At what point do you become a part of the Body of Christ – when you are baptized or when you make a public profession of your faith? Do we receive God’s grace when we understand how God forgives sin or when we trust that He has forgiven our sin? Who can truly understand how sinful they are and how much they need a Savior? Can children? These questions are complicated enough when you take them one at a time. But there is another question that requires an answer to these questions before it can be answered.

Our denomination, the Christian Reformed Church in North America, is in the process of seeking the answer to this question. A Faith Formation Committee has been hard at work searching through Scripture, Church History, and our creeds and confessions to determine at what age and in what manner may people participate in the Lord’s Supper.  It is a really a question of when faith begins, how faith and the Lord’s Supper relate to each other and what it means to celebrate Communion with reverence. I won’t go into the whole discussion, but if you’d like to look into it, the Committee has a website with lots of thought-provoking articles! I will say that they’re leaning toward a recommendation that admits children to the Lord’s Supper based on their baptism rather than their public Profession of Faith. The responsibility to “nurture grateful and obedient participation” would rest first with the parents of the child, then with the Elders of the church.

Our congregation is not quite there yet. Last night, the Council updated our policy on Children at Communion. In summary, when a child expresses interest in celebrating the Lord’s Supper:

1. we ask the parents to explain what the sacrament means and determine whether the child has true faith;
2. we expect the child to take a short class that helps them to think specifically about the Lord’s Supper and how it fits in the life of the church and in the lives of individual Christians;
3. we have the child meet with an Elder to profess their faith in Jesus Christ and to explain why they want to participate in the Lord’s Supper;
4. the Elder can then recommend to the Council that the child be admitted to participation in Communion;
5. the child will be welcomed in an age-appropriate way during a worship service to participate in the Lord’s Supper.

We realize that there are children at Bethel who are participating in the Lord’s Supper who have not gone through the entire process. We also understand that the primary responsibility for educating children in the faith lies with the parents. And we desire to unify the practices within our congregation so that each child who partakes of the bread and juice during a worship service has been instructed in the sacrament and acknowledged before the congregation as a person who is living by faith in Jesus Christ.

If your child has expressed an interest in participating in the sacrament of Communion, we will be holding a class on Sunday, January 17, 2010 during the Sunday School hour. Let me know if your child is interested in coming!