How Are Communion Elements Prepared?

Question from a Site Viewer
How are the communion elements prepared for communion?

Tim’s Answer
There is no uniform answer to your question. Each church group tends to have a different procedure. The Bible does not prescribe any particular procedure for preparing the communion elements. Jesus took unleavened bread, gave thanks for it, broke it, and gave it to His disciples. The wine was the standard Passover cup of wine taken after the supper. What most churches do is to give thanks for the bread and the wine and then partake of communion. Some go beyond this with certain more formal ceremonies in the preparation of communion. High churches (most Roman Catholic, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Orthodox, some Presbyterians and some other groups) tend to have more formal methods of preparing the elements for communion. Low churches (most Baptist, Pentacostal, evangelical independent churches, charismatic, Assemblies, Brethren and other low church groups) tend to have little formal preparation of communion. Many order communion wafers from one of the companies that prepare them and obtain the grape juice or wine from the store, set the bread in plates and the wine in small glasses, and place them on the communion table in the front of the church. There is little formal preparation.

I attended a low church where the bread was made by one of the ladies of the church, using a recipe for unleavened Jewish bread. If the desire is to follow our Lord, the original Lord’s Supper was undoubtedly celebrated using homemade unleavened bread and wine. There was no formal preparation, except to bake the bread and set it on the table. Biblically, it is hard to support a need for anything more than this. The act of communion is not sanctified in its preparation, but in its participation by a redeemed people with prepared hearts. It is far more important to have prepared hearts of those who partake than prepared elements.

tim