Taking The Lord's Supper At Amusement
Parks, Camps And Ad Hoc Devotionals
Jay Horsley
We establish the day to observe the Lord's Supper by the example of the apostle Paul when he visited the congregation at Troas. This example establishes that the Lord's Supper is to be taken only on the Lord's Day. Only the most liberal among our brethren do not hold the pattern regarding the day on which to take the Supper.
But there is more in Acts 20:7 than just the day. The place of observance was also given. The Supper was taken “when we were gathered.” Who was gathered? The saints. The Lord's Day gathering of the saints is the only place for the Lord's Supper.
Because we recognize that the Lord's Day assembly is the place to take the Lord Supper we have long taught against the “take it with you” practice. Some brethren mistakenly take the Lord Supper with them to their lakeside fishing camps or wherever their journeys take them on Sundays. In the past, this has largely been an individual practice. But a new trend is developing. Whole groups of brethren are forsaking the assembly of the saints and taking the Lord's Supper wherever they happen to be.
Item #1: Lord's Supper At Silver Dollar City. The Silver Dollar City amusement park in Branson, MO, hosts a two day “Church of Christ Weekend” each October. Aside from the regular attractions of the park, it will “feature appearances by our colleges' a cappella groups, congregational singing on new and traditional hymns, plus an inspiring Sunday morning worship service.” (Quoted from promotional mailing.) Why bother to the leave the amusements of the park for Sunday worship? Just worship on site. Amusement seekers, don't feel bad about not visiting local brethren, just join the other travelers inside the park. Sing, pray, take the Lord's Supper there.
Some won't understand our objection to this. when brethren gather together on the Lord's Day to worship, that's the place for the Lord's Supper, right? No. Consider Paul's teaching to the Corinthians:
From this we learn: 1.) Instructions about the Supper relate to “when you come together as a church.” (vs. 18) 2.) They had corrupted the Supper to the point that “Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper.” (vs. 20) They were not eating the Lord's Supper when they came together as a church, but they should have been.
What is the pattern? The only authorized place to take the Lord's Supper is in the assembly of the church on the Lord's Day. We must respect the place as well as the day and the elements.
While we might explain the unauthorized taking of the Lord's Supper at an amusement park as the practice of liberal brethren, there are some of our own who seem equally uniformed concerning the uniqueness of the church as the place for the Lord's Supper.
Item #2: Lord's Supper At The Florida College Dry Creek Summer Camp. On Sunday morning, June 9, 2002, a number of brethren associated with the FC Dry Creek camp in Louisiana did not attend the worship of any local congregation. This group, several gospel preachers included, had instead a devotional service at the camp with singing, prayer and the Lord's Supper.
This camp, and other FC Booster Club summer camps, are intended to be a “time with friends and family of `like precious faith,'” (FC Chicagoland Camp website: http://members.aol.com/fcbooster/Camp.html) to show “a strong emphasis on our relationship with God,” and “Our goal is to create an atmosphere of high values and love of Christ.” (Arkansas FC Camp website: http://www.geocities.com/fcarkansascamp/2.htm) Some of Dry Creek's sister camps even stress that all participants will travel to nearby local congregations for Wednesday Evening Bible Study. Obviously forsaking assembly with the saints is not necessarily a part of summer camp.
If these camps are not faith building, the reason parents take their children to them largely ceases. But at Dry Creek this year, there was a definite, if unintentional, de-emphasis on the uniqueness and importance of the church. This wrong emphasis was compounded by the lack a sermon at the Sunday morning camp devotional.
Yet it is not only the young that are imperfect in their knowledge and practice regarding the Lord's Supper.
Item #3. Traveling Christians. Some Christians with the time and money to travel, go to the Holy Lands or other interesting places. Sometimes they go in group tours, and whole tour groups can be entirely made up of Christians. Nothing is wrong with this anymore than something is wrong with Christian youths meeting at summer camp. But travel itineraries, especially oversees, can take Christians far from any congregation of the Lord's people. So devotional services are often held on Sundays, complete with the Lord's Supper. This is no more authorized than taking the Supper at camp or Silver Dollar City.
Occasionally, something even worse happens. Because those who take the Lord's Supper at devotionals think that such worship sufficient, they do not seek out local Christians when meeting with them is possible. In the early 90's I know a case of a tour group of Christians in Frankfurt, Germany on the Lord's Day that made no effort to meet with the local brethren who met in the suburbs. They took the Supper at their hotel. Thus, not only was the Lord's Supper taken in an unauthorized place, any chance to encourage fellow saints of like precious faith was lost.
Some argue that changing full travel itineraries in order to meet with the saints is very inconvenient. It may be. But far outweighing the inconvenience to our schedules is fellowship with local saints. I have worked with small, isolated congregations both in America and overseas. The joy and encouragement we received from fellowship with visitors of like precious faith was like a lifeline to us, a reminder that we were not alone in our Christian struggles. Culture differences and even language barriers were overcome so that we could worship the Lord together and commune as one people in the Lord's family. What a loss that would have been for us if our visitors had decided that coming to worship with us, when it possible, was unnecessary or just too inconvenient. And what encouragement they would have lost from us if they'd stayed at the hotel.
Truly there are times when it is not possible to assembly with the saints on the Lord's Day. The Lord knows this as well as we do. Some think that the Lord's Supper is so important that we have to take it, even though we aren't at the place for taking it. But do these same people ever take a collection? If not, why not? Is giving to the Lord less important than communing with Him? Whatever reason is sufficient to excuse from the fellowship of the saints, to miss the proclamation of God's word, to not engage in the singing of praises to His name with the brethren and to omit the prayers that are offered together, is surely equally sufficient to also excuse you from the Lord's Supper.
Some place such an iconic, sacramental importance on the Lord's Supper that they view it as the primary, or even only, reason to meet on Sunday's. This misplaced emphasis leads them to take the Supper at camps, parks and hotels even while they are miss the assembling of the saints. But ask yourself, “Is commemorating the Lord's death more important than meeting with the people that He died for?”
Let's always remember that the complete pattern is:“when you come together as a church...on the first day of the week...gathered together to break bread.”