Communion - Behind the Scenes

I really enjoyed Sunday's celebration of the Bread & The Cup. Since being exposed to the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches, it's always seemed odd that Communion celebrations were such a big deal (footwashing, Bread/Cup and Love Feast), but were only celebrated not even a handful of times a year. Through my upbringing, I was more accustomed to celebrating the Bread/Cup on a monthly basis. When you celebrate Communion on a monthly basis, odds are that out of the 12 times it's celebrated in a year, there's bound to be some bloopers...

I recall celebrating Communion with a group of missionaries in the Philippines, can't remember the occassion for all of us being assembled, but that's not the important part. Now, you have to realize that Welch's didn't export to the Philippines at the time and that grapes don't do well in a tropical climate. What we called grape juice, was made from some sort of extract that, other than being the color purple, hardly resembled grape juice. The Communion celebration was traditional and routine. As is the practice of some groups, we all took the elements corporately. The silence of reflection and the reverence of the moment were disrupted as all of us, in corporate unison, started choking on the juice. See, apparently, someone didn't realize or thought it might be more grape juice-like to use straight concentrate! It was hilarious to hear all of use coughing in corporate response.

One of the churches we attended for a while was Pastored by men from several different denominations and the church served a wide-breadth of people from various religious backgrounds. So when they celebrated Communion, the trays contained both grape juice and wine. The Christian School I attended required us to sign a pledge each year and one of the components of the pledge was that we would not consume alcohol. Little did I know, on a Sunday when we were a little late getting to church, thus sitting in the back of the church, did I ever consider that these two forces would come colliding together. The section in which we were seated must've been a juice section because by the time the trays reached our row, only wine was left! Needless to stay, I stuck by the pledge and only celebrated the Bread that Sunday.

Finally, I was visiting the church my college roommate attended and as the usher handed the tray of grape juice to the next row...

The whole thing dumped...

Right into the lap of the woman who was on the end of the row...

Who happened to be dressed to the nines...

In an all-white outfit.

Talk about disrupting the reverence of the moment.


And if you think that Communion preparation has not become an entire production, check out what Tim and I came across at the WFX Conference last fall. We were so fascinated by it, we had to go talk to them to find out more and we captured it on video to share just with you. Meet the Wilfred and Merlita Greenlee.