A Public Meal

One thing that visitors often find surprising about worship at Providence is our practice of looking around during the Lord’s Supper. This is a bit unusual, but we have cultivated this practice to remind us that the Lord’s Supper is not a private devotion, but a public meal.

Many of us grew up in churches where the Lord’s Supper, when it was celebrated at all, was a time of individual meditation, often somber and not celebratory. But the Lord’s Supper is a family meal, where God feeds His children before sending them out into the world to do His will.

Our practice of looking around at our brothers and sisters while we eat reminds us of our place in the family of God and of our relationship to one another. So eat this public meal, this celebration of Christ’s death for you, with gladness and joy.