Comments on: Not Having Communion “Too Often”

By: Notswallowingthekoolaidbutstillin

Notswallowingthekoolaidbutstillin — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:32:03 +0000

Faith, I totally relate to the first two paragraphs of your post, a perfect example of how fundy churches bring dread into something that is a good thing! Every time I remember how my x fundy pastor used to ram that guilt thing about examining yourself like you were going to drop dead or something if a small sin was left unconfessed. Then when all the stuff people had against him and many other things came to light it made it more unreal that he acted that way. He also taught that only Pastors could dole out communion that you couldn’t just do it any time with a couple of believers on your own, like it was wrong to do that.

By: Notswallowingthekoolaidbutstillin

Notswallowingthekoolaidbutstillin — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:23:57 +0000

UH, Catholics think they the priest converts the wafers and juice to the real body and blood and that is totally WRONG and they think they get special graces by taking it, so the Catholic way of doing/believing about communion are as different as night and day to the way protestants do it.

By: Notswallowingthekoolaidbutstillin

Notswallowingthekoolaidbutstillin — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 21:16:54 +0000

What, Randy? What do you mean by covenant renewal? Taking communion is to be done “In remembrance of Me (Jesus).”

By: Perry

Perry — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 20:54:28 +0000

At my fundy church, communion is only done once a year, which I dislike and wish it was done more, but I think one reason it is done so infrequently is because of the size of the church. When we do communion, it takes forever to pass out everything.

By: pastor's wife

pastor's wife — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:54:12 +0000

I always felt guilty because I didn’t want to be like Peter who was rebuked by Jesus for not wanting Him to wash his feet, but I cannot imagine letting anyone touch my feet! I’m a very private person. This was a useful and needful activity in first century Palestine, but if I went to a church where I was expected to participate in this today, I would totally freak out!

By: Papa Bear

Papa Bear — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:51:57 +0000

I had a Lutheran pastor (whose church does it weekly) explain to me that someone once asked Martin Luther how many times a year a Christian needed to take communion. He said something to the effect that if you didn’t take it at least four times a year, (when Lutheran churches generally offered it every week) you weren’t making an effort to be there. Some Lutherans apparently read Martin Luther the way some IFBs read the Bible, because they said, “Martin Luther said four times a year, so that’s how often the church should do it!”

By: Papa Bear

Papa Bear — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 17:42:02 +0000

For about 2 years, I was a member of a Grace Brethren church. Foot-washing was part of our communion service. My understanding is that this is common to all Grace Brethren churches. (I don’t know about other Brethren.) But it was in Texas. We only had communion quarterly, and it was always Saturday evening. But that makes sense, since just communion, without a regular church service, took three hours.

BTW, we had several BJU grads on staff at the church and the christian school.

By: Scorpio

Scorpio — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 13:50:57 +0000

At the church I went to the pastor would say that if you weren’t tithing properly, praying enough, reading your bible enough, witnessing enough, being in church enough etc. etc., you shouldn’t partake in the Lord’s Supper. Of course all of this was said right before communion. Gee thanks. I guess I can go home now, right?

By: Faith

Faith — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 06:12:50 +0000

I grew up in a “quarterly” church and hated communion Sundays. We were always told that we could not take communion lightly, that we needed to be right with God or we should not partake. It was a time of obsessive conscience searching, shame, and fear, and I dreaded it?

Where was the gospel of grace in that? Like WE could ever do anything to “get right with God.” Communion is supposed to be a symbol of what Jesus did to set things right between us and God. It’s a symbol of God’s gift of grace to us, not a threat of punishment.

I am now in a church that serves communion every service from an open table, with a short personal prayer of blessing from the server. I would not dream of passing up any opportunity to receive this gift from God. We practice the priesthood of all believers so I am sometimes privileged to serve and pray. God is good!

By: Phatchick

Phatchick — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 05:22:08 +0000

The churches I attended had the same attitude towards the Lord’s Supper Queen Elizabeth I had towards bathing; They did it once a month, wether they needed it or not.