Thread.

I'd like to talk about the divisive issue of home communion during COVID. I think we are all in a difficult position, and the Church feels this difficulty acutely. We're all doing the best we can to follow our theology and conscience. Instead of tearing others down...

I'd like to write about why I am for home communion during a live streamed Church service, during this quarantine specifically. I believe in the real presence of Christ in the supper, and I minister in a free Church. There are many nondenominational/independent Churches out there

Some humorously (to be charitable) say they are all undercover Baptist Churches. That's good for a laugh, but believing in Baptism after conversation doesn't make one "Baptist". There are many streams in Church history. My congregation was founded in 1857.

My Church is the result of a merger of a Christian Church and an American Baptist Church (The NORTHERN Baptists). Both congregations were founded in 1857, I'll write more about why this matters later. One Church received the Supper every week, the other monthly. The new Church

receives the Lord's Supper every week. It is interesting to me that so many independent/nondenom/Baptistic congregations have moved to weekly communion. I think it's one of the most encouraging trends in Church right now. Now that we have everybody recognizing the deep value of

the Supper, shall we cut them off from it because of COVID? The Lord's Supper is one meal we should never fast from, unless we have examined ourselves and have unrepentant sin growing unchecked all over our soul.

I believe the Lord is truly with us in the Lord's Supper, AND that He really wants us to remember Him in this way. I don't think it has to be either/or. I have endeavored to make the Church I serve a Word & Sacrament, Law & Gospel, Bible Church. Communion is the high point.

I appreciate other traditions that stress Christ's presence in the Supper. I have, however, thought that some make the Lord's Supper more about what a person thinks is happening in Communion than what a person thinks about The Lord Jesus. This grieves me.

It is because of this difference that we see so many different applications and ramifications of the real presence implemented in different traditions. Things like an ordained person has to consecrate the elements, or you have to believe right about Communion to receive the gift.

For me believing in Christ really being with us in the Supper helps me to stand before His people and say, "This is His Body broken for you, do this in remembrance of Me, and this cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

The besetting error of the Free Churches is that they beat all the mystery out of Communion & Baptism with 100,000 caveats about what's not happening in that water, bread, & cup. The besetting error of real presence Churches is that they rightly say it is divine mystery & paradox

and then they beat all the divine mystery & paradox out of the sacraments by explaining it to death and regulating it to death as a consequence of all said divine mystery and paradox of it all.

When elders consider an online/at home Communion hybrid there are two things to think about.

1. What IS communion.
2. When IS it communion.

The second question pertains to the issue of gathering. The argument is that Communion is not communion without the assembly physically

gathered. There are some Churches that will not give Communion to shut-in and hospitalized because it is outside of the gathered assembly. While I try to be mr. gentle peace monger, this burns me. I cannot fathom it.

Any who.

Free Churches, again the labels are tricky, but necessary for the sake of communicating something, nondenominational, independent, Baptistesque, or the much hated and confusing "Evangelical" Churches may have an advantage here. The other day a fellow Pastor from a free

Church and I were at a Pub Theology thing. The friendly local ELCA Lutheran Pastor strolled over and said "The Evangelicals are representing!"
And we said, "Don't call us names."

Whatever you call us, these Churches have the ability to be nimble and creative when confronted

with new circumstances. Often times these Churches are made to feel less than, like we're eating at the kid's table, because there are so many silly examples of what the "Evangelicals" have done here and there. I believe every Church from all sorts of traditions has the ability

to be a Church deeply rooted in Crucified Carpenter King. Every Church can, and this is not as dependent upon denomination as we think, but upon the pew and pulpit. The thing I really appreciate about the Free Churches is our uhm... freedom to address people's needs.

Circumstances change. God alone saw COVID-19 coming, and how it would effect the gathering of His Church. Responsible leadership during a pandemic means we may no longer gather as we once did. My elders and I canceled the gathering of our Church on March 12th.

But the purpose of Church as outlined in Acts 2:42 remains the same.
1. Apostle's Teaching
2. Fellowship
3. Breaking Of Bread
4. Prayer

The pandemic has effected how and where we do the big 4, but not whether we should practice them.

The only thing that has changed is that it is not responsible to be together physically while we do these things. This is the great thing about the Church: we are both nimble and adaptable while being utterly unchanging, at the same time.

There is a fine article going around in CT about how Pastors are foregoing the show and doing Church from their couch. I think if Churches were a bit too showy, then a lenten penance should be sitting on the couch for a bit. My Church has never remotely been slick or produced.

Our services are the most... er... human I've ever seen! : ) But more than that, we have two old sanctuaries. One built in 1892, the other 1911. We don't have a showy Church, but we do have sacred space. Countless Baptisms, weddings, and funerals.

My first wife's service of death and resurrection was held in one of those sanctuaries. With nearly everything up in the air for so many people my thought as a shepherd was how the Church even scattered, is still a rock in people's lives. So, March 15th I preached to an empty

sanctuary. Which is weird for the Pastor alone, and we endure much weirdness for you Beloved. You know it's true. When I view sermons online they don't tend to be the type of Churches that would pan over the congregation anyway. Unless somebody coughs or laughs at the Pastor's

witticisms, or somebody shouts "AMEN", you don't really know if the place is empty or not. Continuity in a disparate time is my goal. We pray the Lord's prayer together, we sing the Doxology together. But we didn't take Communion together because I was pondering it all.

It seems to me that the Lord's Supper is our greatest comfort, and that He meant it to be for His people, especially in times of suffering. Many people are suffering. If we go to 1st Corinthians 11 Paul talks about the Lord's Supper in reference to gathering.

But, that's just what Church means: assembly, when he writes "synerchommai", together, that doesn't mean the Church doesn't exist when we're not physically together. He didn't know what COVID-19 was, or what live streaming was. I don't think the word "together" regulates us.

But I do think that the Church still need to Remember Jesus, now more than ever, and that was His purpose for the meal. For now, I'll preside over the table at the Church building, and my people may partake at home, and in the Supper we all find our home.

Love, ~ E.M. Welcher