The other evening I taught a class on the Lord's Supper and its significance within the corporate worship service. I mentioned previously that our particular fellowship of churches (Independent Christian) observes Communion weekly. I believe that this is an important practice that is supported in Acts chapter 2. However, I understand why so many congregations observe only monthly or even quarterly. From my own personal experience partaking weekly easily becomes common place or routine.


I could not begin to count the number of times that little or no thought was given to Communion in many of the worship services I have attended through the years. How many times have I heard a devotional thought leading to the Lord's Supper that had little or nothing to do with Christ's sacrifice? It is no wonder that without proper significance placed on this moment of remembrance that the pervasive attitude creeps dangerously close to being cavalier!


A few Sundays ago as I sat with my wife during the Communion time, a couple behind us carried on a conversation at almost normal conversation volume...during the entire Communion time! What was so important that had to be discussed at that time? What was more important than focusing on the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus?


I love how The Message Bible by Eugene Peterson paraphrases I Corinthians 11:26-29...

What you must solemnly realize is that every time you eat this bread and
every time you drink this cup, you reenact in your words and actions the death
of the Master. You will be drawn back to this meal again and again until the
Master returns. You must never let familiarity breed contempt.
Anyone who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Master irreverently is like part of the crowd that jeered and spit on him at his death. Is that the kind of
“remembrance” you want to be part of? Examine your motives, test your heart,
come to this meal in holy awe.If you give no thought (or worse, don’t care)
about the broken body of the Master when you eat and drink, you’re running the
risk of serious consequences.

So, I taught a class on the Lord's Supper the other night....hopefully I helped a few people catch its signifcance.

Who are we pleasing anyway?

I am still considering this whole idea of worship being successful or unsuccessful. I guess in a purely innocent way a successful worship service would be one in which the worshiper...worshiped!

Why does that seem so naive?

Probably because we so often measure the success or failure of worship by how well the praise band played or vocalists sang, by how well the preacher delivered the sermon or even by how many accept Jesus at the invitation. We tend to look at the function and forget that there is so much more. We forget that in reality, worship is not about the externals of style and taste, but about our response to how God redeemed us from our sinful lives.

There is danger in listening to the whims and wishes of "what everyone else is doing!" Plantinga refers to "...the songs of Babylon...or Hollywood...." In other words, we get too caught up in the popularity and the "show" and performance! And yet, to completely ignore the culture around us is equally dangerous...a balancing act. I have failed at the balance of being relevant and maintaining integrity more than I would like to admit.

Well, there is more to examine and say concerning this balancing of Christ and Culture in worship. There are so many ways to approach it and I'm a little uncertain how to do it. If anyone happens to check in on this site, feel free to share your thoughts. I think there are some right and wrong answers, but I believe that there is a lot of grey area in this discussion, as well.