Guests and Holy Communion
We joyfully welcome guests and visitors at Eternal Life. We hope your visit will be a blessing to you, as your presence will be a blessing to us.
To help you prepare for your visit, we would like to make you aware of our Communion practice here at Eternal Life. If you have any questions about it, please feel free to contact our pastor by phone or email prior to your visit.
Below is our congregation’s Communion statement, as it is printed each week in the worship bulletin:
As Missouri Synod Lutherans, we believe the Lord’s Supper is Christ’s gift to the Church. St. Paul writes, “For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.’ For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
St. Paul continues, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.” (1 Corinthians 11:23–29, ESV)
Accordingly, the Lord’s Supper is celebrated at this congregation in the confession and glad confidence that, as He says, our Lord gives into our mouths not only bread and wine but His very body and blood to eat and to drink for the forgiveness of sins and to strengthen our union with Him and with one another. Our Lord invites to His table those who trust His words, repent of all sin, and set aside any refusal to forgive and love as He forgives and loves us, that they may show forth His death until He comes.
Because those who eat and drink our Lord’s body and blood unworthily do so to their great harm and because Holy Communion is a confession of the faith which is confessed at this altar, any who are not yet instructed, in doubt, or who hold a confession differing from that of this congregation and The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, and yet desire to receive the sacrament, are asked first to speak with the pastor or an elder. (For further study, see Matthew 5:23f.; 10:32f.; 18:15–35; 26:26–29; 1 Corinthians 11:17–34.)
Concerning the distribution of the Lord’s Supper, if you would like to receive Holy Communion in your pew, please notify the pastor or an usher. Gluten-free communion hosts are available; please inform the pastor (before the service, if possible) if you would like to receive one. Wine with alcohol removed is found in the center of each communion tray for those with allergies or sensitivities. If you are not receiving Holy Communion but would like to receive a blessing from the pastor, please cross your arms over your chest at the communion rail.
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For additional information about the practice of Close(d) Communion, please click on the link below for an article from former LCMS President Rev. A. L. Barry:
What About Fellowship in the Lord's Supper?
