Our baptized children are welcome to the Table, together with us. But just as there are pitfalls in excluding them, so also there are pitfalls in bringing them. We must always remember that covenantal blessings are received by faith; they are not dispensed automatically.
As our children come, we make necessary adjustments for their frame. God remembers our frame; He knows that we are but dust, and so we should remember and recall our childrens’ frame. As we do this, we should be consistent across the board.
Â
We don’t believe that at the serving of the Supper it is necessary to wake up an infant who is conked out in the car seat, and who just came home from the hospital three weeks ago. A child that age cannot chew bread or drink wine, and in a similar fashion, he cannot mentally chew or reflect. Sleeping through the Supper because you are not yet a month old is not equivalent to excommunication.
But if a child is older, and has begun to notice that the tray is passing by, and that others are partaking, and that he is not, it is not possible to continue that practice without educating him in a false doctrine, or at the very least, a schizophrenic doctrine. The fact that you baptized him says that he is in, but the fact that you are withholding bread and wine says that he is out. And because he does not remember his baptism, the present lesson is the one that is being impressed on him. So if that is your situation, you are welcome to share the bread and wine with your children. Come, all of you, to Jesus Christ.