CHILDREN AT THE LORD’S TABLE: BCRC
Recommendation: At the age at which children “graduate” from Children’s Worship,
they will be allowed to partake at the Lord’s Table under the supervision of their parents
and the elders.
Grounds:
A. We find the following findings of the 2011 Synodical Faith Formation Committee to
be compelling:
(1) All baptized persons regardless of age, are members of the church.
Church membership comes not upon profession of faith but upon baptism.
(2) Baptized children are members of the church – the body of Christ who are
welcomed to the table on the basis not of their comprehension or
profession but on the basis of God’s gracious invitation to the covenant
community.
(3) We are invited to the [Lord’s] table out of sheer grace as members of
God’s covenant people and not because of our profession of faith or our
level of comprehension
(4) To require public profession of faith prior to table participation can
unwittingly suggest that the efficacy of the Lord’s Supper depends on our
faith or the level of our understanding.
(5) None of us can comprehend the depths of the mystery of the Lord’s
Supper. As adult believers, it is appropriate for us to realize that the
difference between a young child and a mature adult pales in significance
with the depths of this mystery.
B. We believe that linking public profession of faith and participation in the Lord’s
Supper can have the unintended side-effect of cheapening the appreciation and
understanding of both activities by; diminishing the understanding of, “full
participation in the life of the church…, its responsibilities, its joys, and its
sufferings,” assumed upon profession of faith; and by making the sacrament of the
Lord’s Supper appear as an achievement award for theological accomplishment rather
than a means of grace.
C. In baptism, parents claim the promises of God for their children and assume, with the
church, responsibilities for training and nurture of their covenant children in the faith.
As such, it is appropriate that, prior to those children making public profession of
faith, parents (and the leadership of the church) exercise supervision of their
children’s participation in the Lord’s Supper.