1. Welcome to Baptist Board, a friendly forum to discuss the Baptist Faith in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to all the features that our community has to offer.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon and God Bless!

Who serves Communion in your Church?

Discussion in '2000-02 Archive' started by Angie Miller, Nov 11, 2002.

  1. Angie Miller

    Angie Miller New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 12, 2002
    Messages:
    216
    Likes Received:
    0
    Who serves Communion in your Church and how often does your church offer it?
    After I get some feed back I would like to share what our church does and get your thoughts on it. Thanks, Love in Christ Angie [​IMG]
     
  2. donnA

    donnA Active Member

    Joined:
    Aug 10, 2000
    Messages:
    23,354
    Likes Received:
    0
    Deacons, quarterly.
     
  3. Bible-boy

    Bible-boy Active Member

    Joined:
    Sep 1, 2002
    Messages:
    4,254
    Likes Received:
    1
    Hello Angie,

    When you say "who serves" communion, do you mean who prepares the plates of communion waffers and fills the little cups with grape juice, or do you mean who stands at the front of the church with the pastor and then takes the plates and moves them from pew to pew?

    Anyway, at my church the deacons prepare the plates and fill the cups. Then they stand with the pastor and take the plates to the pews and move the plates from one pew to the next. However, I guess if you want to be "technical" the person sitting next to me actually "serves" the communion elements to me because they hold the plates while I pick up the elements. Then I do the same for the person sitting on the other side of me. :D

    Oh yeah, we have a commuinon service once per quarter. Although, I would not mind it if we observed the Lord's Supper more often.
     
  4. Dr. Bob

    Dr. Bob Administrator
    Administrator

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2000
    Messages:
    30,285
    Likes Received:
    507
    Faith:
    Baptist
    As Pastor, I oversee the distribution and readings. The elders (5-6 men) serve it; the deacons prepare the elements.

    We have it first Sunday each month, and every Sunday in Advent as well as Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter (no matter which Sunday of the month they fall on).

    Unique at my present church - trays have rings of glasses and a plate with matzoh in the center, so it is just one passing of elements. I've never had it/seen it and I've preached in a gajillion churches over the past 35+ years.
     
  5. Rev. Joshua

    Rev. Joshua <img src=/cjv.jpg>

    Joined:
    Aug 7, 2001
    Messages:
    2,859
    Likes Received:
    0
    We do communion weekly. One of the clergy serves as the Celebrant (consecrating the elements) and then either clergy or deacons serve.

    The congregation comes forward to receive communion, and we use wine on the pulpit side and grape juice on the lectern. We rotate communion liturgies, although the one from the Book of Common Prayer is my favorite by far.

    Joshua

    [ November 11, 2002, 02:14 AM: Message edited by: Rev. Joshua ]
     
  6. jonmagee

    jonmagee New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 12, 2002
    Messages:
    2,411
    Likes Received:
    0
    Communion in our church is celebrated weekly, usually in the morning except on the 4th sunday of the month when it is in the evening. It is served by differing members of the church in rotation
    yours, Jon.
     
  7. Bible-boy

    Bible-boy Active Member

    Joined:
    Sep 1, 2002
    Messages:
    4,254
    Likes Received:
    1
    Hello Joshua,

    The terms you used and the method that you have outlined above sound very much like Roman Catholicism or at very least Anglican. Are you sure that you serve in a Baptist church? :confused:

    [ November 11, 2002, 06:06 AM: Message edited by: BibleboyII ]
     
  8. Deacon

    Deacon Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Aug 23, 2002
    Messages:
    9,469
    Likes Received:
    1,228
    Faith:
    Baptist
    The deacons prepare the plates and fill the cups. Previously selected members (including deacons) of the congregation stand with the pastor (and an assistant, who may be a deacon, an intern, or a visiting missionary). The selected members take the plates to the pews.
    We serve communion one a month, usually on the first Sunday.
     
  9. Ben W

    Ben W Active Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Sep 16, 2002
    Messages:
    8,883
    Likes Received:
    6
    The Pentecostal Church I was in had a weekly communion, Served by the Elders. It consisted of small plastic cups of grape juice and broken up crackers.

    Seventh Day Baptists can take communion in any way a congregation feels led. Some have weekly communion and others have communion once a year on the Jewish Passover. There is a line of thinking that suggests that Jesus did away with the passover and replaced it with communion.

    I think it is likely that the Deacons in the Early church organised the communion and also took it to the sick who were not able to be there for it.
     
  10. Rev. Joshua

    Rev. Joshua <img src=/cjv.jpg>

    Joined:
    Aug 7, 2001
    Messages:
    2,859
    Likes Received:
    0
    Positive BibleBoy. We're very high church, so our worship has a very Anglican "flavor" to it, but we are definitely baptist. It was at a baptist seminary (Mercer) that I learned how to plan a liturgical worship service.

    Joshua
     
  11. Abiyah

    Abiyah <img src =/abiyah.gif>

    Joined:
    Jul 22, 2002
    Messages:
    5,194
    Likes Received:
    0
    The head of each home serves it in our homes
    on Passover. If the home has invited guests,
    and people usuallly do, it is till the head of the
    home who does it. If there are several gusts
    and more than one table, besides than the head
    of the home, a head of each other table is
    chosen, and each head serves.

    The next night, in the synagogue, we have our
    public seder; there, again, it is the head of each
    table.

    We have Passover once a year.
     
  12. Angie Miller

    Angie Miller New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 12, 2002
    Messages:
    216
    Likes Received:
    0
    We just purchased those type of Communion trays, they are really nice to have! :D
     
  13. Tony F

    Tony F New Member

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2002
    Messages:
    42
    Likes Received:
    0
    At our church we have communion weekly at the end of the service. The ushers pass out the trays with the bread and the juice. Everyone in the congregation takes communion together led by one of the assistant pastors from the pulpit.

    Personally I feel that having it weekly deludes from its meaning and makes it seem more liturgical. I would prefer to have it monthly as part of a Sunday evening service.

    In Christ
    Tony
     
  14. Angie Miller

    Angie Miller New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 12, 2002
    Messages:
    216
    Likes Received:
    0
    Okay now I did not know you could only have a maximum of 8 little pictures so my entire post got deleted! YIKES!
    Anyway, the members of our church prepare the Communion on a rotation. We pertake in Communion weekly and I enjoy that, as long as people do not become complacent about it.
    My biggest hang up is that about 6 months ago the church asked for families to serve. This includes Husband, Wives, and their children who have accepted Jesus into their hearts and have been baptized. Also we have a few people who are single and they too serve. Sometimes they serve with married men including my Hubby. No not jealous just don't really think it is right! Now perhaps it is my Baptist upbringing and my strong convictions about this but I have a problem with it! For the record I am now a member of a Non- Denominational Christian Church, have been for 3 years. I want to go back to a Baptist Church, and do visit one a lot, shhhhhhhhhhh, but my Hubby is not ready to make that move yet. Another Forum would be needed for that story! LOL :D
    I also do not want to come across legalistic!!!! :(
    Yesterday during Communion time one of the Elders was serving, as he did his 7 year old Son was standing in front of him the entire time. For some reason this just weirded me out! I just did not find it acceptable. Why? Well I guess because he is not saved and he is so young. On the other hand I am all for teaching our children to serve The Lord but not in that capacity at that age. No he did not actually serve but he was kind of serving. Oh I don't know, it is confussing me! Ahhhhhhh!!!!
    I chose not to be a part of serving, but I do on occasion do Communion Meditation and offering Meditation. Is that wrong? I really hate that I feel this way and I just want to worship but it distracts me. Thanks to Satan! Bad thing that he is!
    What do you all think about these issues? Also please understand that I am NOT trying to come off like someone who believes women should not serve in the Church, of course they should. I am just not sure about Communion and some other areas.
    Thank you for reading and let me know what you think!
    Love in Christ Angie [​IMG]
     
  15. LauraB

    LauraB New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 1, 2002
    Messages:
    473
    Likes Received:
    0
    I have been a member of my church for 2 yrs 7 months now, and a few months back I missed on a sunday because I was sick and my husband said they served communion. So once in 2 and a half yrs...

    I also thought that was only a Catholic thing..
     
  16. Jeff Weaver

    Jeff Weaver New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 10, 2001
    Messages:
    2,056
    Likes Received:
    0
    We have communion annually.

    It works like this.

    One of us (usually me) grow the grapes, Either I or another of the Elders makes the wine . It is brought to the meeting house on the appointed day. After preaching services and concluded, three Elders are selected, one handles the Wine, makes remarks about its significance, the deacons then distribute two chalices to the members who are present. One chalice for the women, another for the men. The bread is done likewise.
    After the bread and wine have been distributed, the third Elder makes remarks about feet washing, and then that part of the service takes place. After that is done, a hymn is sung and the congregation goes out of the meeting house.

    Communion service day usually takes all day.
     
  17. Thankful

    Thankful <img src=/BettyE.gif>

    Joined:
    Mar 5, 2002
    Messages:
    8,430
    Likes Received:
    0
    The Deacons serve the Lord's Supper under the guidance of the Pastor on every fifth Sunday, which, I believe, is quarterly. This is in the morning service.

    Then in the evening, we have fifth Sunday Sing.
     
  18. Daniel Dunivan

    Daniel Dunivan New Member

    Joined:
    Oct 4, 2002
    Messages:
    374
    Likes Received:
    0
    When I was pastoring (I'm doing full time doctoral work, which make pastoring too much right now), I would do communion twice a month with varied approaches (liturgical, contemporary, traditional for that church, etc.). The church that I attend now hasn't done it in 2 years. I really miss it! This is one thing that even done ritually is better than not doing it at all, in my opinion. There is just something about physically experiencing all of the richness of communion theology.
     
  19. Baptist Believer

    Baptist Believer Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2002
    Messages:
    10,720
    Likes Received:
    781
    Faith:
    Baptist
    For what it is worth, every church has a liturgy, whether is be a high church, low church or something in the middle. At Southwestern Seminary (an SBC institution), I learned how to plan a high church liturgy. If you understand "high" church, you can do "low" church easily.
     
  20. Baptist Believer

    Baptist Believer Well-Known Member
    Site Supporter

    Joined:
    Jun 20, 2002
    Messages:
    10,720
    Likes Received:
    781
    Faith:
    Baptist
    The LORD serves communion at our church (it is HIS table), but mere humans help with the distribution. :D

    We observe Communion usually once a quarter (and special days like Maundy Thursday and Christmas Eve).

    The deacons of our church assist the pastor with the serving (both men and women).

    Can't wait!! :D
     
Loading...