Non liturgical Christians...what's a Sunday service like?

[Lenten_ashes]

Once a month we celebrate the Lord’s Supper,

Just curious…in light of what the scriptures say 1 Corinthians 11:25 and how central the Eucharist has been to Christianity for our existence, do you feel like once a month is not enough? I once was part of a non-denom church and they did the same…you saw Communion once a month or so. Never felt right to me even before I believed in the Catholic understanding of Communion.

 

[drac16]

drac16:

Once a month we celebrate the Lord’s Supper,

Just curious…in light of what the scriptures say 1 Corinthians 11:25 and how central the Eucharist has been to Christianity for our existence, do you feel like once a month is not enough? I once was part of a non-denom church and they did the same…you saw Communion once a month or so. Never felt right to me even before I believed in the Catholic understanding of Communion.

If I had it my way, my church would celebrate it every week. It’s an act of worship that the Lord told us to remember Him. What makes the Lord’s Supper so amazing is that we are recognizing that in order to have forgiveness of sins, there has to be a sin bearer. In the OT days, an animal sacrifice was required, but the Son of God laid down His own life to be our everlasting blood-offering. That’s why He’s called the Lamb of God.

It’s more than grape juice and crackers. He is present in this ritual, but I don’t know how (I need to pray and study about it more).

 

[Lenten_ashes]

Thanks.

I do wonder why some places only do it once or month…or worse, quarterly. Maybe a cost issue? I never asked but I wish I would have.

 

[catholiclala]

I was raised Baptist and don’t even remember how often they did commune but it always seemed “fancy” yet nobody really explained why, you just did it. I should ask my father, he is a Baptist minister. Now that I’m Catholic I view it completely differently.

 

[twf]

I thought the Orthodox don’t generally permit instruments either though for liturgy?

 

[MHawbaker]

At my church it is about once a month with extra communion services on Good Friday and Christmas Eve.

In the past, some churches in our denomination have only had it quarterly or even once per year, because it was believed that having it more often would run the risk of causing the people to take it for granted and not treat it with proper reverence.

By keeping it limited to just a few times a year or less, people would be encouraged to really examine their conscience and make sure that they are truly prepared to receive since it could be a long time before they got another opportunity.

Although we don’t believe in a literal Transubstantiation of the elements, we do not view them as strictly symbolic either. What drac 16 said a few posts back would go for us too: “It’s more than grape juice and crackers. He is present in this ritual, but I don’t know how .”

 

[TC3033]

The way my non-denom church back home was.

Bible study / Sunday School for about half an hour

15 min coffee socializing

Opening Hymn

Opening Prayer

Greeting and Prayer Requests

Prayer

hymn

offering

hymn

communion

sermon

closing hymn

everyone hangs out and socializes anywhere from 10 - 30 min or so.

If we went to Sunday School we were there for a solid 2 hours. If we just went to service we were there for a little over an hour.

 

[ltwin]

Just curious…in light of what the scriptures say 1 Corinthians 11:25 and how central the Eucharist has been to Christianity for our existence, do you feel like once a month is not enough? I once was part of a non-denom church and they did the same…you saw Communion once a month or so. Never felt right to me even before I believed in the Catholic understanding of Communion.

Just to provide some historical perspective here. Historically, most people rarely took Holy Communion anyway. In medieval Europe, lay Catholics by and large only took Holy Communion around Easter due to the need for confession and spiritual preparation prior. The priest would have been the only one to take communion regularly.

During the Reformation in England, Protestants tried to institute regular Holy Communion but lay people were reluctant to participate and Protestants didn’t believe in having Communion without a congregation. Even in the Anglican Church it didn’t become the practice to have regular Sunday communion until the Victorian Era.

 

[ReaderT]

I thought the Orthodox don’t generally permit instruments either though for liturgy?

The human voice is the “instrument” par excellence, though some (mostly Greek) churches have organs or a piano. I don’t know much about this topic, to be honest.

 

[twf]

piano

Wow…it never occurred to me that a piano might be used at a divine liturgy! I’ve been to OCA, Melkite Greek Catholic, and Ukrainian Greek Catholic liturgies, and none had instruments. I had heard that the Greek Orthodox practice of sometimes using an organ was considered an abuse by other Orthodox . I’m sure opinions vary.
…just like Latins in North America debate the question of “the guitar” most passionately…

 

[Lost_sheep2]

I thought the Orthodox don’t generally permit instruments either though for liturgy?

I seem to remember from my Orthodox days that they only have human voices and no other instruments because instrumental music can be seen as a distraction from God, beautiful but attracting attention to itself and not to God. I don’t agree with this and maybe this was just my parish and not representative of Orthodox theology in general but that’s what I was told.

 

[Lenten_ashes]

The priest would have been the only one to take communion regularly

Right, but Communion in and of itself, was still a central part of the Mass. There was never a time in which it was not. That’s all I’m saying.

 

[Lenten_ashes]

Yeah, not all low church protestants are lacking reverence and belief of it. Years ago I went to my Grandmother’s non-denom Church and was surprised at how reverent they were. Communion is every service, at the same point of the service and they quoted St. Paul’s epistle in Corinthians about examining your conscience before receiving. Not exactly Catholic or Orthodox but it was very well done and I could tell it was meaningful to them.