{"id":2578,"date":"2011-08-26T06:00:37","date_gmt":"2011-08-26T12:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2578"},"modified":"2011-08-26T00:31:38","modified_gmt":"2011-08-26T06:31:38","slug":"communion-who-has-better-table-manners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/?p=2578","title":{"rendered":"Communion: Who Has Better Table Manners?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/code>In a provocative post<\/a>, Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology at my alma mater, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, argues that Baptist churches who practice what is known as “closed communion”<\/em> actually win the prize for best table manners.\u00a0 From what I gathered from his article, if you practice communion any other way but closed, you are doctrinally sloppy.<\/p>\n

While I disagree with Dr. Moore’s argument, I certainly can appreciate his clarity in presenting it.\u00a0\u00a0There is no question as to where Dr. Moore stands on this issue.\u00a0\u00a0He is free, as the\u00a0Teaching Pastor of Highview Baptist Church in Louisville, to “fence the\u00a0table” according to how he interprets Scripture in regard to the observance of the Lord’s Supper.\u00a0 However, his interpretation is not binding on any\u00a0other church\u00a0apart from his own.\u00a0 One of the wonderful principles which make Southern Baptists who we are as a Convention (not denomination) of churches is that\u00a0no person\u00a0— no matter the position\u00a0he or she holds — \u00a0nor\u00a0any entity — whether the SBC, State Convention, or local Association —\u00a0\u00a0can exercise any ecclesiastical authority over the local church.<\/p>\n

While belief in the\u00a0autonomy of the local church remains\u00a0strong (as of now), there are\u00a0always going to be assaults on this cherished\u00a0principle.\u00a0 Some of those will be direct, but more often than\u00a0not, most of the assaults will be indirect.\u00a0 While I do not believe that Dr. Moore is seeking to violate the principle of autonomy\u00a0that the overwhelming majority of\u00a0Southern Baptists hold dear, I do believe there is always the danger of either trying to\u00a0weaken autonomy or,\u00a0in the case of\u00a0Dr. Nathan Finn of Southeastern Seminary, to so redefine autonomy that it loses its plain and generally accepted meaning<\/a> (at least as far as many Southern Baptists see it).<\/p>\n

In his argument for closed communion, Dr. Moore relies more upon Baptist history than Scripture.\u00a0 I can understand why that is the case.\u00a0 It would be much harder to bolster an argument from Scripture which supports closed communion as the ONLY way to practice this ordinance.\u00a0 Of course, one could make a compelling case that closed communion — which requires a person be baptized by immersion following their confession of faith (i.e., “believers baptism by immersion”) — is one of SEVERAL acceptable models for observing the Lord’s Supper.<\/p>\n

But, that is not the case that Dr. Moore is attempting to make.\u00a0 Rather, through the language he uses in his article, Dr. Moore attempts to\u00a0convince all Southern Baptists that the only healthy, doctrinally sound way of taking communion is the way that he has proscribed at Highview — closed communion.\u00a0 However, Dr. Moore defines “open communion”<\/em> in such a way that unless one has undergone believer’s baptism by immersion — regardless of whether or not the person has been “born again” — that there has been no valid baptism and therefore no opportunity to participate in the Lord’s Supper, at least in a Southern Baptist church.<\/p>\n

I believe that Dr. Moore’s definition of “open communion” (which he\u00a0views as “just too narrow and sectarian” for him), distorts how many (most?) Southern Baptists — especially outside the deep south —\u00a0 practice the Lord’s Supper observance.\u00a0 For the church where I serve as Senior Pastor, I likewise “fence the table.”\u00a0 Those who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ — who have trusted Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord because of what He did on the Cross of Calvary for their sins — and have been born-again are welcome to participate.\u00a0 However, those who have never received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord and who have\u00a0never placed their faith and trust in Him should\u00a0refrain from taking the elements as they pass by.\u00a0 I will typically repeat those words verbatim prior to each quarterly observance of the Lord’s Supper.<\/p>\n

I understand that Dr. Moore and others would erect a higher fence around the table.\u00a0 How our church practices communion is not “open communion” in the sense that anyone and everyone — regardless of their personal relationship with Jesus Christ — is welcome to partake.\u00a0 For Dr. Moore, there seems to be no middle ground.\u00a0 It’s either closed or open.\u00a0 And, for churches who practice open communion, Dr. Moore apparently thinks that these churches do not hold the Lord’s Supper in as high a regard as those churches which practice closed communion:<\/p>\n

\n
First of all, open communion usually rests on the all-too-typical Evangelical
\npresumption that the Lord\u2019s Supper really isn\u2019t that important. Communion is, as Flannery O\u2019Connor\u2019s infamous socialite conversation-partner once put it, \u201ca wonderful symbol\u201d but that\u2019s about it. (full article here<\/a>)<\/em><\/strong><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n
I can’t speak for any other Southern Baptist church which practices a “modified open communion,”<\/em> but I would venture to guess that very\u00a0few, if any, of these churches view the Lord’s Supper in the dismissive way that Dr. Moore seems to imply.\u00a0\u00a0And, just because a church does not hold to closed communion does not mean that the church somehow views the ordinance with anything other than the “profound gravity”<\/em> which the Lord’s Table\u00a0commands.<\/div>\n
\n
In the end, Dr. Moore seems to acknowledge that his authority on the matter of communion is somewhat limited in scope:<\/div>\n
\n

If I attend the church of my Eastern Orthodox colleague Father Pat Reardon, I have the right to disagree (and I do) about what happens in Holy Communion. I don\u2019t have the right to set the terms for his congregation as to whether they should receive me at the table. The same would be true in the parishes of my Anglican and Catholic friends. And the reverse would be the case should a respected\u2014but infant-sprinkled\u2014Christian hero be seated in the pews of my church.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dr. Moore’s leadership of Highview and his position on the Lord’s Supper as it is practiced in his church should be respected.\u00a0 But, Dr. Moore, as he has well stated, does not have the right to set the terms for any other congregation as to who they receive at the Lord’s Table.\u00a0 And, that’s true, not just for Eastern Orthodox or Anglican or Catholic parishes, but for Southern Baptist congregations as well.\u00a0 Autonomy of the local church — ya gotta love it!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a provocative post, Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology at my alma mater, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, argues that Baptist churches who practice what is known as “closed communion” actually win the prize for best table manners.\u00a0 From what I gathered from his article, if you practice communion any other way…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[107,8,35,37,39],"tags":[108,1319,1328,1326,489,552,620,1327,625,1321,1322,1320,1323,1324,917,921,1325],"class_list":["post-2578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autonomy","category-christianity","category-religion","category-southern-baptist-convention","category-theology","tag-autonomy-of-the-local-church","tag-closed-communion","tag-cooperative-autonomy","tag-dr-nathan-finn","tag-highview-baptist-church","tag-jesus-christ","tag-lords-supper","tag-lords-table","tag-louisville","tag-modified-open-communion","tag-obervance-of-the-lords-supper","tag-open-communion","tag-ordinance-of-the-lords-supper","tag-russell-d-moore","tag-southeastern-seminary","tag-southern-seminary","tag-the-southern-baptist-theological-seminary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LP7G-FA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2578"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2593,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2578\/revisions\/2593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromlaw2grace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}