THE FREQUENCY OF COMMUNION
While on vacation, my family and I had the privilege of visiting another church, and we were excited to see that they were observing communion. Their bulletin stated: “we follow the old Southern Presbyterian practice of celebrating the Lord’s Supper…four times a year.” Other traditions celebrate communion once a month. What does the Bible say about the frequency of communion?
Let’s be honest and confess that no explicit biblical case can be made for a monthly or quarterly observance of communion. This doesn’t mean that it is wrong or sinful to observe communion once a month or quarterly, the Bible doesn’t forbid this. This is merely to recognize that a monthly or quarterly observance of the Eucharist is conspicuous by its absence in the New Testament.
You could assert that the Lord’s Supper should be celebrated once a year, since it was instituted during Passover, and fulfills Passover, which was an annual festival. However, it is clear that the early church broke bread and drank from the cup far more frequently than once a year.
Luke tells us that the early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). “Breaking of bread” is a reference to the Lord’s Supper, and they were as devoted to the Lord’s Supper as they were to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship and prayer. It is noteworthy that the Lord’s Supper was in the same league as teaching, fellowship and prayer. At the very least, this hints that communion took place when there was a gathering of the people of God, in which teaching, fellowship and prayer occurred. This devotion of the church to the “breaking of bread” argues in favor of the Lord’s Supper being a part of every service, just like teaching, fellowship and prayer.
Moreover, Luke goes on to say, “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts” (Acts 2:46). Douglas Wilson comments, “From this we learn that if daily communion is not normative, it is at least lawful. The Lord’s Supper should not be restricted to the Lord’s Day” (Douglas Wilson, Mother Kirk, p. 109). Due to the persecution encountered by the early church, they gathered together more frequently than once a week, and when they did the “breaking of bread” seems to be included in their “worship services.” Why should it be eliminated from ours? We often speak of adding communion to the service, but it seems that from the perspective of the Acts 2 church (which every church desires to emulate) they would think we removed it from the service and would want to know why.
What is the purpose of gathering on the first day of the week? Many good answers could be given: to sing praises to the Almighty; to listen to the proclamation of God’s Word; to encourage one another on toward love and good deeds; to give financially to the Lord’s work; to petition God in prayer. These are all good and biblical answers. Nevertheless, consider Acts 20:7: “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.” Notice the parenthetical statement Luke makes about the first day of the week when the believers gathered for corporate worship: “when we gathered together to break bread.” The early church gathers together on the first day of the week for the express purpose of observing the Lord’s Supper. The implication seems to be that “to break bread” was central to their meeting together for worship on the Lord’s Day, and that it was weekly.
The same assumption is seen in I Cor. 11:20-21: “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk.” When the believers at Corinth gathered together (on the first day of the week for corporate worship) it was supposed to be for observing the Lord’s Supper, but it wasn’t really the Lord’s Supper, because they selfishly abused it. However, it was supposed to be for the purpose of enjoying the Lord’s Supper. “It is therefore fair to say that weekly communion, while not mandatory in any absolute sense, is biblically normative. We have as much evidence for weekly communion on the Lord’s Day, for example, as we have for meeting on the Lord’s Day to do anything else. [In fact,] we have more evidence for weekly communion than we have for weekly sermons, or weekly singing. But why choose? Why not do it all?” (Ibid., 109).