What does a Lord’s Supper Service look like?

Tonight at Auburndale Baptist Church we’ll have the Lord’s Supper. There are different ways different churches or denominations will partake, but here’s the service outline we pastors have followed the past several months.

Preparation - Since we do not currently have weekly Communion we announce in the bulletin two weeks out when we will have the Supper. Also, we encourage members to read 1 Corinthians 11, as this allows them time to prepare their hearts.

Introduction to Communion – Our church’s Statement of Faith is the Southern Baptist document, the Abstracts of Principles, the founding theological document of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. As we want our church to practice the doctrine we confess, we read the statement on the Lord’s Supper:

The Lord’s Supper is an ordinance of Jesus Christ, to be administered with the elements of bread and [the cup], and to be observed by His churches till the end of the world. It is in no sense a sacrifice, but is designed to commemorate His death, to confirm the faith and other grace of Christians, and to be a bond, pledge, and renewal of their communion with Him, and of their church fellowship.

This statement separates us from Roman Catholics (e. g., Communion is not a sacrifice), but allows several Reformed interpretations that Protestants hold (e. g., Memorialist and Spiritual Presence view).

Invitation - At this point, I state something like the following . . .

Since the Lord’s Supper is for believers only, I’d encourage all here who do not profess to be Christians to let the bread and the cup pass when it comes to you. Yet take time to reflect on the Gospel . . .

As a sign of charity, our church invites any here who aren’t members at Auburndale but who’ve been baptized as a believer and are in good standing as members at a gospel-believing church like ours, to commune with Christ with us . . .

And parents who have children with us in the service, I’d encourage you to take time later to instruct your children on the significance of Christ’s death . . .

These three groups – non-believers, baptized believers who aren’t church members, and children who aren’t converted & thus not church members need to be addressed. We want to make the gospel verbally clear to the non-Christian, allow the gospel to guide us in charity to baptized believers who aren’t church members, and allow parents to instruct children in the gospel because of what we do during Communion.

Prayer of Preparation – The prayer of preparation covers three areas – thankfulness for Christ’s death (commemorate his death), ask for assurance of salvation (confirm the faith and other graces of Christians), and a petition for Christ to enliven our relationship with him and other church members (a bond, pledge, and renewal of our communion with Him, and of our church fellowship).

Partaking - This section of the service is a summary of 1 Corinthians 11:23-26 & Matthew 26:26-29. Once the deacons come forward to pass out the bread, I’ll state something like the following.

As the bread comes, church, I ask that you wait, so we can eat together, showing our unity as a church body.

Once everyone has received the bread, I state,

The Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, ‘This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.’ Christians, eat, knowing Christ was given in death for us.

Next, before the deacons pass out the cup, I state,

As the cup comes, church, I ask that you wait, so we can drink together, showing our union with Christ.

Once everyone has the cup, I’ll say,

In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in My blood which is poured out for forgiveness of sins.’ Christians, drink, knowing Christ forgives our sins by his blood.

Conclusion - We conclude by singing a hymn on Christ’s death and then a benediction.