Be The Fruit

How often should we keep the Lord’s Supper?

by Bill Blair on 08/01/09 at 8:34 am

Dr. Jim Hamilton continued to “Stir the Pot” yesterday asking the question, “How often should a church take the Lord’s Supper?” in a post that can be read here.

Hamilton offers some exegesis on the texts describing the practice and offers the following thought:

…I think, that if we become convinced that the earliest church took the Lord’s supper every Lord’s day—and if this was so widespread that when Paul and Luke are traveling from one place to another, they know that if they find a church gathered on the Lord’s day that church will have gathered to break bread—if we become convinced that the earliest church in every place took the Lord’s supper every Lord’s day, we will want to do the same. 

Some people object to taking the Lord’s Supper every week believing that it will take away its uniqueness.  To this objection Hamilton offers the following:

Some object that taking the Lord’s supper every week will demean its significance. I think boring preaching and bad music demeans the significance of preaching and singing, but most Baptists churches take the risk and have preaching and singing every week. So I don’t think this argument that taking the Lord’s supper every week will make it dull is either convincing or significant. We should take the same steps to keep the Lord’s supper from becoming rote that we (should) take to keep the preaching from being boring or the music from being bad. 

What do you say?  For me I have found it perplexing that the Lord’s Supper seems to be one thing that could be totally dropped from the liturgy of the modern church and few would seem to notice, but it is one practice that is explicitly commanded in Scripture.  Drop or even change the music in a worship service and people will grumble, but the Lord’s Supper comes an goes with very little notice.

I am not sure what the frequency should be, but it should be often and significant.  Monthly? At least.  Weekly?  This makes sense.  I have even considered doing it daily as way to remind me of what Jesus did.  As we approach this issue, it would be wise to remember that there was a time when  God apparently made some people sick and others die for their mistreatment of His meal (1 Cor 11:27-30).  Perhaps, if we remember this point will begin to take this meal more seriously.