Why Does Your Church Have Communion So Often?
By Rick Stedman
After our new church began weekly Sunday services, I was shocked at how often I was asked this question by visitors: "Why does your church have communion so often?" Actually, I was shocked not just by the question, but also by the tone. It was asked with a kind of incredulous, confused voice - sometimes with even a slightly demeaning lilt. The kind of attitude that not only says, "Why do you do this?" but also "Why on earth would anyone sane want to do this?" It was the kind of tone that a parent might use with a young adult: "Why would anyone want a tattoo like that?" or "Why on earth did you get that nose ring? How do you blow your nose, anyway?" or "Why would you pay good money to bungee jump or parachute out of a perfectly good plane?"
The Odd Ones
After a while, I realized that I was the odd man out. The rest of the evangelical world seems to be accustomed to the practice of occasional communion - once a month, once a quarter, or even once a year. In their minds, occasional communion is the norm, whereas our weekly observances struck them as abnormal. Since our new church was in a rapidly growing community, we had many visitors to our services that recently had moved to our area who were already Christians. They loved our church, but they just didn't get the communion-every-week thing. Our church appeared odd to them.
I remember one woman, a relatively new Christian, who asked me this question. I responded, "Well, since Christians aren't perfect and sin each week..." I stopped the sentence without finishing it, thinking it would be better to speak in the first person: "Let me rephrase that. I am a committed Christian and a Pastor, but I am still far from perfect. Even though I try not to sin, I still sin a lot - as does every person this side of Heaven - so a weekly communion time allows me to thank Jesus for dying on the cross for me, and to remember that my righteousness before God is based on Jesus' sacrifice. I love having communion with the Lord each week, and I hope you grow to love it too."
She nodded appreciatively and went on to other matters, but in our lobby a few weeks later I overheard her explaining to another new person why we have weekly communion. She said, "Well, we have communion here every week because our Pastor sins a lot. Actually, we all do, so we need the weekly reminder of Jesus' sacrifice." I thought to myself, "Whoa - I need to interrupt them and straighten this thing out!" But then I realized, even though it didn't sound flattering, she had told the truth. So I just let it go, and secretly hoped that no one would ask her again.
An American Invention
Since I had been raised in a church that celebrated the Lord's Supper weekly, it has never appeared to be an odd tradition to me. But I was struck, especially after studying biblical and church history, by the number of dedicated, educated Christians who now consider weekly communion odd. How did the assumption develop historically that occasional communion is the normal way for a church to function?
Surprisingly, the practice of occasional communion is largely an American invention. In the Bible, it appears as if regular communion, at least weekly, was the apostolic practice (Acts 2:42; 20:7). Then throughout most of church history, the Lord's Supper (also called "the Eucharist," or "Communion,") was the center of the church's weekly worship services. This was certainly true in the church's first millennium (remember - we all share this common, 'catholic' root), and it even was the case after the Protestant Reformation, though as a result of the Reformation the importance of the reading and preaching of the Word of God was justifiably elevated. Even so, it did not eclipse the value of communion.
But in frontier America, a new situation arose. As towns and communities were settled during the westward expansion of the United States, little churches sprouted everywhere. There weren't enough trained ministers to serve in each new church, and the churches were too small to support a minister anyway, so there developed in frontier America the phenomenon known as circuit-riding ministers. Since most of these new churches were started with a denominational orientation, and since only ordained clergy could officiate at the Eucharist in most denominations at that time, the practice of occasional communion developed out of necessity. A minister would ride into a town, officiate at whatever marrying or burying needs were at hand since his last visit, and hold a church service. Of course, he would celebrate communion as a part of the Sunday worship service, and on Monday he would ride on to the next town. Depending on the size of his circuit, he might not return for a month or even several months. While the minister was gone, the congregation would still meet on Sundays for a church service, but without the minister they could only have singing, an offering, and a sermon. This abbreviated order of service, necessitated by the minister's absence, became the norm in frontier America, and still is the norm to this day in much of American evangelicalism. Furthermore, with the American missionary movement of the 18th and 19th centuries, this practice was exported around the world, so the practice of occasional communion is now truly worldwide.
"You're Not One of Those, Are You?"
Because occasional communion is an American development, it's not only American lay Christians who find the practice of weekly communion odd, but also American clergy. I remember one conversation with the minister of an established church in our area, soon after we began Sunday services. He was trying to figure out what kind of a church we were, and was having a hard time categorizing us since he was unfamiliar both with the term "Independent Christian Church" and with anything non-denominational. So he asked what our services were like. When I mentioned weekly communion, he pounced. In a patronizing tone he said, "Oh, you're not one of those are you? I see now. Well, that will never go over here. If you have communion too often, it loses its impact. It just becomes a ritual if you do it more than once a month. You'll see."
Since he started the dance, I decided to step along. I responded, "Well, that's an interesting point, but I wonder if you are consistent about it. By the same logic, singing every week would become ritualized - do you only sing once a month? Preaching too - do you only preach once a month. Hey, I'll bet you take an offering more than once a month!" Well, let's just say that I've never graduated from the Carnegie school of "How to Win Friends and Influence People." I tend to speak my mind, for better or worse.
Of course, my point to him was that many things can be ritualized and degraded into meaningless, mindless repetition. But there is a converse side to this claim: there is great value in establishing positive patterns and healthy habits. Just because something is done routinely, it does not necessarily follow that it is done without meaning (think of a parent kissing a child goodnight or friends greeting one another with a hug). In fact, a habit of remembering the cross and the price Jesus paid for our sins is exactly what is sometimes missing in modern evangelicalism.
Benefits of Weekly Communion
For instance, consider a church worship service in which the theme is marriage or parenting (two often used seeker-sensitive themes). If the service is thematic and the music, prayers, and sermon all build on a certain theme, is it possible that Jesus' sacrifice for our sins on the cross might never even be mentioned? Will people ever be confronted with the fact of their own sinfulness and their need for a redeemer? But with weekly communion, at least once in every service, time is taken to focus on the blood shed at Calvary. There is a cumulative benefit here. One thing that I love about weekly communion is that it reminds each of us, over and over until it really sinks in, that Jesus died on the cross for us. This is why it is a pastoral goal of mine that no one will ever attend one of our church services and leave without at some point hearing that Jesus had to die in order for us to live, and that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin (Heb. 9:22).
In addition, weekly communion is, over time, a spiritual discipline that trains us unto godliness (as Dallas Willard pointed out about all spiritual disciplines in his remarkable book, The Spirit of the Disciplines). Without healthy Christian habits, actual Christian character will not form. This is the heart of spiritual formation, the making of disciples. For instance, in the discipline of fasting we habituate ourselves to resist the normal gratification of hunger, which over time develops into the Christian character quality of being able to resist temptations of various sorts ("If I can go without food for a day, then I can say no to this other temptation today also"). As another example, the spiritual discipline of worship habituates us to give all glory to God. Then in times of success or pride, we have been so habituated by worship that our natural response is, "To God be the glory!"
In the same way, participating in communion every week trains us to take the focus off of ourselves and to place it squarely on Jesus, and then it trains us to trust in Jesus for our righteousness, and not in ourselves. In the hustle and bustle of contemporary life and ministry, I love to slow down, for a few moments, and remember that the central reason that I am a Christian is that Jesus was willing to die in my place on the cross and that He rose again. And as a preaching pastor, how I love, before the sermon, being able to take communion! For me, communion before the sermon is a gustatory sermon in miniature, a sensory message in bread and juice that it's not about me, and it's not about whether anyone likes my sermon. It's about Jesus and his incredible sacrifice for us. After communion, I feel ready to preach; without communion, I feel unprepared.
Because of limited facilities, at one time our church had eleven services a weekend (don't worry, I usually preached only six to eight of them J). I was sometimes asked, "At which service do you take communion?" My enthusiastic answer always was, "As many as I can." It is the communion alone that helps me love multiple services: over and over and over again I am taken to the cross and I am led to focus on Jesus.
I also love to take communion with my family. I love sitting with my wife or with one of my children by my side, leaning head to head, and praying a simple prayer together before we partake. We usually say, "Thank you Jesus, for being crucified for us. Please help us live crucified lives for you this week. Amen." There it is, the gospel in a nutshell! I'm praying that this routine and memorized prayer will burrow deeply into my children's souls, so that later in their adult lives, they will love the crucified one, and they will desire to lead crucified lives. It is the disciplined regularity of weekly communion, along with the graciousness of God, which gives me this hope.
Communion in the Future
Will weekly communion remain an oddity in 21st century Christianity? I don't know, but I am sensing some winds of change. There is a movement towards elements of liturgical worship in many different groups today, most notably among young, college-age adults who are joining liturgical churches in surprising numbers. There is also a movement towards a deeper appreciation for the Lord's Supper in the emphasis on spiritual formation. Finally, I am beginning to hear of more and more churches that are moving towards celebrating communion more often. They are changing from once a quarter to once a month, once a month to twice a month, etc. The entertainment-driven 80's and 90's have left believers thirsty for deep, soul-ish nourishment. Maybe we can learn something from the Roman Catholic tradition, without getting metaphysical about it: maybe the idea of a daily communion is not a bad idea. I, for one, would welcome the opportunity. I wish the Pastor of our church would start something like that. Wait... I am the Pastor...
So if someone begins to attend our church and ask me, "Wow, you sure do take communion a lot here - what's the deal?" I let them know it is my favorite time of the service, that as a sinner I need a weekly reminder that I can't forgive my own sins, and that it is the most important part of Christianity. I also tell them that to try it for a while, and that I bet over time, they too will grow to love weekly communion. In the ten years since our church was started, I have heard hundreds of times, "You know, when I first came here, I thought this weekly communion thing was a bit strange. But now I love it. It's my favorite time in the service!"
