If the Supper is a biblically mandated element of worship—as the Westminster Standards and Three Forms of Unity affirm—then a church that routinely omits it on Sunday is liturgically lacking on its own confessional terms.

“The argument is that a proper understanding of the Supper will lead us to recover a frequent and regular celebration of this meal.”1 With that sentence, Harrison Perkins announces both the thesis and his method of Take and Eat. This is not a book that is “narrowly and pedantically on the question of frequency for celebrating the Lord’s Supper.”2

Harrison is after something more foundational: he wants to show us what the Supper actually is, trusting that once we see it clearly, we will not need to be argued into wanting it often.

Harrison (PhD, Queen’s University Belfast) serves as pastor of Oakland Hills Community Church (OPC) in Farmington Hills, Michigan. This book grew out of his own congregation’s transition from monthly to weekly Communion.3

This book is pastoral theology in the best sense because it’s forged in the life of a real congregation. It’s a book grounded in Scripture and the Reformed confessions, and accessible to every Christian who has ever wondered why the Lord’s Supper is celebrated so rarely in their home church.

The Thesis

Harrison frames the problem with a great analogy. Life in this fallen world is like living underwater, and God has provided “special tools that provide to us the oxygen-like resource of saving grace, even as we continue to live in the sin-flooded world that could so easily drown us spiritually.”4

This is the theological engine that drives his book:

“the Supper is a way that Christ funnels grace to believers so we might know him and his help more deeply.”5

Harrison doesn’t begin by arguing for weekly Communion and then looking for reasons to support his conclusion. He begins with the nature of the Lord’s Supper and lets frequency follow as the only logical response.

The confessional grounding in this book is outstanding. Drawing on Louis Berkhof, Harrison describes Word and sacrament as:

Objective channels which Christ has instituted in the Church, and to which he ordinarily binds Himself in the communication of His grace.6

The Supper is not a bare memorial, although some Reformed churches can drift in that direction. It’s a true means of grace—a real channel through which the living Christ delivers himself to his gathered people.

What Is the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper?

Chapter 1 paints a basic portrait of the Lord’s Supper. In addition to the Reformed confessions, I am grateful that Harrison leans heavily on Calvin’s view of the Lord’s Supper. In doing so, he carefully distinguishes the confessional position from both Rome and Zwingli:

Although the bread and wine do not physically turn into Christ’s body and blood, these blessed elements do entail a real, albeit spiritual, reception of Christ’s body and blood and all his benefits.7

Harrison grounds this in Calvin’s own words: “The substance of the sacraments is the Lord Jesus, and the efficacy of them the graces and blessings which we have by his means.”8 The frequency argument comes naturally from this sacramental truth: “a frequent celebration of the Lord’s Supper simply means more occasions for Christ to make us stronger.”9

To illustrate this spiritual-yet-real communion, Harrison employs a contemporary analogy which I loved:

The elements in the Lord’s Supper may not physically become Christ’s body and blood, but they still involve a participation in Christ’s body, blood, and benefits. Like a video call communicates someone’s virtual presence in such a way as to create a real fellowship, the Supper communicates Christ’s presence spiritually so that real fellowship occurs with him in that meal.10

This is a simple image that will be helpful for readers coming from a memorialist background, where the Supper has been reduced to a mental exercise of remembrance rather than a real encounter with the living Christ.

Answering the Objections

Harrison then addresses the objections that keep Reformed congregations from the Table. The first: weekly celebration will make the Supper less special. His answer cuts to the confessional root.

Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 88 defines the means of grace as “The outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicateth to us the benefits of redemption”—including the sacraments.11 The conclusion is striking: “The sacraments, including the Lord’s Supper, are among God’s ordinary means of grace.”12

By confessional definition, the Supper is not extraordinary. Treating it as rare is not more reverent. It is sub-confessional.

Harrison then makes his most penetrating observation. In Reformed church discipline, the penalty for unrepentant sin is exclusion from the Lord’s Table.

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