Virtual Communion
UPDATE: You can hear Joe and Jimmy talk through this issue in an episode of Doctrine and Devotion here.
The recent COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent quarantines that have hindered the assembly of local churches have led many churches to adopt online practices to serve their people. Skype and Zoom meetings have allowed small groups to stay connected. Streaming video of the reading and preaching of Scripture, and even singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs have quickly become the new, and hopefully temporary, normal. There is now a growing trend of churches offering virtual communion while church members are separated from one another. Fellowship Church in Texas even encourages their people to use whatever elements they have at hand. Even orange juice and toast. Of course, this isn’t something totally new, as Saddleback Church in California has long encouraged members who cannot be present for the Lord’s Supper to participate at home. We have had a few people at our church as well ask if we could observe communion virtually.
Because the context in which the Lord’s Supper was observed in the first century was when local churches gathered together, and because of the warnings and actions of God against those who partake of the ordinance in an unworthy manner, and because of God’s charge to leaders to exercise oversight and discipline during the observance of this ordinance, it is only when the local church is assembled, with the oversight of the elders, that we can properly observe this ordinance.
The Lord's Supper was not simply given to Christians, but to the church and is to be shared in by the body (1 Cor. 10:16). Consider what the Apostle Paul says,
But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part, for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized. When you come together, it is not the Lord's supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.
1 Cor. 11:17-22
In this passage Paul indicates that to "come together" is not just any gathering, but the gathering of a church itself. In fact in verse 22 he contrasts the formal gathering of the church with people returning to their own homes. There were serious problems in the church, especially as it relates to this sacred tradition. Paul is addressing those issues and in doing so he shows us where the problems took place--where the church gathered together. The Second London Confession expresses this view, that the Lord's Supper is to be observed in the church.
The supper of the Lord Jesus was instituted by him the same night wherein he was betrayed, to be observed in his churches, unto the end of the world, for the perpetual remembrance, and showing to all the world the sacrifice of himself in his death, confirmation of the faith of believers in all the benefits thereof, their spiritual nourishment, and growth in him, their further engagement in, and to all duties which they owe to him; and to be a bond and pledge of their communion with him, and with each other.
The Abstract of Principles (1859) also states the same plainly.
The Lord’s Supper is an ordinance of Jesus Christ, to be administered with the elements of bread and the fruit of the vine, and to be observed by His churches till the end of the world. It is in no sense a sacrifice, but is designed to commemorate His death, to confirm the faith and other graces of Christians, and to be a bond, pledge and renewal of their communion with Him, and of their church fellowship. (Mt. 26:26-27; 1 Cor. 10:16-17; 11:23-26)
- XVI. The Lord’s Supper
Because this is an ordinance given to the church it is to be administered or overseen by the elders of the church. This was at the heart of the problem in the Corinthian church. Not only had the membership gone off the rails with the sacrament, there wasn't proper oversight by leadership.
These holy appointments are to be administered by those only who are qualified and thereunto called, according to the commission of Christ.
1689 Second London Confession, 28.2
The Lord Jesus hath, in this ordinance, appointed his ministers to pray, and bless the elements of bread and wine, and thereby to set them apart from a common to a holy use, and to take and break the bread; to take the cup, and, they communicating also themselves, to give both to the communicants.
1689 Second London Confession, 30.3
This is why we only observe communion when we are assembled together as a church. I understand that this is not everyone's conviction. I also get that it isn't as plainly stated in Scripture as some would like. The Scripture doesn't explicitly say, "No communion outside of the assembly." But it always presents communion as being an assembly experience.
All of this, coupled with our responsibility to operate as closely as we can to Scripture and the principles therein, should leads us to observing communion only in the assembly.
This article was adapted from Joe Thorn’s book, The Character of the Church.