Communion

[Salty]

The typical church has communion in morning worship on the First Sunday each month.

The Deacons wives prepare it, the Deacons serve the elements by walking row by row and passing the bread and juice.

Have you ever celebrated Communion in a different way? Or is my OP the required Baptist SOP?

 

[matt wade]

Never been in a Baptist church that operated in that rigid fashion, so I'd say it is not SOP.

 

[Old Union Brother]

Salty your know me....we are different than most all other Baptists I started a link in the history forum a few months ago about our communion. Here is the Link http://www.baptistboard.com/showthread.php?t=69311

 

[revmwc]

The typical church has communion in morning worship on the First Sunday each month.

The Deacons wives prepare it, the Deacons serve the elements by walking row by row and passing the bread and juice.

Have you ever celebrated Communion in a different way? Or is my OP the required Baptist SOP?

In my youth we never had the Lords table in the morning service. It was always an evening service usually Sunday evening. I prefer to have a special evening service. Right now I asked why do you have it in the morning and I get the answer so more folks can partake. I see it as a memorial to Christ He said as often as you do this do it in rememberance of Me. Do we make it a memorial service or is it now made light of. I had a fellow comment recently made the statement in jest I wanted two wafers and they only gave me one, that seemed to me to dishonor the Lord.
Communion to me should be as we have a memorial service for someone who pssed away but in this case He has risen. It should be a memorial a time to reflect on what He has done for us. Not have it in the morning in order that more folks can partake, if you really want to partake you should be willing to give up a Sunday evening every once in a while to memorialize our Lord. He died for us, His body was broken for us, His blood was shed for our sins and He rose from that grave to prove He can supply the eternal life He promised.

 

[Old Union Brother]

Communion to me should be as we have a memorial service for someone who pssed away but in this case He has risen. It should be a memorial a time to reflect on what He has done for us. Not have it in the morning in order that more folks can partake, if you really want to partake you should be willing to give up a Sunday evening every once in a while to memorialize our Lord. He died for us, His body was broken for us, His blood was shed for our sins and He rose from that grave to prove He can supply the eternal life He promised.

Amen!!!

We have our communion service the 2nd Sunday afternoon in August each year.

 

[Deacon]

Communion is offered each month on the first Sunday.
It's prepared by volunteer women.

Three tables are set before the congregation.

An elder presents a simple message then invites those who will, to come forward and take the bread and cup, then return back to their seat.

After all have taken the elements, we partake as a united congregation.

Rob

 

[Tom Bryant]

We've done it around dinner tables when we do a passover service. But most of the time, the deacons prepare it and serve it, but sometimes our assistant pastors have served it. We haven't made it an issue about even deacons doing it. Since we don't believe it to be a means of grace, it doesn't matter to us if it is an ordained person serving it.

 

[annsni]

At our church, we have communion on the first Sunday of the month. At the home church and another campus, it's prepared for by deacons but at our church, I usually prepare it. Ours is easy because we had to go with prepackaged communion (it is like the small creamers where you peel back the top to pour out the contents - it has the grape juice in the small cup and then there's a second piece of plastic over the top that covers a wafer) so I just put a napkin in a basket and pour in the cups.

 

[jaigner]

I like being able to come to the altar to receive communion. I also like varying things up, perhaps using intinction every once in a while.

I would love to be a part of a church that partook of communion every Sunday, but I've never had that privilege.

 

[Scarlett O.]

The typical church has communion in morning worship on the First Sunday each month.

The Deacons wives prepare it, the Deacons serve the elements by walking row by row and passing the bread and juice.

Have you ever celebrated Communion in a different way? Or is my OP the required Baptist SOP?

We have communion - oh, say - once a quarter. Sometimes at night. Sometimes in the morning. Every Easter.

I have never in my 49 years of life on this earth heard of women even TOUCHING the communion table in preparation of it. I always thought that was a big no-no in the Baptist church.

The deacons at my church prepare it.

When I was a child and teenager, I always helped my Dad prepare it as he was the chairman of the deacons. And he and I washed the cups (pre-plastic cup days) afterwards.

As I was not a grown woman, I always thought that was why I was allowed to help him.

 

[Alcott]

I don't think we have a definite schedule, per se, but I would estimate it occurs about every 5-6 weeks. Usually it is passed out, like the offering plates, by the deacons, but occasionally it is set up at the front [altar?] and the congregation comes and gets it. In fact, we did that 6?-7? weeks ago, when I was still using my cane, and I decided to go for it toward the front (I had declined to do that a couple or so times when it was so painful just to walk). Interestingly (or not), there was some kind of 'surge' of new energy, which I felt more coming back than going forward, and the pain of walking was lessened. Now, I don't carry that cane into church, stores, or even into work any more. I have a hitch in my get-along, but that I really don't care as long as it's for the One who gets me along.

 

[David Lamb]

We usually include the Lord's Supper in our morning service on the last Sunday of each month, but it is not a hard and fast rule. For example, if we happen to have a visiting preacher on the last Sunday, we will have the LS on the first Sunday of the next month, as it makes things far simpler.

As for who prepares it, this is usually done by two ladies who happen to be the elders' wives (had to be careful where I put the apostrophe - we certainly don 't practise polygamy!) - in other words, we have nothing in our church constitution which says it must be done by elders' wives. Scarlett O., why ever is it wrong for a woman to touch the table on which the emblems are placed?

A deacon usually distributes the emblems.

I don't know what an SOP is ("Service Order Preference" perhaps), but surely there is no "required" way for baptist churches as far as the LS is concerned, beyond what we find in God's Word.

 

[Crabtownboy]

We stand in a circle and pass the bread and wine to the person next to us ... yes, here at the Baptist seminary in Europe it is wine.

As we pass the bread we say, "The body of Christ broken for you."

As we pass the wine, and it is in a common cup, we say, "The blood of Christ shed for you."

Some people eat the bread as they receive it and then take a sip of the wine. Others of us hold the bread and dip it in the wine. Either way is traditional in various European Baptist churches and Anabaptist churches.

At my home church in the States we stand in a circle and pass the bread and grape juice.

 

[Salty]

...I don't know what an SOP is ("Service Order Preference" perhaps), but surely there is no "required" way for baptist churches as far as the LS is concerned, beyond what we find in God's Word.

David - SOP = Standard Operating Procedure

Though in my OP, I did forget to put in :smilewinkgrin: & :laugh:
To clarify, I do not believe there is a required way, Biblically to serve the Lords Supper.

I do appreciate the many answers, and it might be interesting if some of us were to use some different procedures from time to time.

I will say one thing about many Baptists - "but we have always done it this way...."

and Alcott - (post # 11) what a great testimony! :godisgood:

and Crab - Dr Bob once stated his church uses wine

 

[Scarlett O.]

Scarlett O., why ever is it wrong for a woman to touch the table on which the emblems are placed?

Oh, I have no clue. I don't think it is wrong.

I just always thought that because the women in my church don't even know where the Lord's Supper paraphenalia IS and that there has never been a women who prepared it that this was how everybody did is and that this was just another one of those things that Baptist women weren't allowed to do.

I'm surprised hearing that there are other churches where the women "set the table". Just for clarification's sake, in those churches, why don't the deacons do it?

 

[annsni]

We have communion - oh, say - once a quarter. Sometimes at night. Sometimes in the morning. Every Easter.

I have never in my 49 years of life on this earth heard of women even TOUCHING the communion table in preparation of it. I always thought that was a big no-no in the Baptist church.

The deacons at my church prepare it.

When I was a child and teenager, I always helped my Dad prepare it as he was the chairman of the deacons. And he and I washed the cups (pre-plastic cup days) afterwards.

As I was not a grown woman, I always thought that was why I was allowed to help him.

I've never heard of the fact that women couldn't touch communion. In our church it's the deacons who prepare it but often their wives come with them to set it up and as I said, I prepare it at our campus. So I don't know that it's a "Baptist" thing.

 

[Scarlett O.]

I've never heard of the fact that women couldn't touch communion. In our church it's the deacons who prepare it but often their wives come with them to set it up and as I said, I prepare it at our campus. So I don't know that it's a "Baptist" thing.

I'm glad to hear that I was wrong. No one at my church ever said, "Women shall not assist in the preparation of the Lord's Supper and the table". But - it has NEVER been done.

From the preparation to the clean up - never. I just assumed .....

\

 

[dwightp]

I am Southern Baptist and involved with NAMB and the Canadian Southern Baptist Convention. Last summer I took 3 college students on a mission trip into Western Canada. We drove over 8,000 miles during the time we were gone, camping most nights in remote areas of northern British Columbia, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories.

On Sunday, July 4, 2010, we were in Dawson City, Yukon Territory. There was no Baptist church so we attended an Anglican church. At the end of the service, we participated in their communion service. It was very, very formal but very meaningful to us.

That afternoon, we headed up the Dempster Highway, a 460+ mile dirt road that ends in Inuvik, Northwest Territories. It is one of only two roads in North American where you can drive north of the Arctic Circle.

The road is extremely remote, with only one gas station along the entire 460+ mile route. We prayed many, many times for God to watch over us and take care of us as we drove.

Around 10:00 pm that evening, we arrived at the Arctic Circle. It was still broad daylight because we were so far North. We conducted our own communion service on the hood of our SUV.....just the four of us. We read scripture, prayed, then took the bread and wine. We did it to thank God for taking care of us and for protecting us during the weeks we had been gone and also to acknowledge that, even at such a remote place, He is still Sovereign and LORD over all.

It is the only time in my life that I have had the Lord's Supper twice in the same day. But it was also the most meaningful day ever.