Paedocommunion

I believe the requirements for communion are found in 1 Cor 11.

Those who are believers and who have been baptized who are in a right relationship with God and others, are to take commuinion. I do not believe you have to be a member of the church you are attending. we have visited other churches on vacation and took communion. we are all ONE body, ONE church.

if your heart is NOT right you need to take the time to make it right, before taking communion. if you have aught with someone saved or not, you need to do all you can to be at peace with that person. after you have made things right on your part then the next time you can take communion. i have had to do this on occasion, not take communion until i talked with a neighbor or whoever.

If a child is saved (which i believe a very young child can be) and has been baptized, and their heart is right, why not?

 

I'm tempted to take the same position regarding this as I take toward teaching young children to pray to "their Father in heaven."

The lost cannot pray in Jesus' name, and their father is the devil.

But we have the children act otherwise. Not sure why, but we do. Anybody recommend that we don't?

 

Bill Brown,

Do you mean by children who profess faith, or by children of believers, or what? I guess I need more data before I can answer.

 

I don't believe a child should partake of communion until he/she understands fully what they are doing.

We have a closed communion. People must be members of our church to take the Lord's Supper.

I would say that children could partake. If they understand enough to be saved, most of them can understand what the Lord's Supper is all about, but not all of them do...

I would say it depends greatly on the child...

 

I discourage parents from allowing their children to partake of communion until they realize not only the facts surrounding it, but also the gravity of the event. Partaking of communion in an unworthy manner caused some in Corinth to be sick and some to die. I, as a pastor, do not determine whether kids can take communion. I believe that is the responsibility of the parents.

 

BTW, our issues with padeocommunion vary widely with what the Presbyterians are dealing with currently. The traditional Presby view on the sacraments is padeobaptism (baptizing infants), but then requiring confirmation of full membership (usually around ages 10-12, I believe) before one can take communion. But recently, there has been controversy among them - some of them see an inconsistency there, so they serve communion to even infants (at the discretion of the parents). The holders of the traditional view say this is wrong, because an infant cannot "examine himself" as I Cor. requires. Of course, I think this ultimately shows the unbiblical idea of padeobaptism. The padecommunion Presbys may be consistent with their own theology, but their view is really biblically inconsistent.

 

We practice open communion...each who has confessed Christ as Lord of his or her life is welcome to dine at the Lord's table.

That precludes any child who has not reached an age of understanding this. Only children who are believers participate in our church.

 

What say you regarding paedocommunion (partaking of communion by children)?

If you would baptize a particular child, there is no reason to deny him the Lord's table. The prerequisites would be the same.

 

Bill, the problem I see with your proposal is that based on your reasoning, is even age 13 old enough? Maybe for some children, yes. But for most who made a profession early in their childhood, even 13 isn't old enough to establish if that profession was real or not. Some kids may not show solid evidence of faith until their late teen years. So I think your proposal is too arbitrary. If you really wanted to be safe, you might make the age 18. But of course, that would be ridiculous.

 

If a child can give a credible profession of faith and there is no solid evidence that such profession is false, then at the discretion of the parents, the child should be allowed to take communion. And assumed in that is the child has a proper understanding of what is being celecrated - i.e., if they can understand the Gospel, surely they can understand that the bread and wine represent Jesus' body and blood and His sacrifice for our sins.

And I don't doubt that the pastors/elders/deacons may need to step in at times. For instance, say a teenager is going through a rebellious state that is out in the open, if the parents still think it is o.k. to allow him to take communion, I think the church leadership should step in and counsel the parents on the matter, encouraging them to prohibit the rebellious teen from partaking.

 

Of course...a question comes to my mind...

If we want to make sure children "qualify," then why not make sure adults "qualify?" Wouldn't it be just as bad for a grownup to partake unworthily?

The other issue about "rebellious teens"--I would want to be very, very careful about how I define "rebellious." Make extremely sure that you don't seek to disqualify teens just because they commit your "pet sin." I see potential for problems there. Also, in my church, over half the teens are the only church-goers in their household. Many are the only Christians. Do we approach non-Christian parents in this issue? Things get very thorny, very quickly here.

I just want to avoid "second-class" kindgom citizenship.

 

I think a rebellious teen is rather easy to point out - it is one who habitually and with impunity breaks the 5th commandment with no genuine repentance on the matter.

Of course there will be hard cases, but there will also be easy ones, too - all handled at the discretion of the parents and [sometimes] church leadership.

 

But Bill...

If they're old enough for our church to baptize them...

...aren't they old enough to partake of the Lord's Supper?

 

As a Baptist pastor, I have struggled with both baptizing and giving communion to young children. Most of them who "make a profession of faith" can't answer very simple questions about salvation, like, "Why should God let you into heaven?"

I believe it is ultimately the parent's decision concerning communion, but if they are members of the church, the teaching ministry of the church (elders, pastors) should step in and instruct the parents on the proper use of the ordinances given to THE CHURCH.

Since it is the church's responsibility to baptize and give communion, maybe there needs to be more examination of young people before it happens. Or we could be like other denominations and let anyone, even unbelievers, partake. But I doubt that would be a good idea.

Maybe the issue of open/closed communion and the issue of young children being baptized would be good for another thread.