Yes it is a good thing to remember the corporate factor when talking about the theology of the Lord's Supper. I have often seen a bride & groom take the Lord's Supper. I wish those pastors would explain the theology of the Lord's Supper to their people... that it is to be done as a BODY. Also, I have been to so many church services that take the Lord's Supper but do not explain who should Not come to take the elements & the consequences of this. This should be done to protect the sheep & unbelievers & to educate them.
The Lord's Supper is often rushed & not fully explained. Even if the Lord's Supper is taken weekly, the theology of the Lord's Supper should be explained each time. We should never assume people understand the Lord's Supper or assume that everyone present are Christians.

God Bless!
Careful about who you're excluding and on what basis in your weekly Lord Supper theology chalk-talk, Jenny. Seems that there were at least 12 unbelievers present at the first Lord's Supper. There's at least one present every time I consecrate the elements. The efficacy of the Eucharist is not so much in whom or how much the participants believe, but in Whom Christ obeys. Hopefully, thankfully, that power cannot be undone by the whimsy of our belief.

Shalom!
I would not call the disciples unbelievers. They believed, like Abraham, in the light they had been given in progressive revelation. Paul tightens the focus down in his instruction to obvious "believers" status and Church History reveals that un-believers were dismissed from worship before Communion was served.

My awkward moment, like Jenny's, always comes when I am planning a marriage ceremony where the bride and groom want to take communion and I have to tell them not unless the whole body takes it.

We take communion less often corporately but when we do the whole service including message focuses towards it.

jordan
crawl in. get dirty. serve the body. www.worshiptrench.com
You are right to say that we must take the Lord's supper as part of community, but I think wrong to not realize that the beginning of a family is now a new community. My wife and I took communion at our wedding and I think it was totally appropriate because it was a symbol of us as community partaking in the blessings of the death and resurrection of our Lord.

I have taken communion with large churches, small groups and even with one other believer as we prayer walked through a refuge camp in the Middle East. Each time it was done in community, each time we were remembering the Lord's death, and each time we were proclaiming his death until he comes. This is what communion is all about.

Dustin
I don't think there is any right or wrong way to take communion as long as you're a believer in Christ. Jesus never said that you COULD NOT take communion alone...so if people want to take communion alone then that's okay and I believe God will bless that just as much as if they had taken it with fellow believers.

"14And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. 15And he said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16For I tell you I will not eat it[b] until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." 17And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, "Take this, and divide it among yourselves. 18For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." 19And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 20And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, "This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." -Luke 22:14-20

Peace.

~Not Of This World
What constitutes a "body"? How many people have to be together to make up "the body"? The logical conclusion to the Jenny's comment, in my mind, is that we can only take communion when ALL Christians take it at the same time. That may sound extreme but her comment was extreme to me.

A couple taking communion at their wedding is celebrating, for the first time, as one. Their marriage is creating a new body. They are joining as one. Why shouldn't they share communion?

Why can't a family take communion together? Doesn't a family, at home at the dinner table, qualify as a body?

I will agree that I have trouble with an individual taking communion alone but I won't say it is wrong to do.

My point is, if we are going to get picky (forgive me but it's the only word I'm comfortable with) about the number of people needed to participate in communion, there are a lot of other things we would have to get picky about as well.

Where two or three . . .