Also, I would say yes it is fine to take the LS if you are a believer and visiting a church ONLY if you are a member of another church. If you are visiting another church and are not currently a member I would say 1) get baptized by immersion if you haven’t already; 2) join a church; and 3) begin to join with your local gathering in the taking of the table. One might disagree, but I hold membership in very a high regard because it marks you out as a member of a local congregation, which in turn points to your place at the table with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

For further reading on this check out… Nathan Finn’s article on “Baptism as Pre-Req to the LS”

http://www.baptisttheology.org/documents/BaptismasPrerequisteforSupper.pdf

Granted, I might have a minority view as far as church membership and baptism before LS, but my understanding of baptist history is that we have placed a high emphasis on the ‘believer’s’ church and have done so through church membership and baptism. Baptism identifies yourself with Christ, membership places you within a local body securely by pastors/elders/congregation, and only then are we allowed at the banquet feast.

Scriptural support: Matt. 28:18-20: Christ’s order… make disciples, baptize, and then teach them to obey. Acts 2:41-41 shows this order even more distinctly. These verses also seem to indicate that participation in the Lord’s Supper is included among those aspects of the Christian life that follow after regeneration and baptism. Col 2:11-13 Paul places our natural response to regeneration on baptism and shows that all people must be baptized to be incorporated into the New Testament church.

Closely related to this argument is the question of whether or not the practice of open communion genuinely represents the spiritual reality of union with Christ?

Good discussion!

Baptist churches who hold to BFM hold that before you can take the Lord’s Supper you must be 1) baptized and 2) become a church member (in that order). For a baptist church, you must be baptized by immersion to be a member, therefor you must have done both before joining the ‘congregational banquet feast’ of the ‘Lord’s Supper.’ There are different view points within the Baptist world on open, close, and closed as well.

Also, as a baptist I would say that the LS is in fact a ‘church ordinance’ and because I understand the church to have begun at Pentecost (and after the Lord instituted the LS), I would say that the issue of the disciples being not baptized does not held relevance to the church under the new covenant.

Lots of questions, fun little blog fellas.