During the COVID-19 pandemic, many churches struggled to take the Lord’s Supper together, especially when members were viewing the service via live stream video. Christian leaders debated whether a “virtual” Lord’s Supper was possible, and, if so, how it should be administered. The situation resulted in some Christians not partaking in this important ordinance for months, if not years.
For liturgical traditions that emphasize the sacramental value of the Lord’s Supper, the absence of weekly communion was an acute and pressing issue. Without the weekly Eucharist, Catholics were “impoverished” of “an irreducible good” (Anthony Lusvardi, 2022). Episcopalians experienced “urgency and longing” to return to communion (Ruth Meyers, 2022). According to Gordon Lathrop (2022), Lutheran churches needed to “recover and restore the biblical and liturgical reality of assembly”—including the Eucharist—rather than continue “the emergency electronic means” which were not a true assembly—or Supper—at all. Emerging from the pandemic, many such churches immediately returned to their weekly observances.
In the evangelical, free church tradition, some pastors began to reconsider the significance of the Lord’s Supper for their times of gathered worship, and whether it would be better for their churches to practice more frequent, if not weekly, communion around the Lord’s Table. But what biblical and distinctly evangelical emphases might support this change from past patterns?
Building on the recent work of evangelical theologians (e.g., Paul Gardner (2018), John Hammett (2015, 2019), Thomas Schreiner (2018), Mark Taylor (2014)) and giving particular attention to Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 11:17–34, this paper will argue for more regular practice of communion for the purposes of overcoming divisions in the church (vv. 18–19) and proclaiming the gospel (v. 26). It will also address concerns of taking the Lord’s Supper in “an unworthy manner” (v. 27), with consideration of one’s individual relationship with God as well as one’s relationships with other church members. While the call to self-examination (v. 28) may incline some towards less frequent observance, this paper will emphasize the importance of frequent observances of the Lord’s Supper for local church unity, faithful witness, and true communion with God and others.