Many Christians assume that the Bible has nothing to say about the frequency of communion, and that therefore each church can simply decide for themselves how often they want to share the meal—whether twice a year, quarterly, monthly, or weekly. In my article “How Often Should We Receive the Lord’s Supper?” I argue that this is a myth, and that Scripture and historic Christian practice provide overwhelming support for at least weekly communion.
If you are a pastor who has been convinced of weekly communion (or at least the need for more frequent communion), then you face the challenge of actually leading your church to adopt this practice. When I came to the congregation that I am currently pastoring, they had communion about twice a year. It took us around two years to gradually transition to weekly communion (and I had initially planned a three to four years transition!). I cannot emphasize enough that any significant change requires patience and much teaching. This article suggests a 7-step plan.
Step 1: Grow Your Understanding First
Do not attempt to lead your church to weekly communion until you are confident in your sacramental theology. You need to be able to motivate your people through compelling and beautiful teaching, and by providing clear and satisfying answers to their questions and objections. Far too often, pastors discover a new idea like weekly communion, get excited about it, and rush in before they have truly understood and internalized the key ideas.
I recommend taking 6 months to a year in which you make no attempt to lead your congregation to more frequent communion. During that time, take a deep breath, and focus on learning and growing yourself. Read through the entire Bible and mark everything related to the sacraments (e.g., highlight how Melchizedek brought bread and wine to Abraham, or how the peace offering involved eating a meal in God’s presence, or how David invited Mephibosheth to eat the king’s table). Read several good books on the Lord’s Supper. In my article “Resources on the Sacraments,” I have a long list of recommended books, articles, and podcasts, as well as instructions for an inductive Bible study on the sacraments.
Step 2: Teach and Preach at a General Level
As you learn and grow, begin gradually incorporating what you have learned into your teaching ministry. Here are a few suggestions.
1. Keep doing what you are already doing, but be more intentional about drawing connections to the Lord’s Supper. For example, if you are preaching on Psalm 23, mention that Jesus prepares a Table before us in the presence of our enemies whenever we share the Lord’s Supper as a church gathered in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. If preaching on the Lord’s Prayer, mention that John Wesley connected “daily bread” to the Lord’s Supper since he, like many in the early church, shared it almost every day. If preaching on the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, mention that we get a foretaste of this every time we have communion. Small, passing comments like this—even one or two sentences—will gradually expand your people’s appreciation for the sacrament and increase their hunger to participate.
2. If you have a weekly bulletin, do a series of short write-ups on the Lord’s Supper. For example, do a series of “Q&As on the Lord’s Supper”: What is the Lord’s Supper? Is the Lord’s Supper just a symbol? Why is it called “communion”? Why do some call it the “Eucharist”? What are the past, present, and future dimensions of the Lord’s Supper? Why do we use bread and wine at the Lord’s Supper? What did the church fathers believe about the Lord’s Supper? What did the Reformers believe about the Lord’s Supper? What did John Wesley believe about the Lord’s Supper? What did our Methodist forefathers believe about the Lord’s Supper? And so on. I’ve found that people do actually read these write-ups in church bulletins, and over time your entries can serve as a sort of “catechism” on the sacrament.
3. Make the most of any questions that are asked. If someone asks, “Should children have communion?” take that as an opportunity to teach an entire Sunday School lesson on paedocommunion (see my perspective here). This gives you the opportunity to say (honestly), “I wasn’t planning to teach on this, but someone asked me about it, and I want to take people’s questions very seriously, so we’re going to deviate from our regular curriculum and tackle this topic.” Any time that you are teaching on an issue even as specific as paedocommunion, it requires you to get back to the basic questions of “What exactly is this meal?” and thus develop your people’s general theology and appreciation for the sacrament.
4. Teach occasional lessons or a short series on the Lord’s Supper (or sacraments in general). You don’t want to overwhelm your congregation by suddenly starting to focus on the sacrament all the time. They need continued teaching about a wide variety of topics. So perhaps do a short Sunday School series (6 weeks) on the Lord’s Supper. Or, spread out the teaching and address a topic related to communion once a month (e.g., if you have monthly communion, teach a lesson that Sunday on the subject).
5. Preach an occasional sermon on the Lord’s Supper (or a sermon with one point on the Supper). For example, we are in the Easter season as I write this article, and it’s a fitting time to preach on Christ’s post-resurrection appearances. In Luke 24, Jesus is known to his disciples in the breaking of the bread, a clear reference to the Lord’s Supper (see my article/sermon here). The Wesleys even have a communion hymn about this: “O Thou who this mysterious bread didst in Emmaus break, return, herewith our souls to feed, and to thy followers speak.” Look for an opportunity to give an extended treatment of the Lord’s Supper in your regular preaching ministry.
6. Buy an accessible book on the Lord’s Supper (or sacraments in general) for every family in your congregation. For example, at Christmas time, explain that the very word “Christmas” means “Lord’s Supper on Christ’s day,” and give a book on the Lord’s Supper as a Christmas gift to every family in the congregation. Or, just give the book as a gift on a Sunday that you have communion, explaining that the book was helpful to you and you wanted to share it with others. The Lexham Press Christian Essential series also recently released The Lord’s Supper: A Guide to the Heavenly Feast. I also highly recommend Tim Chester’s book Truth We Can Touch: How Baptism and Communion Shape Our Lives. It is a fairly short, clear, beautiful introduction that uses warm, passionate language to draw people towards the sacraments. Chester directly addresses several common objections to frequent communion with pastoral wisdom.
7. When you do have the Lord’s Supper (even if it’s only quarterly), be extremely intentional. Preach a little bit shorter on those Sundays and prepare a short, compelling, 2–3 minute preface to the Table. I like to emphasize how the Lord’s Supper is the natural response to the Word of God, and also to draw out its past, present, and future dimensions on a regular basis. For example, “We come now to remember what Christ has done in the past, to receive the grace of Christ in the present, and to enjoy a foretaste of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb that is yet to come in the future.” I was once asked to give a short preface to communion at a ministerial conference, and I still have people mention it years later. A lot can be accomplished in a short time if you know your stuff and devote yourself to serious preparation.
Step 3: When You Have Communion, Do Not Make the Service All About Communion
Churches that have less-than-weekly communion (e.g., monthly) tend to advertise their Sundays with communion as “communion Sunday” or “a communion service.” They tend to preach that Sunday on communion, sing communion hymns, and so on. While this may seem like a good thing because it elevates communion and provides an opportunity to develop people’s theology of the sacrament, I find that it is usually counterproductive. If the goal is to have at least weekly communion, then people need to stop thinking about communion as something that is only special because it’s the all-consuming focus whenever it’s shared. They need to start thinking about it as a natural part of the service (the most important and climactic part, perhaps, but a part nonetheless).
In churches that have weekly communion, the whole service is indeed something referred to as “The Holy Eucharist” or “The Mass.” But if you aren’t already having weekly communion, people begin to think about a communion service as something special rather than something normal. And even in services that are simply called “The Holy Eucharist” (as in the BCP), there is actually a two-part service going on: The Service of the Word and the Service of the Lord’s Supper (dating back to the early church when visitors and catechumens were dismissed before communion).
For this reason, if you’re going to preach a sermon on communion, it might actually be better to do it on a Sunday when you don’t have communion! When you do have communion, simply read and preach whatever Scriptures you would normally, and look for opportunities to connect it to the Supper when you transition to the Table. For example, if you preached on sanctification, mention in your invitation to the Table that John Wesley said that God gave us the Supper as a means of grace to make us holy and happy in him. This will better transition your people towards weekly communion by helping them to see the Supper as the natural response whenever the Word is read and preached.
Step 4: Look for Opportunities to Have the Lord’s Supper Without Changing Your Regular Frequency
Before trying to increase your regular frequency at the Table (e.g., from quarterly to monthly), consider simply adding the Lord’s Supper on special or holy days. For example, have the Lord’s Supper at your Christmas Eve service, on Palm Sunday, on Easter Sunday, and on Pentecost Sunday. You could also share communion on the Sunday nearest All Saints’ Day and on Ascension Thursday (or the Sunday after). Most people are very open to this, and a church that has communion quarterly can double their annual practice just by doing it.
Holy days also provide unique opportunities to draw out various dimensions of the Lord’s Supper. For example, All Saints’ Day is a great opportunity to emphasize how the “one bread” is a sign of the unity of all the saints in “one body” (1 Cor. 10:17). Easter, the Christian Passover celebration, is a great time to focus on how the Lord’s Supper is the new Passover meal. Christmas (“mass on Christ’s day”) is a great time to focus on how the Church’s celebration of the Word’s incarnation in a body centers on its participation in the bread of which Christ said, “This is my body.” And so on.
It may be wise to talk to your other church leaders (e.g., the elders or your church’s “board”) before having communion on a particular holy day if that has not been the church’s practice in the past. What is essential is to talk to them before increasing your regular frequency, which brings me to Step 5.
Step 5: Discuss the Lord’s Supper More Intently with Your Leaders and Agree on a Frequency Goal
As pastors, we are not called to shepherd the flock alone. We must be able to convince the other leaders of the church about weekly communion, or at least bring them to a place where they are supportive of the change and will stand behind us if someone complains about it. I recommend this as Step 5 because the unfortunate reality is that many church leaders are not much more theologically informed than the average layperson, and so they need to come along in their understanding with the rest of the flock before being able to seriously consider the frequency question.
One exception to this would be if you are a pastor who is being interviewed to come to a new church. If you have multiple options (potential churches to pastor), you have a unique opportunity to say, “I want to be forthright about a few deep convictions that I hold. One is weekly communion. Wherever I go next, I need to know that I have the board’s support to lead the church in that direction. It doesn’t have to happen overnight—we can gradually increase frequency over several years as I patiently teach on why it’s important. But I would need a commitment from the leadership to support that change and not stop supporting me a few years in. If that’s not a good fit here, I understand, I just want to be honest with you about what I believe and my intentions if I come.”
As you talk with your church leaders, it may be helpful to do a book study just as a leadership team, to read through some additional articles, or to share some podcast links in your board text messaging group. As pastors, we need to be more intentional about leadership development in general, especially when trying to convince them to help lead theologically-motivated changes.
Ultimately, the leadership must agree on the frequency goal of communion. If they are only comfortable moving from quarterly to monthly, count it as a win, and keep moving. In a few years, or once new leaders come on to the board, they may be open to reconsidering weekly communion.
Making the decision as a team allows you to say to the congregation, “We’ve been discussing how often we have the Lord’s Supper as a board, and we voted to change from quarterly to monthly. Let me explain the reasons why.” Just make sure that your whole team stands behind it (and that dissenting voters understand that once a decision is made, the leaders must stand united, and not go around undermining the decision).
Step 6: Make a Plan to Gradually Increase Towards the Goal
Once the board has established a frequency goal, it also needs a plan to transition. I recommend erring on the side of being slow and patient. Here is an example plan to transition from quarterly to weekly:
- Year 1: Quarterly (4 times a year + Christmas Eve, Easter)
- Year 2: Bimonthly (6 times a year + add Maundy Thursday or Good Friday, Pentecost)
- Year 3: Monthly (12 times a year + add Palm Sunday, Ascension)
- Year 4: Biweekly (24 times a year + add All Saints’ Day, Epiphany)
- Year 5: Weekly (52 times a year)
Be prepared to flex your plan if needed during the execution stage.
Step 7: Execute Wisely
Finally, how you actually transition is key. Here are a few suggestions:
1. When you transition to a new frequency, predict and respond to common objections. For example: “This morning, we are having communion for the second time this month, as we transition to bimonthly communion. You may have heard someone claim that if we have communion more frequently, it will become less special, so I want to take a moment to respond to that.” In my sermon “How Often Should We Receive The Lord’s Supper?” I respond to this objection, drawing on several sources, including John Wesley’s sermon on the Duty of Constant Communion (highly recommended).
2. Do not significantly change your eucharistic liturgy during transition times. Those who want to move to weekly communion also usually want to move their congregations towards a fuller, more traditional Eucharistic liturgy (e.g., with a prayer of confession, absolution, sursum corda, memorial acclamation, post communion prayer, and so on). This needs to be done very slowly, and the best time to do it is not when you are increasing frequency. Introduce new elements one at a time, and wait a while before introducing new ones.
3. Never lose sight of the goal, and let your pastor’s heart come through at every turn. Theological arguments for the Supper are important, but it’s also helpful for your congregation to hear you share your passion for being a Christ-centered, cross-centered (and thus communion-centered) church. Or to hear you share a personal testimony about how more frequent communion has impacted you. Or to see tears running down your face as you pray the prayer of consecration. Or to see you smile warmly and look them in the eyes as you hand them the bread and say, “The body of Christ, given for you.”
