Why do churches conduct the Lord's Table on Sunday Mornings

What about people who work an evening shift? In my case, for almost 17 years I've worked a 4 pm - midnight shift at a job that sometimes requires me to even work Sunday evenings. (We're a 24/7/365 operation.)

How about those people who work in such occupations such as law enforcement, firefighters, emergency medical occupations or those in the military?

Not everybody has an occupation that has a M - F, day-time schedule.

 

That's the way my church does it. It's always a very special service in all respects.
We don't pass the traditional wafer tray and tiny cups of juice either. We go forward and one of our pastors holds the bread in which we break off a small piece. Then he says "this is My body, take and eat". Then we take the bread to the other pastor who holds the cup of juice and dip the bread in it and he says "this is My blood which is shed for you". Then we eat it.

I'll probably get blasted for telling this much like I did for saying I call my pastor bro. Mike, but oh well. That's the way we do it and it is very special.

 

The reason we have Communion on Sunday nights is this: it is a closed
observance, and we don't want to have to tell certain people that
they cannot participate.

Sunday mornings, the crowd is usually different from the Sunday night crowd.

 

That's almost the way we do it at our church (other than the fact that we partake of the elements separately). :thumbsup:

 

I am just curious...I went to your church website and noticed that your church WAS Baptist but is NOW a Christian Fellowship.....why the change?

We had a church do the same thing here, and they basically became a stage show.

 

Sunday afternoon once a year.....

 

We have a separate Table service before the morning service every Sunday.

 

We do so on Sunday mornings. And, "no" it is not closed to "certain people." What a great attitude to have towards folks who don't meet the qualifications. Actually, our is limited to Christians only. But it is not our job to be the Lord's Table police. We give the qualifications for participation. If you violate those qualifications you are responsible for the consequences.

 

Yes, yours is certainly closed to "certain people". You just stated that it is limited to "Christians only" and that you "give the qualifications". That means you are limiting it to "certain people".

Just because your "certain people" and my "certain people" differ doesn't give you a reason to act superior and talk about people's attitudes.

 

What about those that must work Sunday mornings? You aren't ever going to please everyone.

 

Matt, my post wasn't directed toward you. I don't recall you referring to "certain folks."

 

IN my years as a pastor we have conducted the Lord's Supper on Sunday mornings and on Sunday evenings, on holidays, and while I can't think of any right now I'm sure that there were some other nontraditional times along the way.

 

Atleast you believe in fighting fair...atleast in terms of putting no straw man arguments forward. :tonofbricks:

 

I understand that, but I also hold to closed communion so your comments also pertained to me.

 

A few years ago my church merged with another congregation known then as Hope Christian Fellowship. When the merger was complete, we merely changed our name to Lighthouse Christian Fellowship. We changed none of our doctrines that we had before!

(And to those who insist that the word "Baptist" must be in a church's name in order for her to be a "Baptist Church," I might remind you that the church that Spurgeon pastored [Metropolitan Tabernacle] did not have the word "Baptist" in her name during his pastorate.)

 

Smart aleck reply:

If you serve the Lord's Supper in the morning, wouldn't that make it the "Lord's Breakfast"?



Serious reply:

Isn't this really a matter for each individual congregation to decide for itself?

We commonly call communion "the Lord's Supper" and indeed it was an evening meal when it was instituted, but Christ gave no instructions that the ordinance be served only in the evening. He said "When..." No time of day given.

In practice, our church normally gives communion whenever the preacher says too. Seriously. We've had preacher's who preferred it to served in the morning and other's who serve it in the evening.

*I* prefer it to be served in the morning or on Wednesday night because I don't usually attend Sunday night and have to plan specially to do so.

 

I may be a little younger than you revmwc, but I can't really remember a time when we held communion ONLY on Sunday evening and that is through quite a few churches! I'm having to remember back across a number of churches!

It was always and still is a solemn occassion as it should be. I've never done a Lord's supper where the warnings of who should and shouldn't partake aren't repeated. But I don't remember is always being held at night EXCEPT in the FreeWill Church I attended as a teen and they held it at night for more practical reasons: Not everyone wanted to stay for the foot washing that usually followed. Those who didn't were dismissed and those few who did, stayed and did the final church clean up for the day. You just can't leave those basins full of water sitting there and well water is wet and you don't want folks with dirty shoes walking over damp carpet potentially left by a morning footwashing. Do it Sunday night and the carpet is dry by Wednesday and whoever is cleaning can come on Monday and put everything away.

And also, if you do a foot washing in the morning, it makes everyone late for lunch! Hey, we were Free Will but we were still BAPTIST! :laugh: