pat loughery

Our church takes communion together on the first Sunday of the month as a general rule; sometimes more often. This weekend we tried something different. One of our crew, 70-year-old Lou, who comes from a charismatic Lutheran background, mentioned that in a previous church they gave people the elements of communion and prayed for them, inviting God to speak prophetically in that moment. He’s gifted in this way, so we tried it out.

We normally read 1 Cor 12’s section on communion and talk about our celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. We practice what I believe is called an open table; everybody who wants to partake of communion can. We encourage families to partake together; children can join in as well. (It’s my heartfelt belief that we should err on the side of generosity in inviting people to partake in unity with Christ and his people). We describe Jesus’ last passover meal and some of the meaning behind it, and then invite people to come forward and take the bread and juice as they are ready.

This time we asked people to come forward in two lines – one for bread, one for juice, two of us would love to pray God’s blessings for you; and if you wouldn’t identify themselves as Christian and don’t want to take communion, we’d love to pray for you also.

The time was special, holy. God spoke encouragement to his people; several people told us that what we were sending and speaking, or praying over them was spot-on.

We have some details to work out to speed up this portion of the worship gathering a bit, but I think it’s a keeper. It’s very helpful to include more intimate prayer in what we’re trying to do together.