Frequency of Communion

This is an old post. Read with caution…

I have been asked in the past how often I think that a church should take the Lord’s Supper (Communion). This is a tough question to answer for a couple of reasons. The Bible seems to indicate that we should celebrate it every time we meet together.

Practice of the Historical Churches

Historically, the Catholic and Orthodox Churches have seen the Eucharist (communion) as the very reason for coming together. They celebrate the Eucharist at each Liturgy. Often people in these traditions arrive late and leave after receiving the Eucharist. Preaching of the Gospel is limited to an 8-20 minute homily as a reflection on the daily/weekly text. Some people don’t go for the sermon, they go for the Eucharist.

Scriptural Case for Frequent Communion

There is a verse that provides some guidance on this:

1 Corinthians 11:20 Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper,

This is an interesting passage. In context, Paul is taking the church in Corinth to task for abusing the Lord’s Supper. The assumption here seems to be that they come together for the purpose of celebrating communion and are abusing this. This means that every time they come together they were celebrating the love (agape) feast. The abuse was not waiting for others, practicing favoritism, etc.

From this it seems that the answer to the question of “How often should we take communion?” is the question “How often do we meet together?”

Protestant Case for Less Frequent Communion

It takes time to set up and celebrate communion. This is a point based solely on pragmatic concerns.

The point has also been made that taking communion too often removes its preciousness. There is some truth in this but if it is a point of contact between the church and Christ, then why limit this opportunity?

The final reason some Protestants might give is a desire to not be like the Catholics. This demonstrates that we have a view of communion that places less value on communion.

Historical Background

The first Lord’s Supper was with Jesus and His Apostles. It was celebrated on the night before the Passover (or the Passover depending upon how you read the account). This was a once-a-year event but there is no evidence that the Apostles ever had this meal with Jesus before. This particular meal had significance since Jesus was to be the Passover Lamb.