My second suggestion is take the Lord’s Supper off the clock. Let’s emphasize spirituality over efficiency, getting closer to God over beating the clock. It’s one of those suggestions that people say, “Nice thought, but it’s not practical in our culture.” Hmmm… how many things in our Christian life are we willing to say THAT about? No, don’t answer… I don’t want to know.

Here’s the extreme example. A friend of mine was at the back of an auditorium as they finished with communion. One deacon announced: “Seven minutes… our best time yet!”

That’s an extreme, but it’s not an uncommon attitude. Time spent on the Lord’s Supper is time away from preaching, or worse yet, time away from the first quarter of the NFL game. Lunch might be delayed. Our nap time could be cramped. We might not make softball or bowling or the soccer tournament.

We need to get over it. Can you serve God and the clock? Is it worth “growing” a church if we have to compromise spiritual activities to do it? Is worship about pleasing us or pleasing God?

In our attempts to streamline the Lord’s Supper, we’ve shown our true feelings toward it. It’s something we feel obligated to do, not because of a heartfelt desire, but because in some legalistic way we feel like we have to do it every Sunday. It’s not important enough to make time for, but we’ve got to do it. Punch the time card. Sign the roll book.

Enough! If we aren’t willing to make time for the Lord’s Supper, why bother taking it at all? As we look at ways to improve our participation at the Lord’s table, “that would take too much time” is not a valid objection. Will we start baptizing people by hosing them off in the parking lot, just to make it quicker and more efficient?

Take it off the clock. Give the Lord’s table the time it needs, however much time that may be.