As we read Acts 2, we see a clear sequence in the life of the early church. Luke writes: “So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:41–42). All who repented and believed the gospel were baptized, and in doing so they were recognized as citizens of God’s kingdom and immediately became active members of the local church. Out of that new identity, they joined together in the Word, prayer, fellowship, and the breaking of bread.

This biblical pattern helps us see why membership is inseparably connected to participation in the Lord’s Supper. Paul writes, “We who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17). That visible unity assumes a defined and counted people. In 2 Corinthians 2:6 Paul refers to discipline being carried out “by the majority.” That phrase only makes sense if the church knew who belonged to them, since a majority can only be known when the whole is counted. Hebrews 13:17 adds that elders must keep watch over the souls of those entrusted to them and will give an account to Christ. This shepherding cannot happen where there is no belonging. And part of that shepherding includes elders being able to affirm, by welcoming someone to the Table, that they are indeed a true believer walking in repentance and faith.

This is why church discipline and the Lord’s Supper go hand in hand. In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul commands the church to remove the unrepentant from their fellowship, using Passover imagery: “Christ, our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival” (vv. 7–8). To be excluded from the church was to be excluded from the covenant meal. Discipline includes withholding the Supper from those who persist in unrepentant sin. But without membership, that discipline is impossible. To partake while refusing membership is to seek the benefits of belonging without the accountability Christ requires.

Our Baptist forefathers recognized this. The First London Confession (1644) restricted communion to baptized believers walking in obedience. The Second London Confession (1689) stated that the Supper is “to be observed in His churches until the end of the age” (30.1), and that “all who are admitted to the privileges of a church are also under its censures and government according to the rule of Christ” (26.12). The privilege of the Table cannot be separated from the accountability of discipline, nor from the responsibility of elders to guard the Supper and affirm the faith of those who come.

For these reasons, we ask that those who partake of the Lord’s Supper be members of a faithful, gospel-preaching church. This is not about excluding anyone harshly. It is about following the pattern Christ has given for our good. Repentance, faith, baptism, and membership prepare the way for communion at His Table. Through membership, believers share the ordinary means of grace, enjoy fellowship, hear the preaching of the Word, and partake of the ordinances in a protected environment under the care of Christ’s under-shepherds. In this way, the Supper becomes what Christ intended it to be: a covenant meal of the redeemed, shared in unity, truth, and love.