When it comes time to celebrate our bicentennial, there is no better place to gather than the Lord’s Table. As Glenn Thomas Carson says in his book Central Casting, it is “the heart of our faith.” We have provided several papers for you to learn more about the Lord’s Supper and why it is so important within the Stone-Campbell movement. Your study in this section will not only aid your personal growth as a Christian, but will help to prepare you to lead the Great Communion celebration.
Helpful Resources
on the Meaning and Observance of the Lord’s Supper
Glenn Thomas Carson, Central Casting (Polar Star Press, 2007)
Robert Richardson, Communings in the Sanctuary. The 2000 edition with an introduction by C. Leonard Allen is especially helpful.
John Mark Hicks, Come to the Table: Revisioning the Lord’s Supper (Leafwood, 2002)
Charles R. Gresham and Tom Lawson, eds., The Lord’s Supper: Historical Writings On Its Meaning to the Body of Christ (College Press, 1993)
William Robinson, "The Administration of the Lord’s Supper"
Byron C. Lambert, "Have We Understood the Lord’s Supper?"
Robert Fife "Reformation at the Lord’s Table" Celebration of Heritage, 211-224
"The Lord’s Supper", The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell movement. This essay provides an excellent historical overview as well as a helpful bibliography for further study.
Robert Milligan “The Lord’s Supper—Its Design”
Alexander Campbell “On the Ancient Order of Things” pp. 174-76, 180-82
Our Threefold Unity
Unity is God's gift to us. We read in Ephesians that God, in Christ, has made scattered--even alienated--people into one people: "Through [Jesus] we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. We have been made fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Eph 2:19-22). READ MORE
Churches of Christ and the Lord’s Supper:
Twentieth Century Perspectives
Alexander Campbell’s famous sentence, “In the house of God there is always the table of the Lord,” embodies the essence of Stone-Campbell Eucharistic theology and practice. (1) This simple sentence describes the weekly celebration of the Lord’s Supper on the Lord’s Day in the presence of God as a joyous feast. READ MORE
Words to the Church on the Lord's Supper
“As members of the Christian Church, We confess that…At the table of the Lord we celebrate with thanksgiving the saving acts and presence of Christ.” These words in the Preamble of The Design for the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) remind us of the significance of the Lord’s Supper in Christian worship. READ MORE
The Lord's Supper Constitutes the Church
We members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) believe that the Lord’s Supper is central to our common worship. It is the reason we come together on a Sunday for worship. We cannot imagine one of our Sunday morning worship services omitting the partaking from Christ’s table. READ MORE