How often does your LCMS Church celebrate the Lord's Supper?

[John Becht]

My LCMS Church has the Lord's Supper every week. Does anybody go to an LCMS Church that doesn't have weekly communion but is working on having weekly communion?

 

[theoneandonlypencil]

I don't go to the LCMS church specifically, but I do go to an Evangelical Lutheran church in my area and we have communion every week.

 

[tampasteve]

My ELCA church has it every service. The LCMS church I attended for a little while had it at one service a week. They have three services and rotate which one has communion.

 

[TKA_TN]

My LCMS church has 3 services on Sunday. Traditional at 8, Blended (still Liturgical) at 9:30, and Contemporary at 11. 8am service does Holy Communion on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month. 9:30 and 11 do Holy Communion on the 1st and 3rd Sundays. So you could receive it every week if you wanted to, but if you go to the same service every week, you'll receive it every other week.

Almost forgot, 2nd and 4th Wednesdays as well.

I wish it was every Sunday for every service, but I don't make that call.

 

[Sam Davis]

My Church (LCMS) has communion on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Sundays. My Dad is an elder and I know that the elders and pastor have discussed weekly communion.

 

[illudium_phosdex]

My LCMS has three services; a contemporary acoustic service on Saturday night, a traditional service at 8:30 am on Sunday and a contemporary service with all the bells and whistles at 11 am. All three services have communion.

 

[FaithT]

My LCMS Church has the Lord's Supper every week. Does anybody go to an LCMS Church that doesn't have weekly communion but is working on having weekly communion?

We have it on the first and third Sunday of the month. I wish it was weekly but I don’t think they’re planning on changing it.

 

[Athanasias]

I have a honest question? If Lutheran Churches hold to the Jesus real presence in the Eucharist then why don't all Lutheran Churches have Eucharist every week at every Sunday service? Wouldn't you want that? That is what all the early Church did as they held to the real presence as well. Just curious?

 

[TKA_TN]

That’s a great question. I’ve wanted to ask my pastor about this for a while, but never gotten the chance to. I honestly wish my church would have a daily chapel service and offer Holy Communion every day of the week.

 

[FaithT]

Our pastor said something like it’s too hard to get people to participate handing it out weekly. I think it’s an excuse.

 

[tampasteve]

I have a honest question? If Lutheran Churches hold to the Jesus real presence in the Eucharist then why don't all Lutheran Churches have Eucharist every week at every Sunday service? Wouldn't you want that? That is what all the early Church did as they held to the real presence as well. Just curious?

I honestly have never heard a actually good excuse. The usual reasons I have heard are "it costs too much", "it takes too much time", "it takes too many people's time to do (setting up, cleaning up, etc.)" and the typical Protestant "people will get to 'familiar' with it and take it for granted". Some of those reasons *could* be decent reasons for not having a daily Eucharist, but I think it is hard to make them "stick" for a Sunday service.

In the end I do not think there is really a good reason, but I would like to hear some of the others. The Lutheran Liturgy is designed to include it, when it is removed the liturgy becomes. truncated and lacks....something. At the LCMS church I attended the non-Eucharistic services were short, usually around 45 min or so, so it was not like they took it out to add more Gospel or something.

 

[Shane R]

Our pastor said something like it’s too hard to get people to participate handing it out weekly. I think it’s an excuse.

I don't believe most people should participate weekly but I believe the opportunity to do so should exist. I don't think most people put much self examination into the exercise.

 

[LizaMarie]

I honestly have never heard a actually good excuse. The usual reasons I have heard are "it costs too much", "it takes too much time", "it takes too many people's time to do (setting up, cleaning up, etc.)" and the typical Protestant "people will get to 'familiar' with it and take it for granted". Some of those reasons *could* be decent reasons for not having a daily Eucharist, but I think it is hard to make them "stick" for a Sunday service.

In the end I do not think there is really a good reason, but I would like to hear some of the others. The Lutheran Liturgy is designed to include it, when it is removed the liturgy becomes. truncated and lacks....something. At the LCMS church I attended the non-Eucharistic services were short, usually around 45 min or so, so it was not like they took it out to add more Gospel or something.

I really agree with this. The Lutheran liturgy IS made to include the Eucharist.
Our church celebrates every other week. For all the reasons you mentioned.

 

[tampasteve]

For the other services that have the Eucharist removed, are your pastors replacing it with more preaching, worship songs, etc. or are they just having a shorter service? Typically I have seen the service is just shortened by 15-20 minutes, which really doesn't make sense and makes one think the real reason that part of the liturgy is removed is to shorten the service time. I feel that if the Eucharist is going to be removed it should be replaced with more worship or something edifying for that service.

 

[LizaMarie]

Our service is shortened a bit. We have a small church so celebrating communion doesn't take a lot of time. Many years ago in the late 80's early 90's I attended an ELCA church which had several thousand members in a larger city. We had 5 pastors one senior pastor and associates. There was a main large sanctuary with 3 services on Sunday and a weekly communion service Saturday night in an adjoining chapel. Communion was not done every Sunday to my recollection but you could get it weekly if you went to the Saturday night service. In my small WELS church the previous pastor we had wanted weekly communion but some members and some council members did not. Some wanted it once a month!! We compromised have have it every other week. Of course I was in the weekly camp and even offered to help with take down and set up.

 

[TKA_TN]

For the other services that have the Eucharist removed, are your pastors replacing it with more preaching, worship songs, etc. or are they just having a shorter service? Typically I have seen the service is just shortened by 15-20 minutes, which really doesn't make sense and makes one think the real reason that part of the liturgy is removed is to shorten the service time. I feel that if the Eucharist is going to be removed it should be replaced with more worship or something edifying for that service.

Nothing is added in ours, unless a Baptism takes place. We have 3 services on Sunday, so it must be a time-saver to make sure it doesn't run over too much. But still doesn't add up, because when we finish our 9:30 service with Holy Communion, it's around 10:40-45. We aren't a big church so everyone clears out by 10:50-55. And the 11 service takes place in the church gym since it's a contemporary service.

 

[Nova Scotian Boy]

Twice on Sundays, once on Wednesday and on festival days.