Can anyone perform the Eucharistic service?

[Christ is Lord]

I ask because I know traditionally only priest or pastors do it but what says that a layperson can’t perform the service? Especially at home with your family do you need someone from the clergy to do it?

 

[Paidiske]

The answer to that is going to hinge on what you think the Eucharist is. Is it a sacrament, an ordinance, a memorial? So different denominations are going to have different answers.

Part of my answer would be that the Eucharist belongs to the church, and so it is up to the church to decide whom it authorises to preside. It's not a decision one should make privately; "Well, I know my church wouldn't let me do this but I'm going to do it anyway," kind of thing.

 

[Ricky M]

Yes, different denominations will give you different answers.

That's why we should let the Holy Spirit decide.

I don't think it's out of line for a father/husband to serve his family at home, provided he is keeping himself filled with the Holy Spirit and being faithful to God's word. Nor for a small home group to serve, with the same caveats. That was the way it all started back then. The over-riding consideration is 1 Corinthians 11:27 So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. It is how you take the Eucharist, and not where, that most matters. Even in church.

 

[Christ is Lord]

So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. It is how you take the Eucharist, and not where, that most matters. Even in church

What would constitutes unworthy? Does it mean any particular sin or a different between bad deeds vs. good deeds.

 

[timothyu]

Perhaps it turned at some point into a form of authority over the masses?

 

[com7fy8]

Especially at home with your family do you need someone from the clergy to do it?

First, we need to be with leaders whom God approves according to the qualifications of 1 Timothy 3:1-10. And Hebrews 13:17 says God expects us to obey these leaders who are mature in Jesus and who lead by example >

"nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock." (1 Peter 5:3)

And during church communion, be at home with God and with one another as our Jesus family. I offer for your consideration > 1 Corinthians chapter eleven which talks about the Lord's Supper. One thing I notice is how Paul is very concerned with how the Christians are relating with one another during the Lord's Supper. It needs to be done in remembrance of Jesus, and how Jesus has loved us is included in this remembrance, I would say. We need to have family caring and sharing like how Jesus has loved us.

So, you need to make sure you are with leaders and others who are sharing like this, with leaders whom God trusts and so He expects us to trust these leaders.

Home communion is not to be some sort of a substitute for this!! I know people can decide their church is not right; and so they are going to do some things by themselves, including what they do with their money, of course. But God expects us to find out who are His mature example leaders and obey these people, while sharing as God's family with others who share in this.

Then . . . I do think it is possible that you can at home follow the example of how communion is done in church, where you have scripturally approved leaders > 1 Timothy 3:1-10 > whom you know are of God for you to obey.

It is not Biblical, though, for us to stay in an obviously wrong church, and take this as an excuse to go do our own communion at home. We are obligated to be sharing and accountable with Biblical example leaders who are feeding us their example so we grow in Jesus and how He has us loving. And make sure how He loves is included in us as our remembrance.

 

[Christ is Lord]

I don't think it's out of line for a father/husband to serve his family at home, provided he is keeping himself filled with the Holy Spirit and being faithful to God's word. Nor for a small home group to serve, with the same caveats.

I agree with having a husband or in a group setting designating a person to conduct the service. Because when Jesus did it, I know he has the ultimate authority but there doesn’t seem to have any good scriptural reason why anyone can’t do it.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

I ask because I know traditionally only priest or pastors do it but what says that a layperson can’t perform the service? Especially at home with your family do you need someone from the clergy to do it?

When ever you eat, you should think about Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Blessings

 

[charsan]

I ask because I know traditionally only priest or pastors do it but what says that a layperson can’t perform the service? Especially at home with your family do you need someone from the clergy to do it?

The Holy Eucharist is a sacrament and the priest acting In persona Christi is the only one that can perform the Eucharistic part of the Mass

 

[timothyu]

but there doesn’t seem to have any good scriptural reason why anyone can’t do it.

Cannot we think of Jesus' ultimate sacrifice of flesh and blood when we simply eat and drink, a common everyday occurrence? A great way to keep something in mind.

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

The appointment of specifically authorised clergy to perform the Eucharist came about when the church became formalised and ceremony and ritual replaced the free worship of believers when they gathered together.

If we take just what Jesus said at the last supper, He used the word "remember", which shows that the eating of the bread and drinking the wine was for a memorial of His death where His body was broken and His blood was shed. When we eat the bread and drink the wine, we are identifying with His death on the cross.

The word "Eucharist" and "Sacrament" did not appear in relation to the eating of the bread and drinking of the wine until after the First Century and church meetings became formalised church services, and elders became "priests" who evolved as mediators between the common people and the Lord. In a formalised church, the priest, who is mediating between the common people and the Lord, is the one who is authorised by the church to conduct the ceremonial sacrament of the Eucharist. There is no evidence that this is what Jesus intended when He told the disciples to remember His death whenever they came together. Because there was no organised church as such, any gathering of believers could have been the environment where the memorial, which we call the Lord's supper can be conducted and there doesn't even have to be an appointed person to lead it. It can be as informal as they please.

But then, each person must conduct himself according to his own conscience in these matters, and be prepared to give account for the way he goes about remembering the Lord's death until He comes.

 

[Christ is Lord]

Thanks for all your responses. You’ve given me much to think about.

 

[Christ is Lord]

Cannot we think of Jesus' ultimate sacrifice of flesh and blood when we simply eat and drink, a common everyday occurrence? A great way to keep something in mind.

I think we can but the Lord’s table is extra special

 

[Presbyterian Continuist]

If we read the book of Galatians, we see clearly that as soon as Jesus died on the cross, all ceremonies, rituals, sacraments, priests, sacrifices ceased. Justification consisted thereafter by faith in Christ alone without any formalistic additions. Even baptism as a requirement for salvation is invalid. Anything that does not consist in faith in Christ alone, is salvation by faith and works, which is no salvation at all.

 

[Albion]

I ask because I know traditionally only priest or pastors do it but what says that a layperson can’t perform the service? Especially at home with your family do you need someone from the clergy to do it?

If it is Bible passages that you are seeking, consider these:
Matthew 26:26-28,
Mark 14:22-24,
Luke 22:19-21,
1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
So the answer lies with the commission given by Christ to his Apostles, the first bishops of the church, and also the matter of orderliness in corporate worship, including the point Paidiske made about the sacrament being an expression of unity in the church.

 

[Albion]

.

 

[timothyu]

So the answer lies with the commission given by Christ to his Apostles, the first bishops of the church, and also the matter of orderliness in corporate worship, including the point Paidiske made about the sacrament being an expression of unity in the church.

And what for those who believe church is followers of a way of life, not an institution?

 

[Albion]

Even baptism as a requirement for salvation is invalid.

Oh, if there were some church that actually taught that....

Wouldn't condemning the idea be a stinging putdown if only that were the case?

 

[Carl Emerson]

Thanks for all your responses. You’ve given me much to think about.

I would commonly take communion with 20 or 25 folks from all different churches in the inner city and Jesus touched lives particularly at that time. I held no office in a church, we just invited all to share in the love of Jesus and He showed up.

 

[Albion]

And what for those who believe church is followers of a way of life, not an institution?

The word can be used in several different ways, that's so. The New Testament, however, is virtually brimming with references to the church as an organized institution, along with how and when it functioned, who were the leaders of it, how it got on in a hostile world, and so on.

How all of that could be denied in favor using the word to mean a cause or movement exclusively, is just about impossible.