SHOULD COMMUNION BE OBSERVED DURING A  FELLOWSHIP MEAL?

Dear Bro. Waddey:

Did the early Christians partake of the Lord's Supper as they shared their love feasts?   Franklin B.

Dear Bro.Franklin:

We do have people in the change movement who are saying that the Lord's Supper should be observed as part of a fellowship meal with everyone sharing their ordinary foods....what we call a potluck meal.  If you wish to see this advocated, you can read Bro. John Mark Hicks book, Come to the Table.  The Woodmont Hills church in Nashville was his laboratory experiment for this novel approach. In his view all  Christians, non-Christians, little children etc. are to share the communion as they eat their meal with joy and laughter.  Others have tried out his proposals.  A review of his book can be seen on my website at www.christianity-then-and-now.com.

As I read I Cor. 11:20-22, I see Paul mentioning three kinds of meals. 1). The Lord's Supper (vs.20); 2). Meals that should be eaten together (vs.21)...these I would take to be their love feasts or fellowship meals which you mention (Jude 12); 3). Meals that should be eaten at home (vs.22).  As I understand these verses, they were confounding the Lord's Supper and their fellowship gatherings. In those gatherings some of them  were selfish or thoughtless.  They had abundance but did not share their bounty with those who had little. Also they ate to excess.  They would not even wait until everyone was present for the meal and thus they ate before others arrived (11: 33-34). Their conduct revealed their lack of love and oneness as God's people (vs.22b). The apostle indicates that this was the result of "divisions" that existed among them (vs.18). Paul's rebuke, seems to say that those only interested in filling their bellies, with no thought of others, should do their eating at home.  Mixing the Lord's Supper with their common meal had further complicated their misbehavior.  In fact it was impossible for them to properly commune in such circumstances.  By eating their common meals at home, and separating such from the Lord's Supper, their coming together would not be "unto judgment" (11: 34).  His strong rebuke, "What, have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God" seems to be sufficient warning for us not to mix the sacred meal and the fellowship type of meal.