of all, I’m told that observing the Lord’s Supper “too frequently” would make it less special. Of course, the thought of only singing or preaching or taking an offering quarterly never crossed anyone’s mind. Those things don’t lose their effectiveness, but apparently eating of the bread and drinking of the cup would become nothing more than robotic repetition. Keep reading
Due to the influence of the ecumenical and liturgical movements in the United States, Anglican evangelical congregations are likely to celebrate Holy Communion more frequently than non-Anglican evangelical congregations. But how many Anglican evangelical congregations view their weekly observance of the Lord's Supper as a part of their proclamation of the gospel? How many of them have been influenced by Anglo-Catholic sacramentalism in their interpretation of this observance?
No comments:
Post a Comment