Joseph, thanks for this excellent post. I really enjoyed it, and I needed it.
Interesting to me that this morning I was in 1 Corinthians 11. And I have been considering at what age to start "doing communion" with my kids at the children's home. I have a handful 10 and up who are grasping the need for salvation and making declarations of faith. I'll soon baptize them. I think they can grasp the significance of and need for celebrating the Lord's Supper.
Thoughts?
Also, since I spend most Sundays leading this young little flock here in Kenya, I can't tell you the last time I participated in a communion service. Which has begun to bother me as well.
This post has given me serious food for thought. I must not ever forget or become detached from the significance of what has been done for me, for us. And if that could lead to liberal thinking and worse liberal belief and behavior, well.....that would be terrible.
I think the impulse to baptize is the right one. I don't think there's any reason to rush kids or people more generally to communion without first rushing them to baptism. Baptism functions as somewhat of a guarantee that they will know which lord they are remembering in the Supper. Discipleship more generally is the indispensable context for celebrating communion, but I also think that we need to be clear that we can never truly "grasp the significance of" the Lord's Supper prior to actually participating in it. I hope this is helpful.
Thanks for the reply. I agree 100% on all counts. Baptism will come first. Then a communion service precluded by much prayer and fasting on my part. As a life long PAOC Pentecostal believer and pastor, I am praying for Baptism in the Holy Spirit for my young flock!
Although I agree, I think we need to be very careful here. Yes, remembering is vital, and we need to do what we can and need to. BUT. And it’s a big but. So many damaged Christians have come out of church and no longer attend. Does this mean they have to go back into abusive situations to get Eurachrist? Heaven forbid! I have done communion by myself when I felt the need. I think we need to be very careful how we say to people they ‘must’ do something! For if a person does not have access to a body, are we suggesting they go into any place? Rather than trust the relationship they have with God that He is absolutely Fine with them doing it by themselves, whilst they look around for a place of Life, without any pressure of how quickly to do it? For we have free will for a reason. And crushed and forced free will, most especially coming from religion needs slow and gentle healing! If we are to remember Christ, it is through His love and faithfulness leading us into green pastures and by still waters. Not by feeling guilty at not doing communion,
Hi Nicola, I have all the compassion in the world for people who have suffered evil within the church they called home. Abusive churches might be precisely the kind of places that have forgotten the Lord in a moral sense. Nevertheless, I think it is wrongheaded to say that someone can have a relationship with God but not with the church. You can't say you love God without loving your neighbor, and neighborliness must start with persevering in the fallen communities that gather for forgiveness under a steeple. Those who are spiritually mature have a duty to bless their local church with their maturity, not bury their coin in the ground. For sure, there is a time to shake the dust from your feet, but one ought only do that to step into a new church unsullied. Finally, I caution against having communion by yourself. I am glad you are hungry for it. But communion is a communal activity: you cannot commune with yourself (see 1 Cor 11).
You misunderstand me. I am not saying we do not need to go back into church body. But that we need to find the right place. Where we are fed, loved and not condemned, but I do think that if it takes a while, communion with God alone, or with one or two, is better than no communion alone. Far to many churches are driven by something other than God. And I am still not recovered from that. God is bigger than our damage. For me, I still truffle with going to my church, and I have a good church. But legalism and force were my life. So I have an allergic reaction still to ‘have too.’ To say have too puts me right off and makes me see the coercion of my past….. But wisdom includes and remembers. And love includes.I hope one day I will want to come back regularly. But patriarchy have put me off Othodoxy. By their control and insistence woman should know her place, and keep silent. which is an abuse of scripture. And I would also suggest, Paul was saying ‘All eat together, because the rich in the church were excluding the poor and eating in front of them in this case. So it was not that one MUST take communion together here, so much as all being treated equally.
Joseph, thanks for this excellent post. I really enjoyed it, and I needed it.
Interesting to me that this morning I was in 1 Corinthians 11. And I have been considering at what age to start "doing communion" with my kids at the children's home. I have a handful 10 and up who are grasping the need for salvation and making declarations of faith. I'll soon baptize them. I think they can grasp the significance of and need for celebrating the Lord's Supper.
Thoughts?
Also, since I spend most Sundays leading this young little flock here in Kenya, I can't tell you the last time I participated in a communion service. Which has begun to bother me as well.
This post has given me serious food for thought. I must not ever forget or become detached from the significance of what has been done for me, for us. And if that could lead to liberal thinking and worse liberal belief and behavior, well.....that would be terrible.
I think the impulse to baptize is the right one. I don't think there's any reason to rush kids or people more generally to communion without first rushing them to baptism. Baptism functions as somewhat of a guarantee that they will know which lord they are remembering in the Supper. Discipleship more generally is the indispensable context for celebrating communion, but I also think that we need to be clear that we can never truly "grasp the significance of" the Lord's Supper prior to actually participating in it. I hope this is helpful.
Thanks for the reply. I agree 100% on all counts. Baptism will come first. Then a communion service precluded by much prayer and fasting on my part. As a life long PAOC Pentecostal believer and pastor, I am praying for Baptism in the Holy Spirit for my young flock!
Although I agree, I think we need to be very careful here. Yes, remembering is vital, and we need to do what we can and need to. BUT. And it’s a big but. So many damaged Christians have come out of church and no longer attend. Does this mean they have to go back into abusive situations to get Eurachrist? Heaven forbid! I have done communion by myself when I felt the need. I think we need to be very careful how we say to people they ‘must’ do something! For if a person does not have access to a body, are we suggesting they go into any place? Rather than trust the relationship they have with God that He is absolutely Fine with them doing it by themselves, whilst they look around for a place of Life, without any pressure of how quickly to do it? For we have free will for a reason. And crushed and forced free will, most especially coming from religion needs slow and gentle healing! If we are to remember Christ, it is through His love and faithfulness leading us into green pastures and by still waters. Not by feeling guilty at not doing communion,
Hi Nicola, I have all the compassion in the world for people who have suffered evil within the church they called home. Abusive churches might be precisely the kind of places that have forgotten the Lord in a moral sense. Nevertheless, I think it is wrongheaded to say that someone can have a relationship with God but not with the church. You can't say you love God without loving your neighbor, and neighborliness must start with persevering in the fallen communities that gather for forgiveness under a steeple. Those who are spiritually mature have a duty to bless their local church with their maturity, not bury their coin in the ground. For sure, there is a time to shake the dust from your feet, but one ought only do that to step into a new church unsullied. Finally, I caution against having communion by yourself. I am glad you are hungry for it. But communion is a communal activity: you cannot commune with yourself (see 1 Cor 11).
You misunderstand me. I am not saying we do not need to go back into church body. But that we need to find the right place. Where we are fed, loved and not condemned, but I do think that if it takes a while, communion with God alone, or with one or two, is better than no communion alone. Far to many churches are driven by something other than God. And I am still not recovered from that. God is bigger than our damage. For me, I still truffle with going to my church, and I have a good church. But legalism and force were my life. So I have an allergic reaction still to ‘have too.’ To say have too puts me right off and makes me see the coercion of my past….. But wisdom includes and remembers. And love includes.I hope one day I will want to come back regularly. But patriarchy have put me off Othodoxy. By their control and insistence woman should know her place, and keep silent. which is an abuse of scripture. And I would also suggest, Paul was saying ‘All eat together, because the rich in the church were excluding the poor and eating in front of them in this case. So it was not that one MUST take communion together here, so much as all being treated equally.