Perspectives: Communion Meditations

This has been the strangest month. In the last four weeks, I have 1) been a worship team vocalist, 2) provided “special music,” 3) been part of a drama, and 4) gave the communion meditation. I wonder what I’ll be doing next week in our weekend services? (Back to a worship team vocalist, actually.) Oddly enough, since finishing my interim ministry back in December and transitioning back into involvement with my regular church here, I haven’t played guitar, which I consider to be my “main thing.” But I’ve made it clear to our worship ministry that I’m happy to fill in where needed, and in fact I enjoy being a “utility player” who can step into various roles. It definitely keeps things interesting!

This weekend I gave the communion meditation at all four weekend services. At our church — and in most other churches in the independent Christian Church tradition — the communion meditation is a brief reflection on the meaning of the Lord’s Supper. This person will speak for 2-3 minutes, offer a prayer, and then the communion trays are passed. Then the person prays for the offering, and the offering plates/bags are passed. In most Christian churches, communion is celebrated after the sermon, towards the end of the service.

Christian churches also celebrate communion (i.e. the Lord’s Supper, or in liturgical churches, the “Eucharist”) every Sunday, based on the practice of Christians in the New Testament. However, it’s important to remember that Acts 20.7 simply gives the example of the Christians at Troas, who met on the first day of the week to break bread. The New Testament never gives a command to celebrate communion weekly. However, Christian Churches and Churches of Christ have historically tried to follow the examples set forth in the New Testament, which is why we take communion every week.

One of our other faculty from the college, Joe Lieway, was the guest speaker this weekend. Knowing that he was preaching, I wanted the communion meditation to coordinate with the message. Joe was preaching from the book of Jonah, specifically from chapter 1, on the subject on God’s heart for the world. I knew the sermon would be dealing with Jonah running from God’s call, and with God’s heart for the lost people of Ninevah. I wanted to somehow tie this theme into communion, so this was my meditation:

Joe has spoken to us this morning about God’s heart. In just a few moments we’ll share in the Lord’s Supper together. What is God’s heart for the Lord’s Supper? It’s tempting to think of this as a time when we only reflect on our personal relationship with God. The problem is, we don’t really find that concept in the Bible. Rather, the biblical idea of communion means that we’re not only concerned with remembering Jesus, but we’re also concerned with our attitude toward the needs of other people.

The Apostle Paul shared some strong words about the Lord’s Supper in 1 Cor. 11.20-22: “When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat.  For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.”

These Christians in Corinth had what you might call the “Jonah syndrome” — they were only concerned about themselves.  They weren’t concerned about others who had less or were further down the social ladder.

I am so glad that I am part of a church that is concerned about the needy, the hurting, and those around the world who need Jesus.  We have an incredible benevolence ministry, and a fantastic missions program.  But that doesn’t let us off the hook.  Every one of us has to consider how we can personally be a part of God’s saving mission in the world, meeting both spiritual AND physical needs.  This gets to the heart of what the Lord’s Supper is really about — remembering Jesus and remembering others.

I challenge you to ask yourself the same question God asked Jonah about the people of Ninevah: “Should I not be concerned about that great city?” This gets to the heart of God in the Lord’s Supper.

Whether these few words were successful, I’ll leave for others to judge. At any rate, I wanted to tie the sermon and communion meditation together for the sake of thematic unity. If I have seen it once, I’ve seen it hundreds of times: the communion meditation becomes a “sermonette” that is totally disconnected from the rest of the service. I believe the worship gathering has greater impact when the various worship elements are flowing in the same direction.

(I recall how in my early 20′s I had to speak to an elder at the church I was serving at the time. He was a long-time member of the church and could have easily been my grandfather. However, his communion meditations were consistently 10-12 minutes long, and I had to take responsibility to speak to him about it. I learned a lot about godly leadership when this gentleman graciously received constructive criticism from a kid several decades his junior.)

The person usually giving a communion meditation is an elder or deacon, not the preacher or another staff member. This is a good idea because it gives the congregation exposure to the leadership, but also gives those leaders an opportunity to do something that is very pastoral. You can’t get much more pastoral than leading in a celebration of the Lord’s Supper! Some church leaders are not naturally gifted speakers; in fact, most are average. But everyone can certainly improve, especially with a little coaching on how to give an effective meditation.

I should make note of the fact that doing a communion meditation at a large church is different than doing it in a smaller setting. Neither is right or wrong — they are just different. A larger church will naturally be more complex, and probably more technologically advanced. There will also be more services. (At our church, there is on Sat. evening and three Sun. morning services.) Between the choir, worship team, and others in the services, we probably had between 40-50 people on and off the stage this morning. So things are naturally going to be complex, and the communion meditation is one element of a service that involves many elements, all of them needing to fit together to form a unified whole.

In order to make this happen, we have several “stage callers” who basically direct the action on stage. They tell people when and where to enter and exit the stage, call people in and out of the “green room” where people wait to go on stage, and basically keep the service running smoothly. They wear headsets to communicate with the tech crew, and with each other. It’s very easy to get the sense that the worship service is a “show” or a “production,” with all of these behind the scenes elements. But the fact is that almost any worship service in almost any church IS truly a production on some level — meaning that there is organization and thought given to who gets on stage and leads the various elements in the service. It is actually very helpful having the stage callers helping behind the scenes because it allows the service to run smoothly, and eliminates distractions so the congregation can focus on engaging in the service.

With that said, here are some of the directions I was given backstage at various times in the morning: 1) adjust the microphone at the podium; 2) pass the communion trays to the band during the first service; 3) walk a little more slowly during the song before communion to better reflect the mood of the song; 4) don’t forget to mention the attendance notebooks before offering; 5) give us a hand signal during the offering prayer to start the track for special music; 6) exit on the other side of the stage so you don’t block a camera shot of someone else.

The fact is that all of these suggestions did make the service flow more smoothly. They helped eliminate distractions (some of which I could potentially cause!) and allowed the congregation to focus. I mention all of this simply to point out that something simple like a communion meditation is usually more complex in a larger church. However, I was happy to follow their suggestions and certainly appreciated the chance to lead in this important element of worship.

You might get the impression that I think a small church does not have the potential to have excellent communion meditations. Nothing could be further from the truth. The determining factor here is not the size of the church — rather, it’s the size of the person. Are you willing to think, prepare and lead well? Then you can give a meaningful communion meditation, no matter the church size.

Allow me to close with a few suggestions to those giving communion meditations:

1. Don’t use a monotone speaking voice. Just be natural and don’t take on a “holy preacher voice” when you have the mic.
2. Write out your meditation and rehearse it. It doesn’t mean you have to read it from a manuscript, but the act of writing it out will clarify your thoughts. And if there’s one thing we need in communion meditations, it’s clarity and simplicity of thought.
3. On that note, just focus on one single point. It doesn’t need to be a doctoral dissertation. Simplicity always wins over complexity in communication.
4. Set the right tone — don’t treat it like a depressing funeral dirge, but don’t go to the other extreme and be a stand-up comedian. I’ve seen both, and neither is appropriate. (Communion focuses on Jesus’ sacrifice, which is by nature a sad event, but this sadness is not an end in itself. Remember that he rose again!)
5. Be brief. The Sermon on the Mount is only three chapters long. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is only ten sentences long. Shorter is almost always better.
6. If possible, find a way to tie the meditation into the sermon. The theological and biblical ideas tied to the Lord’s Supper are almost endless, and you can find a way to link it to almost any kind of theme.
7. However (and this is a big HOWEVER), don’t neglect the central purpose of communion: to remember Jesus (see 1 Cor. 11). If you can’t find a legitimate and biblical way to tie the sermon to communion, abandon it altogether and simply focus on Jesus. Don’t neglect good theology for the sake of being hip or relevant.
8. Be creative with your celebration; use music, art, poetry, readings, drama or other ways to imaginatively celebrate communion. Communion is the only way Jesus asked to be remembered, yet almost every church gives this part of the service the least amount of creative energy.

Whether we are giving the meditation, providing accompanying music, preparing the communion trays, or simply taking communion as a congregation member, I hope we will do all we can to honor Jesus in this important element of worship.