We are getting ready to make some important changes in our children’s ministry regarding communion. A little background — we as a church do communion weekly. In the children’s worship for elementary children used to do communion weekly as well. As our ministry is growing larger and larger, it was becoming difficult to determine which children took communion, which didn’t, not making anyone feel left out, or allowing the child to take it when the parent’s weren’t ready for them to. We believe that communion is something taken by Christians, those who have professed Jesus as Lord and have a relationship with him, being saved and baptized. Anyways, as I stated it was becoming increasingly more difficult. For an adult, you can understand that communion is something you do when your heart is in the right place, for a child – you need concrete terms and we used the symbol of baptism as such. Which inevitably led to some feeling left out, etc. etc. etc….. So, for a few months now, the responsibility of communion is on the parents. Children are in adult worship the first Sunday of the month, which provides a great opportunity for them to take communion. In Sept. we are making a change that will have children not in adult church. Therefore, this opportunity is not there.
As a result of this, and to esteem parents in the spiritual formation of their child, we are creating a Family Communion Room. This room will be available after chuch for families to visit together to share in the Lord’s Supper. There will be scripture and devotional prompts each week they can use as a springboard for discussion with their child.
I really missed not doing communion as a group with the children because it was such a rich teaching opportunity. We talked frankly about it, answered the questions the kids had, and really were able to get deep. However, I think this is a great opportunity for parents to take the lead in their child’s spiritual development. They can be the teacher. For some families, this might be the only time in a week they open the Bible together. We don’t know if it’ll work, but it’s worth trying!
How do your children take communion? Is it a First Wednesday type thing? What does your church do? I’d love feedback on this!