You may not want to have this discussion, and if so, that’s fine, but I’d like to gently push-back on the assumption that the reason Baptists don’t cherish the Lord’s Supper is a result of our memorial view. I’m a Baptist pastor and we celebrate the Supper once a month (I wish it were more) and hold to a sort of blend of Zwingli’s and Calvin’s views (I often call it “a sermon for our senses of taste and touch”). Anyhow, many of us look forward to it, love it, and find it deeply challenging. Obviously, this is a result of a good bit of teaching on the Supper, but it’s still in a context where we hold Baptist views. Historically, there are plenty of Baptists who have cherished the Supper (e.g., 2nd London Baptist Confession, some of our Baptist hymn writers, etc.). Having grown up in Baptist churches all my life, while the memorial view may contribute to a lower estimation of the Supper, I’m more inclined to think it’s a symptom of widespread spiritual apathy. While we profess to love the Word and have a high view of the Word, most Baptists rarely read it, are essentially biblically-illiterate, and many of our sermons are deplorable. That’s not a result of our view of the Word, but spiritual laziness. Again, I’m not looking to debate, but I think it’s overly simplistic to conclude that a Baptist view of the Supper naturally leads to a low estimation of the Supper.

BTW – I absolutely love your blog. It’s one of the very first I read every day. It’s resulted in me purchasing several books .

Grace and peace.

Rev. McCain, I’ve been a Baptist up to now but this issue most of all is moving me toward Lutheranism. Even the Presbyterian church near where I live does the Lord’s Supper only six times a year. Many other issues of doctrine and practice have led me toward Lutheranism as well. I believe the LCMS needs to crack down on praise bands, and “seeker-driven” and church growth practices asnthese are a result of anabaptistic influence dripping into the Lutheran church.

I fully believe the Supper is the beating heart of the Church’s life together.

Why aren’t more Lutherans pushing for Daily Eucharist? What is so hard about a short 15-20 minute service at say 8am or so before people have to go to work? The faithful can assemble and receive Christ’s Body and Blood and then go spread the love of Christ to the world.
-Peter Sovitzky

The Lord’s Supper is further cheapened in Baptist and evangelical churches by their use of tiny plastic cups of grape juice and tiny “bread” squares for the Supper. This is far removed from Apostolic tradition.

I was a Calvinist Southern Baptist of the 1689 variety up until late 2011, when I converted to Lutheranism. In my estimation, the Supper is held in much higher esteem in Baptist churches of the Calvinist variety, mostly, I’d wager, because they usually hold doctrine in much higher esteem than the Arminian-ish church growth, Rick Warren type Southern Baptists. In my former church, we celebrated the memorial meal monthly, which, to our shame, is the same as some Lutheran churches. Given our view of the Eucharist, this is a tragedy in and of itself.

The means of grace were one of the main reasons I became convinced of Lutheranism. I could no longer overlook the biblical passages that said that Baptism and the Lord’s Supper really, actually *did* something. After viewing these things as a symbol for so long, it was really a struggle to understand how God had attached his word to physical things. But then it clicked that this is no different than how he attaches his promises to the *physical* means of the audible voice in the preaching of the Gospel!

We were members of the WELS for close to 6 months (the LCMS church in our town is very church growthy and, sadly, doesn’t seem to really care about Lutheran doctrine), but we recently joined the LCMS (at a church more than an hour away from us) because, not only are they faithful to our Lutheran confessions, but they give us our Lord’s body and blood every Sunday. As converts to the blessed, biblical Lutheran doctrine, we cannot understand why in the world, given what we confess, any Lutheran church would not practice weekly communion. It just doesn’t make sense to us.

The CAPTCHA code foils my attempt once again at commenting therefore my original comment wasn’t accepted.

Just wanted to say I attended baptist and baptist influenced type churches most of my life until I became a Lutheran (LCMS) nearly a year ago. The Lord’s Supper was celebrated at least on a monthly bases, never quarterly. Perhaps this is perculiar to only Southern Baptists?

I enjoy your blog very much.

Pastor Raymond -

Suffice to say that spiritual apathy is no stranger to any denomination. That being said, and my being a Lutheran as well (used to be Baptist many years ago) there is a vibrancy to understanding that with the bread and wine also come the Body and Blood of the Lord Christ, who expended both on the Cross, and continues to offer the same to us “As often as . . .” that is beyond us, yet given to us. To not desire it . . . well . . . makes no sense to me.

To answer Fr. McCain’s specific question:

“The question for Lutherans to ponder is this: is the Supper the beating heart of the Church’s life together, as well it should and must be, or is it simply a nice “extra” that adds fifteen minutes to the length of the worship service? I am casting this question in as starkly a way as I can.” . . .

My predecessor here at my “miniature flock that could,” as I call them, was able to urge them into Communion at all worship services, which made my task on that end a breeze. The Sacrament is not merely the beating heart of the Church, which, being Christ Himself in our midst, it most certainly is, but it is also the “benediction” to our worship of the Lord God, the focus of our faith (His bloody atonement), and it is that with which we are armed to go out into the world each week.

All five senses, and the 6th – our very souls, are fed the most filling meal possible in this life, and the foretaste of the feast to come at the altar..

Maybe the question could be asked: “Dare we shorten worship by 15 minutes to avoid the immense benefits having the Eucharist holds for all the Church?”

Pastor -

Yes, the Sacrament is the “beating heart of the Church’s life together”, and no, it’s not simply a nice “extra”.

For me, however, the primary issue today is not about frequency. Rather it’s who are the invitees to the Sacrament? Anybody? Everybody, Whoever is present?

For sure, the ELCA’s answer to this question is more “liberal” than that of the LCMS. But, even the ELCA answer is this: “Invitation to the Sacrament is from Christ, extended through the Church, to the baptized.” In short, Holy Communion is the meal of the Church, of the baptized.

A major problem today, however, is that many congregations of several denominations are using the Sacrament as a tool for evangelizing, i.e., church growth. As a manifestation of “extravagant hospitality” and inclusiveness, they treat the invitation to the Sacrament as if it were one to the congregation’s strawberry social or backyard hotdog roast, i.e., “Come one, come All!”

And what a trivialization of the Sacrament that is!

Partaking of the Sacrament within the Church catholic has always presupposed, at least minimally, prior Holy Baptism.

Woe to the congregation (and its pastor!) who treats the Sacrament as if it were its own and concludes, therefore, that it may invite whomever it chooses. No, it is, rather, the Lord’s invitation to the Lord’s Supper at the Lord’s Table extended to the Lord’s people, i.e., the Church, i.e., the baptized.

IMO, the issue of the nature of the Invitation is much more important than that of frequency of its celebration.

Brother McCain,

Perhaps the question could more starkly be phrased this way,”Does the Eucharist Really Matter?” Sadly, a number of pastors and laymen see little importance in the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Is this a product of apathy/laziness as some here have stated? Yes! Is it a product of a “lack of means of grace theology,” or even abandonment of such? Yes! Ultimately, in either case, we find that our old adam still thinks it knows best.

1. Commuion is participation in the body and blood of Christ 1Corinthians 10:16 (NKJV)
2. The chief blessing of the Sacrament is the forgiveness of sins; Matthew 26:28
3. Along with forgiveness God gives all other blessings as well, that is ‘life and salvation.” Romans 8:31-32
4. In the Sacrament Christ gives victory over sin and hell and strength for a new life in Him. Romans 8:10 and 1Peter 2:24.
5. As Christians partake of this Sacrament together, we make a solemn public confession of Christ and of unity in the truth of His Gospel. 1Corinthians 10:17 and 1Corinthians 11:26.

Sounds like the heart of the church to me.

“Right on!”, Pastor Bradt.

Within American Lutheran churches today, are some congregations trending away from “celebrating the Sacrament of Holy Communion” and toward “observing the memorial of the Lord’s Supper?” Are congregations taught, and do they know, the difference?

Is there in Protestant seminaries today sufficient emphasis placed on Systematics/Dogmatics? What negative impact will the lack of such have on the Teaching Office of the Church? Will words such as “sacramental theology” generally, and “eucharistic theology” particularly, become foreign-sounding to congregants?

I fear that, in some congregations today, expressions of means of grace theology is more often heard in the sung Lutheran chorales than from what flows from some pulpits.