Questions and Answers About Fencing The Lord's Supper

The following are good questions that arise concerning fencing the Lord's Supper

I have been a Christian for decades. Why would you deny me the Lord’s Supper if I am not a member of a gospel-teaching church somewhere? By requiring membership to take the Lord’s Supper, are you saying I am not really saved if I am not a member?

We are not saying a person is not saved. A person very well may be saved. What we are saying is that there is no church that is currently affirming that they are saved. Having a church affirmation of new birth and a worthy walk of the gospel is important because the church is the only entity that Jesus gave authority to make this kind of pronouncement. A person’s parents, friends, or small group are not sufficient because they were not given this authority by Christ. Even a past church is not sufficient because they do not know if a person is currently still holding to the gospel, as people do leave the faith (1 John 2:19).

It is helpful here to think of both ordinances at the same time. There should be a correlation between the ordinance of baptism and the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper. If we adopted the position that anyone who professes to be a Christian is free to take the Lord’s Supper, then that same position should be applied to baptism. This would mean that when we are doing a baptism at our church, if a visitor attends and says he also wants to be baptized, then we would be obligated to baptize him immediately. Just as the self-verified profession is ultimate for the Lord’s Supper, so the self-verified profession should be ultimate for baptism. But a self-verified profession is not sufficient, according to the Bible. We would not baptize because we do not know this person, whether they are really born again or not. Some time is needed for important questions to be answered and clear teaching to be established with a person. In the same way with the Lord’s Supper, if a person is not a member of any church then we do not know them nor does any other church know their current spiritual state.

Is requiring church membership to take the Lord’s Supper moving membership from a good thing into a necessary thing?

It depends upon what you mean by “necessary.” If you mean necessary to be saved then we are not doing that. We are not teaching that a person’s salvation comes through membership. What we are teaching is that it is necessary to be a member of a church to be in a right relationship with Christ. This is the kind of necessity that Paul spoke of in 1 Corinthians 11 when he did not want the Corinthians taking the Supper unworthily. Rightly relating to Christ was necessary for taking the Lord’s Supper. It is possible for a person to be saved and be living in sin, even grievous sin. Our relationship is secure positionally, but relationally there is a problem. In a family situation, a child’s sonship is secure in that he is not thrown out of a family for deep offenses. But relationally, those deep offenses mean there are serious problems in the relationship that have to be addressed. Things are not normal until they are. Not being a member of a true church is a seriously abnormal situation. Something is not right. It may be a problematic transition, but often times it is a neglect or a rejection of the bride of Christ which Jesus loves and the body of Christ which Jesus nourishes. How we relate to Jesus is connected to how we relate to his body. Trying to relate to Jesus without the body is serious and abnormal the way a severed head is serious and abnormal. To want Christ apart from his church, is to want the head while it is severed from the body. This will not work. If a person is not a member of Jesus’ body in some local church then there is a serious and abnormal problem that needs to be corrected before they take the Lord’s Supper.

We don’t demand people tithe or do small groups in order to take communion, so why is membership a requirement?

There are many aspects of the Christian life that are left up to personal conscience. The inner workings of the Spirit in a person’s life are normally not known to the church. In these areas, a person may be in sin or they may just be making different applications of Scripture because of their varied circumstances. These are things the church simply cannot know about fully. For instance, what someone gives as offerings is a matter of proportion and can be divvied out in different ways. The church doesn’t know all these issues and so we do not regulate them. Additionally, even if that person was handling their finances sinfully, they could confess that before the Lord at the moment of coming to the table and receive the supper with thanks.

But church membership is different. This is the one clear spiritual line that the church can know absolutely because it has the definitive role in it. The church brings a person into the church and puts a person out of the church. If a person is not a member, then we can say without doubt they are living in sin or in a seriously abnormal situation. We can confidently say that they are not walking worthy of the gospel, or at least not showing the unity of one bread/one body. Therefore the Lord’s Supper should not be given to those who are not members.

Is this legalistic?

This is a good time to review what legalism is. First, what is Legalism not? It is not obeying a man-made command or, for that matter, obeying a command of the Lord strongly. Legalism is about what the heart trusts in. Legalism happens when a person is striving to attain or maintain his justified status through some kind of law-keeping. This means anything can be turned legalistic or conversely it can be held by grace through faith. Take the man-made command to not watch TV. The heart motivation is what makes the difference. If they don’t watch TV in order to attain or maintain their justified status then this is legalism. But if they don’t watch TV because there are many temptations to lust, discontentment or laziness then wisdom is at play and they are walking in the empowering grace of God as they seek to live by faith. How about God’s command to pray. If we pray to attain or maintain our justified status then prayer has become legalistic. This does not mean prayer should be stopped, but instead should be done rightly. We should pray because we are invited into true fellowship with the triune God, to pour out our worship, confession, intercession and supplication.

All of this carries over into membership. If we are a seeking to attain or maintain our justified status through our membership then we are legalists. This does not mean membership should be stopped, but instead viewed rightly. We rest in the grace of God that made us members of Christ and his body, knowing that he continually and freely gives us more grace through his people. Additionally, our walk of faith should grow as we are discipled by the mature faith of other members.

Why not have a closed communion service where no one is invited except the church members?

Some churches have done this and in one sense this may seem to avoid the awkward and uncomfortable situations that happen when visitors arrive and are upset about being denied communion. Yet, there are two problems with this approach. First, there are several indications in Scripture that secrecy is never a mark of the people of God, especially when the saints gather together. Not only is there no indication that there were closed gatherings, on the contrary openness is what we find. Jesus said of his teaching, “I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing in secret.” (John 18:20) The apostles followed this example. They taught in the temple complex and were even sent back there by an angel in Acts 5:20-21. The church of Ephesus was started in the rented hall of the School of Tyrannus. There the disciples were taught and sent out, and it says that “all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” (Acts 19:10) While much of this was done by the saints going and spreading abroad, assuredly many wanted to come and hear this message when God’s people gathered. Later, Paul even reminded Festus of the open nature of Christianity by telling him that “none of these things escape his notice; for this has not been done in a corner.” (Acts 26:26) The book of Acts ends with Paul “welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness, unhindered.” (Acts 28:30-31) Finally, in 1 Corinthians 14:23-25 Paul mentions that unbelievers would come to the church and either scorn what they saw or be convicted by it. These indicators seem to point to meetings that were open to all.

Secondly, I don’t believe this actually solves the awkwardness problem and may create more problems. It doesn’t solve the problem because you still have to tell people that they can’t participate in this service. What if a person shows up anyway? What about when they ask why they can’t participate? What about regular attenders who want to take the Lord’s Supper and ask when and how it is done? A closed service may decrease the awkwardness, but it doesn’t eliminate the inevitable. Additionally, it may create more problems due to secrecy. Any time you start doing something that is hidden and not transparent, suspicions start to arise. What are they really doing in that meeting? What is actually being taught? Why won’t they let any outsider see what is happening? Also, this may inhibit membership because people will hesitate joining a church that won’t let them see all that they are doing and teaching.

I went to a sound church that didn’t require this. Does that mean something was wrong with that church?

Every church and every Christian should always be reforming. None of us are doing everything correctly. A church may be a sound gospel teaching church that is conducting an open communion. But because we believe this doesn’t match the biblical standard there will be problems that come because of it. There will be inconsistencies with other doctrines and practices, assurance given to false professors, individualism that is deepened and strengthened, and a membership that is weakened in its importance and meaningfulness. Instead, we believe that there is greater blessing, protection, and prosperity when the membership is deeply meaningful, baptism is both a confession of faith and the entrance into the church, and the Lord’s Table is fenced appropriately.