We want to encourage families who believe their children are ready to be admitted to the Lord’s Table to come to a Communicants Class informational meeting this Sunday after worship. This will be a brief meeting to introduce you to what we will be doing this fall and to make sure we order the appropriate amount of materials.
We will be using the Covenant Discipleship materials developed by PCA pastors Ed Eubanks and Richard Burguet, published by Doulos Resources. We are excited about this material because it serves to combine home and church instruction. The children and youth ministries of the church are always to be viewed as a supplement to the instruction our covenant children receive in the home. We will provide materials that involve six studies at home led by parents followed by three follow-up and review sessions that I will lead.
What is a Communicant’s Class? Let me start with what it isn’t. It’s NOT the class you take in order to be designated a Christian. Unfortunately, such classes can be viewed that way. A person may be asked if they are a Christian and respond, “Oh yes, I was confirmed at age ____!” Or they may say, “Yes, I went through the Communicant’s Class with ‘Rev. So and So’ at age _____!” Taking a class no more makes you a Christian than any other activity or work. Only faith in the completed work of Jesus Christ makes us right with God!
Then what is the purpose? It is to assist our children in taking full advantage of the means of grace. It is to help our children more fully participate as members of the church. As a denomination, we believe that children should be admitted by the Session to the Lord’s Table after making a profession of faith. We believe that when Paul exhorts us to examine ourselves in I Corinthians 11:28 it requires that we understand the meaning of the table and that by faith we enjoy the strengthening of faith in the bread and the cup. The Lord’s Supper serves to nurture our faith while baptism, we believe, is the sacrament that signifies our entrance into the covenant community, the church. Covenant children are members of the church.
If you as a parent sincerely believe your child is ready to be admitted to the Lord’s Table, please come to the meeting for more information. I look forward to this time and to answering any questions you may have.