One of the things that I like about the current church we go to is the fact that they do communion every week. The non-denominational church we attended in Philadelphia for a few years also did communion every week but it’s actually very uncommon outside of traditional churches (like Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran or more traditional Presbyterian). Many "high" churches will actually do it almost every time the church meets, so often during the week as well or for special/holiday services. Personally, I feel doing it more than once a week is more unnecessary, but I can appreciate their desire to be consistent on this point.
Acts 2:46: “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts…” While they went to the Temple daily, it’s not as clear as to the frequency or practicalities of “breaking bread”. This is also at the very beginning of the Church so they had yet to develop any kind of clear organization or pattern, so it is very possible that they did break bread whenever they were able to gather together.
Acts 20:11: Paul is speaking to the church in Troas that had gathered for worship "on the first day of the week" and they “broke bread and ate”. This seems to be what they did on a weekly basis. (Based on Scripture and very early church history, gathering on first day of the week very quickly became the norm and breaking of bread was always a part of it.)
In 1 Corinthians 11 we have the only time the Lord’s Supper is clearly addressed in the Epistles. Paul is correcting some abuses, including the fact that the wealthier Corinthians were not waiting for everyone to eat, nor sharing their food with the poor (likely even segregating themselves from them). It does seem that the communion time was a whole meal centered around the bread and the cup – similar to the Passover which was also a whole meal. It’s also evident here that the Lord’s Supper happened often, “when you come together as a church” (assumption then is weekly, on the first day of the week, see also 1 Cor 16:1-2). Paul warns them not to partake “unworthily,” which in the immediate context refers to the division they were causing, since a big emphasis of the Lord’s supper is the unity of the body. How can you partake of the Lord’s supper if there is disunity in your heart or otherwise towards a fellow Christian? (Note: I think there could absolutely be room for “unworthily” including sin in general, I’m just pointing out the immediate context here.)
There are some Christian groups that still think that the Lord’s supper should be connected with an actual meal, but when Christ instituted the sacrament, it is “after supper” and he is referring very specifically to just the bread and the cup. (Of course, I’m all for fellowship meals since eating together is a great way to fellowship, serve and be together as a church family, it’s just not necessary.)
I would argue that the early church probably didn’t do communion every time they had a gathering of some kind. For example, if a small group was gathered for prayer (like when Peter was imprisoned in Acts 12)) or they had a church meeting (Acts 15). Of course, it doesn’t say they did or didn’t, but it does seem that very quickly the pattern became that they broke bread for their main weekly gathering. Early church tradition reinforces this.
Why then do most Protestant churches only do communion once a month? Does not Scriptures indicate that communion MORE often is more likely than having it LESS often? Below are two common reasons I have heard for not doing it at least weekly:
- It’s not necessary to do it every week.
If by “necessary” you mean “clearly required,” I guess there is no clear command in Scripture that says “do this every week”. However, Paul does seem to indicate a pattern of this happening on a weekly basis and furthermore he says, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes." (1 Cor 11:26). So the question is: How often should we be remembering and “proclaiming” the Lord’s death? Is this not to be a central part of our worship together as a Church? Are you really going to insist that it is not necessary for Christians to “share in the Lord’s death” or “proclaim the Lord’s death” at least weekly when you gather together?
- Doing communion too often turns it into a ritual or makes it not as “special”.
This is the most common excuse. I say excuse, because that’s still what it is. Because anything can become ritualistic if we’re not careful. Every church has traditions, every church has things they do “just because that’s how we do it” but we don’t get all concerned about other things becoming a “ritual”. While this might seem like an understandable concern, ultimately we should be more concerned about doing what Scripture says, not avoiding it out of concerns of mis-use. The church in Corinth was absolutely abusing the Lord’s Supper… that was serious. But the solution to this was not to avoid it or do it less often, it was to strive to take it more seriously. So, Biblically, taking it “seriously” does NOT mean you do it less often.
- It makes the service longer, more complicated, more work/money.
I resort to above arguments. If these are your excuses, you're in danger of possibly being lazy and/or plain disobedient.
I’d love to see the Church at large have the Lord’s Supper weekly. Pray about it and consider the importance Scripture lays on it. Whether you take a sacramental view or a memorial view it’s meaningful and important. And it’s the pattern we see in Scripture as well as very early Church history.
On a side note: those who take communion should also be baptized. This is also the pattern in Scripture, and it's also very clear in early church history that new converts were not allowed to take the Lord's Supper prior to baptism.
