The partaking of the Lord’s Supper in many churches is like the national anthem before a sporting event. Everyone is used to it. Everyone participates. One person leads it. However, the national anthem is often nothing but an ancient ritual we want to get past to get to the game. 

Specifically, the Lord’s Supper is all too often viewed as less important than other worship elements such as singing or preaching. Personally, I have been in church- even serving as a pastor for a long time - before I understood just how vital the partaking of the bread and wine are to the life and health of the church. I can remember conducting the Lord’s Supper at times because Jesus said to do so, but I didn't feel any different, and I didnt feel like I saw anything changing in my heart when I take it. 

Many people certainly feel as I did because they have not had this ordinance explained to them. In addition, many churches only partake of the Lord’s Supper a few times a year, or even go a year or longer without doing so. To my shame, there were probably seasons in the church I served many years ago where we did not come to the Lord’s Table nearly often enough.

While the purpose of this blog is not to go into the various views of the Supper, it is impossible to avoid doing so because a proper doctrinal understanding influences its significance in your spiritual life. The bottom line: partaking the Lord’s Supper is helpful for us spiritually. At a bare minimum, as we take the Supper in faith, contemplate Christ’s sacrifice, and repent of our sins as 1 Corinthians 11:23-34 instructs us, we grow in Him. Also, add to this Paul’s almost mystical words in 1 Corinthians 10:16-17: we are involved in “participation with the blood and body of Christ.” When God’s people take the Supper in faith, Christ is with them as He promised to be when the church gathers corporately. How can this not also be seen as a benefit to us?

Understanding these benefits, why not take it in church as often as possible? (Doctrinally, it is inadvisable to take it alone or just as a family because Scripture indicates that it’s a church ordinance/sacrament. Again, another topic, another time.)

I confess, Scripture does not prescriptively say that the church is to take Communion every week, once a month, or once a quarter. Jesus simply states, as you take this, do it “in remembrance of me.” However, we do see the descriptive view that the early church did this weekly. In the book of Acts, depending on the context, the phrase “breaking of bread” is often a way to describe the Lord’s Supper. It states in Acts 2:42, that the church continued steadfastly in “breaking bread” or taking the Supper. This means that at the very least, they were doing this regularly.  Also, Acts 20:7 states, "On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight." This text tells us that one of the main reasons the church gathered was to take the Supper! This indicates that this was a weekly endeavor to sup with Christ. 

One of the main arguments I've heard against weekly participation of Communion is the idea that we should not want to take it too often because if we do, it is not as special.  To this I would say first of all that the opposite is true:  the Lord’s Supper is not special in many churches because we take it so infrequently. 

Second, why do we only zero in on suggesting we will get tired of the Supper? Why do we not hear people say, let’s not have preaching this week because people are too familiar with it? Or why not just skip prayer, or skip singing this week because we do want to do that too often? If anything, we see people saying, let’s sing more and preach less! One would say quickly, well, the Bible says to preach, to sing, to give an offering, to pray and worship on the Lord’s Day, so we must do all of the above! Yet, Scripture tells us to take the Lord’s Supper too. Is this not included in the commanded list above?

I am not saying that if your church takes the Lord’s Supper only monthly or quarterly it is not a faithful gospel church. But I will assert that if it never takes the Supper, than it is not. 

Moreover, if Scripture says Communion is a spiritual benefit to us and demonstrates the early church did it weekly, we should give priority to doing it more, not less often. However often your church takes the Supper, let us glory in the fact that Christ has invited us to come and as often as we do it, we do it, “In remembrance of Him.”

Soli Deo Gloria!