an e-mail to the elders of my church

i've cross-posted this to a few message boards, so i might as well do it here as well . . .

some background: a few weeks ago, during a church business meeting, we were discussing some upcoming changes to what we'll be doing on Wednesday nights. one of those changes is that we'll be having something called "Family Community", which is going to be a time for the believers to get together and worship, pray, etc in a more intimate setting than on Sunday morning. (that in itself kind of bothers me, as i believe that Sunday morning should be primarily for believers, but i disgress. we belong to the Willow Creek Association, so it's to be expected) anyway, i suggested that perhaps we have a Communion table set up during this Wednesday night time for anyone who wishes to partake. since then, i realized that such a thing wouldn't be a great idea, so i'm officially retracting it in the following e-mail. tell me what you think.

Brothers -

I need to retract a suggestion that I made a few weeks ago at Family Talk Time.

The suggestion was that, during our new Wednesday night "Family Community" times that'll be starting up soon, we have stations set up for anyone who wants to partake in the Lord's Supper . . . that people could come and go as they please or as they felt led, without instruction or prompting. (Kind of like the idea that was brought up about people being able to just come in to pray or to be prayed for.) I've recently been convicted, though, that (unlike prayer) the Lord's Supper is always to be a corporate, Body-of-Christ type thing (". . . drink of it, all of you" - Matt 26.27; also in 1 Cor 11, Paul seems to be suggesting that this was something they were to do whenever they "came together" as a church body). The suggestion I gave, while it initially sounds appealing to the informal culture we've cultivated at Northbrook, really only serves to further the individualistic slide a lot of American Christians are falling into. If anything, there's a need for churches to not only be an antidote to that kind of thinking, but to be faithful to the sacrament as Christ established it and the apostles continued it. So, that said, please disregard my earlier suggestion.

I would like to make a new suggestion, though: that we have more frequent observation of the Lord's Supper, and that more often on Sunday mornings than on Wednesday nights. Now I'm aware, and thankful, that as a church, we strive to create an environment to reach those who may not be comfortable in a "traditional" church setting. I fear that we're in danger, though, of taking that principle too far, and to the detriment of the believers. On the practical side, it's far more likely that there will be a higher number of members and regular attenders who would partake in Communion during a Sunday morning gathering than on a Wednesday night, and that will probably remain true even after "Family Community" starts. On the spiritual side, I believe that the Lord's Supper is a very real means of grace to us as believers.  Please don't get me wrong here; I'm not suggesting that this is in some sort of trans- or consubstantial way. What I mean is that God uses it as a way to communicate some very important things to us: primarily, the death of Christ (1 Cor. 11.26), but also the unity of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 10.17), and also the danger of worshiping with unconfessed sin (1 Cor. 11.27-31 and Matt 5.23-24). These are things that we can't possibly be reminded of too often, or even enough, in my view. Also, beyond these benefits to believers, it's important for the "uninitiated" to see how the Body of Christ operates in corporate worship, including Communion. If an unbeliever is somehow put off by such an observance (which they've no doubt heard of or seen before), I personally don't know how receptive such a one would be to Christ's call to "take up the cross and follow".

Anyway, I know that y'all have doubtless given lots of thought and prayer to these matters over the years, so I hope I'm not out of line in pointing out some things that might be deficient. I probably haven't articulated my thoughts in the best or most gracious way possible, so I ask your forgiveness for that. These are things that I believe God has convicted me of, though, so I hope you'll give them your prayerful consideration.

Sorry for being so long-winded.
Rae

it's kind of funny, since the senior pastor is currently in the midst of writing the New American Commentary on 1 Corinthians.  I was a bit hesitant to cite scripture from that book, but i obviously did anyway.  so far, i've received a couple of VERY encouraging responses.  one of them even started "Dear Rae, You will never know how proud I am of you for this epistle. Well thought out and well communicated. With young men coming along that think deeply, Northbrook will be in good hands for a very long time."

alrighty.  now let's see what happens.  :)