Those who sit in the pews during church services seem to have an easy job. They show up, listen while the pastor does all the grunt work and afterwards they might enjoy a snack and connect with some community members. Attending church is not a show, it’s a chance to challenge and fully engage with your faith, to ensure that our trusted leaders are doing their jobs correctly. As Martin Luther preached “A simple layman armed with Scripture is to be believed above a pope or a council without it." If I’m a Lutheran, why can’t I take communion at all Lutheran Churches? Communion is designed by God to be taken with one’s chosen church community. The Bible explains a group expresses a oneness when it communes together just like there is one loaf. Individuals are to learn the Bible and check out whom they commune with and not all Lutheran churches are the same. At what age should someone start taking communion? There is not a definite Biblical age where communion should be taken. Different churches decide different processes one must go through in order to take communion, but there is no solid answer. Biblically, one must be able to understand what communion is as they take it. Pastor Steinberg told us a story about a man living with dementia who could not understand the communion process sometimes while other times he could. This man was only given communion during the periods where he could fully understand why he was taking communion. Can I give my child more than two godparents? Absolutely, godparents are not mentioned in the Bible once. The origins of godparents stems back to early Christianity when persecution was common, and followers of Christ had to keep their church services secret. When a new member wished to join they would not be taken to the secret church service location right away. Instead, a “godparent” would tutor the hopeful member on scripture for a number of months until that new person could be trusted. Once the new member was deemed trustworthy, their tutor would vouch for them in front of their church as the new member's godparent. Because godparents are more or less a nice tradition now, it's okay to create your own guidelines for choosing the godparents of your child, weather that be 4 godmothers and no godfathers or simply one godfather, it’s completely up to you. Pastor Steinberg did note that godparents are not legally recognized, for this reason he highly recommends making a will to make sure that your children are left in good hands in the event of your passing.
Many thanks to Pastor Steinberg for taking the time to answer our questions, pushing us to stay curious and making us more knowledgeable followers of God. Group Night is held at New Beginnings. Every Thursday, we meet as a group to discuss important life skills and educational topics. Discussions are led by community volunteers and can cover a broad range of topics.
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