How "open" are you with communion?
Are your practices more due to Biblical standards, tradition, or just that's-the-way-we-have-always-done-it
Communion
Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Salty, Feb 14, 2009.
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in my home church
22 vote(s)84.6% -
in the nursery
7 vote(s)26.9% -
in most Baptist churches
18 vote(s)69.2% -
in any Evangalical church
17 vote(s)65.4% -
in a non-church evangalical meeting (eg pro-life meeting)
3 vote(s)11.5% -
in a military chapel
12 vote(s)46.2% -
in a Catholic church
4 vote(s)15.4% -
Other
8 vote(s)30.8%
Multiple votes are allowed.
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I follow closed communion. Only members of the local church may partake.
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preachinjesus Well-Known MemberSite Supporter
The only ones I didn't check were:
In a non-church evangelical meeting.
I think that for communion to remain important and sacred it should, at least, be associated directly with a church event. Just a weird thing I guess.
in a Catholic church
I have attended Mass with some friends in the past and have several priest friends who (obviously) lead in celebrating the Eucharist. Out of respect for their traditions, and because I am not a part of the Roman Catholic Church and thus disqualified theologicaly from taking it in their eyes, I choose not to celebrate the Eucharist in going forward to take it. :)
I'm a pretty open communion guy. -
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Closed communion in home church, but never policed the table....."Let a man examine himself...." My announcement was, "as baptised believers we will observe the Lord's Supper....let a man examine himself...."
Also, as military chaplain, I had to observe open communion..Followed the Anglican method.
Cheers,
Jim -
In the US military, Chaplains are not required to act against their doctrine. -
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I personally hold to closed communion, and will not take it in any church outside my home church. The church I serve, however, is open communion. It is left up to the individual.
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I don't see a problem taking communion at another church because it is between myself and the Lord. I can better understand churches holding the position of closed communion, although I am not sure I agree with that completely.
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but I also didn't mark the nursery.. because for the life of me, I can't imagine ME in the Nursery... (Shut up ABCGrad!:laugh: )
I also marked other.. because one time at Faith Mountain (which is a retreat for Pastors... that I HIGHLY endorse!!! IOWs.. CHECK OUT THE LINK!!! ) My family observed communion on the back porch of the cottage we were staying in... My youngest son had just gotten saved that day, and we used Graham Crackers and Grape Juice.. (I know.. HERETIC ALERT)
But Oh well, it was spiritual for us.. and as the head of our family, as well as my family's pastor, I saw nothing wrong with it.. -
No real set mandated time of observance but to be served often. -
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We have what I guess you'd call "open communion" at our church. It's up to each individual to decide whether or not they will partake yet before the elements are passed out, the pastor will gently give a "coaching" session before hand. Basically he will say that communion is for believers and if you have been baptized as a believer, you are welcome to take communion with us. They then go on to talk about the "unworthily" thing.
As for "other", I also marked it because we've done communion in our home and other's homes at times. We will do a dinner with those in our small group or with the fellow pastors and we will take the time after dinner for serious prayer. We will then end the time with the Lord's Supper and then leave quietly. We've also done communion on our boat when we did church with a missionary couple on Block Island, RI a bunch of years ago. There are no great churches on the island and so we asked them if they wanted to come to our boat for our "church" time and they did. What blessed fellowship that was! :) Lastly, I've has communion at the girl's camp that I've worked at - doing the communion in the pines facing the lake. How marvelous to be in God's great creation and dine with Him. -
In the military, we were issued a personal communion set for use on the battlefield when a dying soldier wanted to take communion.
I used this set to provide communion for some elderly shut ins. I am not too sure this is proper biblically, since communion, the Lord's supper, was a local church function and not a fancy eat-out sort of thing, but I did it anyway. It was a comfort to those people who could not get to a church service.
Cheers,
Jim -
I have no tolerance of closed communion. The standard for closed communion is a local church membership roll which the vast majority of the time is so polluted that it makes a mockery of the Lords Supper. It is an artificial barrier set up by man, not God. In the few instances I have seen closed communion in action, the result was division, anger, and meanness, exactly the opposite of what the Lords Supper should produce. One incident was done by a pastor without the authority to do so.
As far as other churches, my wife and I took communion in some military Protestant chapels while stationed away from our home church. -
My question for those who have closed communion, is your church small? Because in our church, we're pretty big and I never remember who are members and who are not. Our directory doesn't state who is and who isn't and there are many who help out who are not members (they can't do "ministry" work but they can help out organizationally). I'd have to have bracelets on people in order to remember who's in and who's out.
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I know one church that has 2200 members and closed communion. Membership is an honourary thing. No one checks to see if each person is without sin either....Let a man examine himself....is the rulebook.
Cheers,
Jim
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