By Pastor Tedd Mathis

Since we have several newcomers attending Pueblo West Baptist Church – and since a good number of folks who are members have come from a variety of church backgrounds, I thought this essay may be helpful.

The following is about who should participate.

First, we observe the Lord’s Supper approximately every six weeks. Notices in the bulletin and church calendar are given in advance. We believe the Scriptures to command the ceremony to be observed having been instituted by Christ Himself (I Cor. 11: 23-26). But how often a local church observes communion is a matter of freedom. Some churches practice it every Sunday, some monthly; others quarterly. Before my time as your pastor, the six-week schedule was instituted at PWBC.

Second, you don’t have to be a member of PWBC to participate. However, you do need to be a confessing believer in Jesus Christ in good standing with a like-minded church.

Here is where we may differ from other churches you’ve attended or were members.

Some churches practice open communion: Any individual who consider themselves to be a Christian can participate.

Others practice closed communion: Only those who are members of that local church can participate.

If you want a label, what we practice is known as close communion.

To keep this essay short, I won’t address closed communion. But here are three objections to open communion.

I’m borrowing these from Baptist pastor, David Huffstutler in Rockford, Illinois.

First, if no restrictions are given, then baptism is downplayed because it is not necessary to this communion. No one knows whether or not a given participant may or may not have been affirmed in his or her salvation (which is pledged in baptism – cf. 1 Peter 3:21) by the host church or some other church.

Second, if no restrictions are given, then church membership is downplayed as well. Opening communion to someone who is not baptized and thus not confirmed by other believers in their salvation functionally says that the affirmation of other believers is not important to one’s salvation. Open communion thus devalues the notion of formal unity in a local church.

Third, unrestricted communion downplays the role of church discipline. If a participant’s baptism and thus the affirmation of salvation by other believers are not necessary for communion, then the continued role of other believers in keeping the participant accountable for godliness is not necessary either. Were a participant to be living in persistent, open sin, the unity expressed in open communion (1 Corinthians 10:16–17) would be false, since persistent, open sin requires a church to exclude the individual from its fellowship since such a one is no believer at all (e.g., Matt 18:15–18; 1 Cor 5:1–11) or, at best, a sinning brother who has forfeited his right to fellowship in general and thus communion in particular (2 Thessalonians 3:6, 14–15).

Stated in brief, participating in the Lord’s Supper is preceded by an individual’s voluntary participation in water baptism. And they have been baptized because their lives have become spiritually united to Christ (Romans 6:3-7). As others have succinctly stated:

Water baptism is the outward sign of an inward change (see Colossians 2:11-14). That profession, baptism and new life in Christ can be confirmed by a local church in ongoing accountable fellowship with that local church.