Skip to content

Add your phone number?

Optional. Nothing is sent unless you choose it.
The Historic Faith
Sign in

Jumpstarter 6 of 10

Ideas to help restart your discussion
Encounter Messages  /  The Lord’s Supper: What Unifies Us?  /  Discussion Questions
All Questions
Question 6
Kyle says that letting anyone take communion, baptized or not, gives something sacred as common, much like casting pearls to swine. Why is that claim uncomfortable for churches with an open table, and how should a congregation respond to it?
Another way to ask: Kyle says letting anyone take communion treats something holy as common, like throwing pearls to pigs. Why is that hard to hear for churches with an open table, and how should a church respond?

Direct Answer

It is uncomfortable because it says an open table, however welcoming it feels, treats something sacred as common. Kyle does not give detailed steps for a congregation, so the response is left for the group to work out.

Support from the Message

- Kyle borrows the words of Jesus about casting pearls to swine and giving what is holy to dogs. - He describes churches that set the elements out or pass the plate, with no discernment on who is partaking. - He says the result is no oversight and no guarding of the table, whether a person is baptized or not. - He connects this to memorialism, which he says strips communion of the spiritual and leaves it without weightiness. - Justin Martyr's limits on who may partake are his early church example.

Discussion Follow-up

Has your own church made communion feel common, even without meaning to? What small change could help people treat the table as sacred?

Jumpstarter 6 of 10
Back Questions Next