The Simple Pastor

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My Communion Project Source List

For a long time I’ve become increasingly dissatisfied with my own understanding of the Lord’s Supper and the practice of it in my church. I’ve inherited practices and cobbled some things together. It’s a bit ramshackle. Yet there is this conviction that the Lord’s Supper is the best and most powerful and sensory demonstration of the Gospel that the church has. I need to raise the bar for this.

So for a while now I’ve been collecting articles, posts, books and book recommendations for the time when I would study this subject. The important though is often at the mercy of the urgent. Postponed, delayed and never got around to. Enough, I say, enough.

Blogging this (as I seem to have done before) is a way of accountability (if only to myself) and, I hope, a way of kicking this project off.

I’m going to try to make this as blank slate as I know how, recognising as I do the traditions I have been formed in. As a result I have a bunch of questions. Have I missed any important ones? Let me know.

My key questions

  1. What does the Bible say about the Lord’s Supper?
  2. What then does the Lord’s Supper mean? What is its significance?
  3. What should we call it? The Lord’s Supper? Communion? Mass? The Eucharist? Does it matter?
  4. Is the proper place within a meal? Only within a meal?
  5. What about juice and wafers or should it be wine and loaf?
  6. How often should this be practised? Yearly, monthly, weekly?
  7. Who should, & perhaps just as importantly shouldn’t, partake in this?
  8. Is there a prime mode for practising the Lord’s Supper? Remembrance, celebration, something else?
  9. What is the relationship between baptism and the Lord’s Supper? Is baptism an essential prerequisite?
  10. Can children partake?
  11. Must a pastor/elder preside and lead this or can anyone do it? Is practising the Lord’s Supper in home groups OK or not?
  12. Should it be practised in the weekly gathering of the church or as a separate event?

Books I already own*

I’ll of course have articles and essays in a variety of reference books which I’ll probably start with but I’m not listing here.

  1. The Church and the Sacraments by PT Forsyth
  2. Understanding Four Views on the Lord’s Supper edited by Armstrong & Engle
  3. What Is the Lord’s Supper? by RC Sproul
  4. Jesus and the Last Supper by Brant Pitre
  5. Jesus and the Jewish roots of the Eucharist: unlocking the secrets of the Last Supper by Brant Pitre.
  6. The Meal Jesus Gave Us by NT Wright
  7. The Lord’s Supper: Remembering and Proclaiming Christ until He Comes by Thomas Schreiner & Matthew Crawford
  8. Spirit & Sacrament by Andrew Wilson

What would you consider essential reading?

Books on my wish list

What do you think, worth buying?

  1. Understanding The Lord’s Supper (Church Basics) by Bobby Jamieson
  2. The Supper of the Lamb: A Culinary Reflection by Robert Farror Capon
  3. The Lord’s Supper: Our Promised Place of Intimacy and Transformation with Jesus by Jonathan Black
  4. The Water and the Blood: How the Sacraments Shape Christian Identity by Kevin Emmert
  5. Remembrance, Communion, and Hope: Rediscovering the Gospel at the Lord’s Table by Todd Billings

Articles

Since I decided to do a deep dive into this one I’ve been collecting articles on the subject by people whose blogs I regularly read/scan. This is what I’ve got so far. Hit me up with the most helpful articles you’ve read or for that matter videos/podcasts and whatnot.

  1. The Case for Wine in Communion by Alistair Roberts
  2. Wine in Communion: Questions and Responses by Alistair Roberts
  3. The Eucharist: ceremony, doctrine, and the real presence by Brad East
  4. Robert Farrar Capon on God, matter, wine, and things by Brad East
  5. What We Glean from 4 Ways of Celebrating the Lord’s Supper by Trevin Wax
  6. Not Reformed Enough: Critiquing Contemporary Practice of the Lord’s Supper by John Stevens
  7. Family Supper: Reclaiming Community Through Communion by Russell Moore
  8. The Family Meeting – Celebrating Communion by Todd Engstrom
  9. Being Eucharismatic by Tim Suffield
  10. The Table of Bread by Tim Suffield
  11. Discerning the Body by Tim Suffield
  12. Repost: Around the Table by Tim Suffield
  13. How To Avoid Death-By-Eucharist by Marc Hays
  14. What Does It Mean to Remember Jesus in the Lord’s Supper? by Dustin Crowe
  15. How do you hedge/fence/guard the table? by Stephen Kneale
  16. On hedging the table by Stephen Kneale
  17. Why every church should practice “open” and “closed” communion by Ilford IPC
  18. Remembrance, Communion, and Hope: Rediscovering the Gospel at the Lord’s Table a review

* all links are affiliate

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7 responses

  1. Al Shaw avatar
    Al Shaw

    Having come in recent years to see the need for the agape and the eucharist to come back together as one event, I would regard this one as essential reading: John Mark Hicks, Come to the Table: Revisioning the Lord’s Supper, (Leafwood, 2002)

    Reply
    1. Phil Whittall avatar
      Phil Whittall

      Thanks Al. I’ll add it to the list (which in full disclaimer mode is not quite the same as saying I’ll end up reading it!!)

      Reply
  2. Virginia avatar
    Virginia

    I’m following these posts with interest. Since we moved to France to join a small AOG church plant I’ve been asked frequently to prepare to introduce “la sainte Cène”, a name I initially found odd. Back in our old NewFrontiers church it was always “breaking of bread” or communion. As a church body over the decades we’d moved into monthly inclusion in services. I think elders were definitely prompted by Andrew Wilson’s wonderful book to give it more of a place. We tried to break bread in our midweek group regularly too, sometimes as part of a meal but more often as a focus of our gatherings.
    Here in 🇫🇷 it is usually whenever we meet on a Sunday. As we move from fortnightly to weekly Sunday gatherings with different formats it may look different. We’ve been mildly surprised by different practices e.g. no wine here, even though we are surrounded by vineyards, no fresh bread, even though boulangeries are guaranteed open on Sundays … It has been a joy to share reflections, and I have tried to store my notes in order not to repeat myself (at least not too soon). But I suppose in one sense that’s why Jesus told us to keep doing it because he knows just how forgetful we can be. In the same way that a verse or passage can really strike me afresh only to read what I wrote in the margins a couple of years previously, one aspect of His mercies new every morning is the repetition of what was true a week or a month ago because we need to be reminded. Having said all that, I love exploring different passages from the conventional ones and am very appreciative of what you are doing here. I know I will be dipping in. Thank you!

    Reply
  3. Philip de Grey-Warter avatar
    Philip de Grey-Warter

    Worth reading Cranmer, On the Lord’s Supper

    Reply
    1. Phil Whittall avatar
      Phil Whittall

      Thanks Philip, good suggestion!

      Reply
  4. Thomas K avatar
    Thomas K

    I appreciate this blog and I like the way you are ‘showing your working’ here, to help us follow how your thoughts develop over the project.

    A couple of questions I’d add to the list would be:
    Should the wine be real, alcoholic, wine? (And, if so, how do we talk about this well in multicultural churches with very divergent views on alcohol?) There’s an article on this here: https://40bikes.wordpress.com/2004/10/16/plagiarizing-myself-1/

    Should we partake if it’s being done ‘wrong’? If you were visiting a different church, where people were partaking who wouldn’t be encouraged to partake at your home church, would you still join in?

    Reply
    1. Phil Whittall avatar
      Phil Whittall

      Thanks Thomas, good questions. I had planned on including the alcohol question but the links I had weren’t working at the time of writing but I’ll update it soon. Hadn’t thought about the last one but good question, I’ll see if that comes up as I move along with it.

      Reply

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