Category Archives: Sacraments

The Fork in the Road: On Imperfect Baptisms, Part 1

A few days ago, a question came up in the comments regarding joint efforts with congregations that aren’t Churches of Christ. How do we deal with potential converts when we’re working with Baptists and Methodists. I responded — Which church … Continue reading

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The Lord’s Supper: The Experts Weigh In

John Mark Hicks recently posted some material on the Lord’s Supper that’s very pertinent to this series, which I thought I’d wrapped up a few weeks ago. The post summarizes a scholarly paper he presented at the 2010 Stone-Campbell Conference. … Continue reading

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The Lord’s Supper: Reaching Some Conclusions, Part 4

Getting creative In Come to the Table: Revisioning the Lord’s Supper John Mark Hicks suggests several possible approaches. He notes that there are several practical barriers. For example, most congregations simply don’t have room in their auditoriums, and most auditoriums … Continue reading

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The Lord’s Supper: Reaching Some Conclusions, Part 3

Table fellowship Imagine your parents inviting you to join your family for Thanksgiving dinner. Your father begins by reminding the family of the many things we should be thankful for. Then, as he carves the turkey, he tells us that … Continue reading

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The Lord’s Supper: Reaching Some Conclusions, Part 2

“Cup” and “loaf” are parts of a meal It helps, I think, to realize that a cup of wine and loaf of bread was standard for First Century meals, especially meals shared with guests. To us, “cup of wine” or … Continue reading

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The Lord’s Supper: Reaching Some Conclusions, Part 1

The Churches of Christ have defined themselves by their insistence on weekly communion. Our members will come late and leave early, but they’ll be certain to take the Lord’s Supper. And we have members who’ll sit at home, taking communion … Continue reading

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The Lord’s Supper: The First Day

Closely tied to the Eucharist is the weekly meeting on Sundays. Of course, we see in Acts 2 that the early church met daily. There’s no mention of a weekly gathering in Acts until much later. Indeed, we only see … Continue reading

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The Lord’s Supper: Further from the Early Church

An excellent source book on early church practice is Everett Ferguson’s Early Christians Speak, vol. 1. (The original appears to be out of print, although Early Christians Speak – Vol. 2 can still be had. Most Church of Christ libraries … Continue reading

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The Lord’s Supper: The Early Church

I offer some material from the uninspired writings of early Christians to prove that I’m not crazy — not to establish a theology of the Lord’s Supper. In fact, we in the Churches of Christ are bad to reach into … Continue reading

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The Lord’s Supper: John Mark Hicks on the Communion

John Mark Hicks has posted a series of articles on the scriptural roots of communion, and he’s provided some very helpful observations. We begin with his article Breaking Bread in Luke-Acts VI: General Observations. The church continues the ministry of … Continue reading

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