Rise above rote: ideas for those who lead the Communion service

By Mark A. Taylor

This year I was privileged to write Communion, one volume in a series of Church Leaders Pastoral Pocket Guides published by Church Leaders Press, an imprint of Outreach, Inc. The handbook offers a variety of meditations and meditation starters for the Communion service, as well as other helps, including several services for special settings. An introductory chapter suggests ways to keep our observance of Communion from degenerating into meaningless routine. Here are some of those ideas, adapted from that section:

Sometimes at home we repeat “I love you” as a simple habit when we walk out the door or our children leave for school. There’s nothing wrong with that. But sometimes, we need to sit face-to-face with our child or our spouse or our parent and find a way to tell them how much our love for them means to us.

Like all traditions, “I love you” can lose its meaning with repetition. Like all traditions, Communion can be rote without some special attention. Every leader has the opportunity, with each service he plans, to make sure that doesn’t happen. Here are some ideas:

Focus on the cross

For starters, always remember why you’re observing Communion. Some leaders tend to forget what the Communion meditation should accomplish. The point of whatever someone says before Communion is to remind worshippers again of the singular act of sacrifice Jesus gave and the essential function it performed.

This is not a time for a general devotion or inspirational thought. A creative approach may be good; a tie-in with the calendar or current events can help. But the landing place must always be Calvary.

Jesus said to remember his broken body and his shed blood. If we cannot find a new way to say that, it’s better to repeat what we’ve heard before than to sidestep the cross altogether in an effort to be original. This is not a sermon or homily about just anything the Bible addresses. Here our mandate from Jesus himself is, “Remember me.”

Connect it with what comes before and after

Try to avoid the tendency for Communion to feel like a necessary interruption. The worship song shared just before the Communion service will probably contain a phrase or idea that can be the first thought in the Communion meditation. Help worshippers connect with a stream of thought or challenge instead of forcing them to start over now that it’s Communion time.

Vary the placement in the service

Some churches always place Communion after the singing and before the offering and sermon. God does not require you to put it there.

Some churches always place Communion at the end of the service, like a coda that’s necessary to complete before dismissal. Could a different placement, at least from time to time, help worshippers rethink what Communion is all about?

Maybe Communion could help worshippers focus on one point in the sermon and you would interrupt the sermon with the Communion service. Maybe Communion could be a time for every worshipper to respond to the challenge just delivered in the sermon, and the Communion service could be cast as a time of decision for all. Maybe the whole service now and then could focus on the cross and include partaking of the Communion elements. Maybe participants would partake of the broken loaf at one point in the service and the fruit of the vine in another, with meditations or music in between.

Vary the leaders

Ask women or teenagers or children to read Scriptures surrounding the service. Recruit a few members ahead of time, to stand where they’re sitting or come to the front to read or pray. Invite a husband-and-wife team to prepare a brief poem or reading and incorporate it into your service. Assemble a diverse group of church members to come to the front, and instruct them ahead of time each to offer a simple one-sentence prayer to precede partaking of the emblems.

Choose leaders whose gift is presentation. Not every pastor or elder or other church officer has the ability to engage a crowd from the platform, and that’s OK. Use those who have been gifted by God to serve in this way, regardless of their place in your church governance.

Consider who passes the elements for Communion. Use family teams (dads and sons, mothers and daughters, or whole families) to pass the elements. Teenagers could do this one Sunday. Senior citizens could do this another week.

Make time

At least now and then, give five extra minutes for Communion, even if this means asking the pastor to preach that much shorter or the worship leader to transfer some of the general singing to this service.

Avoid the tendency to make Communion feel like a cursory requirement, like the forms you sign before surgery or the membership card you show the gatekeeper at Costco or Sam’s Club. Communion is the main event. Communion is not the only reason we worship, but it is the single element Jesus specified for our worship.

Photo by Nico Smit at Unsplash.com

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