The Eucharist and Baptism

For: The Institute of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen's University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

Learning about the way the Sacraments were implemented throughout Christian history was very enlightening. I had never put much importance on symbolic acts, and many times thought they were silly. Then, I read this quote of Augustine: "A Sacrament is the visible form of an invisible grace." Such a beautiful statement. My mind had always viewed Sacraments as a visible act, and nothing more. I took them for their face value and never looked beyond the visual and into the spiritual (unless it was Baptism or Communion).

I loved the comments made in the book James White's book about how the power of a sacrament is not dependent on the character or moral value of the person performing it, but on God alone, and that he uses these symbolic acts to bring about his purposes [1]. It's all about grace, and the wonderful blessings He pours out on us through our obedience.

This being said, we have always put a lot of emphasis on communion and Baptism, but I can see how we don't focus on these sacraments nearly enough. I would be interested in incorporating communion at every service, but not only that, restoring the act through dining together in community. I also want to be able to do as the White mentions in his book: Being able "to communicate in human terms what God is doing [2]." He makes a good point on how this correlates with the responsibility of those leading worship. What are we showing people through our actions? What are we communicating? There truly is a high level of responsibility our my part as a worship leader to be able to communicate what the Lord is doing through my words and actions. I just had never related that with the symbolic acts of the sacraments.

Relating to the Lord in a tangible way is one of the most important things we can do in our lives. He cannot just be mere deity that we blindly follow through empty words an actions. I want to see the reality of God to be exposed in our midst, and now I have learned yet another unexpected way for our eyes to be opened.


[1] James F. White, Introduction to Christian Worship, Third Edition, Revised and Expanded (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000), Page 183
[2] James F. White, Introduction to Christian Worship, Third Edition, Revised and Expanded (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000), Page 194