Should We Celebrate Baptism and the Lord’s Supper at Youth Group?

Student ministries sometimes celebrate Baptism and the Lord’s Supper at camps, youth group, and small groups. This practice is seen as a meaningful way to follow God’s commands in an environment that is comfortable for students. While often well-intentioned, is this the most helpful way to think about the ordinances? Though done with the right heart, practicing the ordinances as a student ministry falls short of the Bible’s view of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. 

This is not to say God cannot or has not worked mightily in ministries where this has been done. God can use a rough sermon or a sloppy gospel presentation to do a miracle in someone’s life—He often does. This is because of the work of the Holy Spirit, and we should rejoice in that. Though, that’s not an excuse to preach bad sermons or be sloppy evangelists. No one should argue that way. And in this case, we aren’t denying that God has done some incredible things in students’ lives through the ordinances at camp, youth groups, or other contexts. At the same time, it’s best to think clearly about how we can celebrate the ordinances in as biblical a fashion as possible.

The Issue

Many youth workers have found themselves at a camp or conference where students have made professions of faith and are lining up to be baptized. It is a powerful moment. It even seems beautiful. Other times, students come home from an experience and excitedly tell about how they got baptized at camp. These public professions of faith can be moving experiences, but are they biblical?

Maybe you’ve taken your students on a leadership retreat and one of your leaders (or someone from another group, if it’s a multi-church retreat) thinks it would be meaningful to celebrate the gospel by taking the Lord’s Supper as a small group. This may seem fitting in the moment, but is this an appropriate time for us to celebrate an ordinance? In these situations, you may even feel pressured to participate because for some, to even suggest there is a “right” context or form for the ordinances is a step too far. What were originally intended to be corporate acts in the context of a local church have become for many student ministries rites of individual experience.

I want to argue briefly in this post that it is good for the sacraments/ordinances to be reserved for their proper place—corporate worship in the church.

Baptism and the Local Church

Whether you’re a credo or paedobaptist, there is a theological line of reasoning that both share—baptism is an act that has to do with both the individual and the church. On an individual level, baptism is a pledge of faith in Christ on behalf of the baptized. On a corporate level, baptism is the means by which the church works out who is and is not a part of the visible community of faith. Viewing baptism as either individual-only or as corporate-only poses serious problems. 

Some will argue that certain cases lack this corporate dimension, like the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8) or the men and women Paul baptized (1 Cor 1:14-16). But this does not take the whole New Testament into account. While these men and women were not baptized in a local church context, it must be remembered there was no local church context for them to be baptized into. The apostles and other frontier missionaries were responsible for baptizing until there was a local church to work out the baptisms. This is why Paul can say in a text like 1 Corinthians 1:16-17 that while he had baptized certain households it was not his mission to baptize. In a sense, once there was a church that could exercise the work of the keys (Matthew 16:19, 18:18-20) Paul was to continue on his apostolic mission and leave the work of the church to the church. 

On a very practical level, baptism done outside the context of a local church (camp, youth group, etc) robs the church of its ability to welcome in new members and instead makes the context of the baptism a group that cannot give the baptized individual the accountability he or she needs through elder oversight and church discipline. It removes a vital context for intergenerational discipleship. It also separates the student from meaningful community life with the new family members he or she needs. None of us are baptized into a Youth Group, we’re baptized into Christ’s church.

The Lord’s Supper and the Local Church

If baptism is the visible entrance into the local church, then the Lord’s Supper is the church’s regular remembrance and recommitment to the gospel. This is a meal for people who are united to Jesus and united to one another. This also means that students should be baptized before they participate in the Lord’s Supper. Much like baptism, the Lord’s Supper does have an individual element, like Paul’s commands to “examine yourself” but always points towards a larger, corporate reality. 

This is why Paul in a place like 1 Corinthians 11:33 instructs the church to wait for one another before taking the Supper. Jonathan Leeman puts it this way: “Imagine saying your wedding vows without both spouses, or saying a team cheer all by yourself, or signing a business contract and not showing it to anyone. It’s just not what the vows, the cheer, and the contract are for. Even if there is an educative element in doing these things privately, it misses the point of the thing itself. The Lord’s Supper is a family meal.” 

On a more practical note, our student ministries should regularly be finding ways to be connected with age groups beyond just other students. Students need to see that they are a part of one body, with people not just like them. The Lord’s Supper, when done in the context of the whole church, is a visible way to show students that the church is bigger than just a midweek service, camp, and your friends. It is a multigenerational body God is building.  

Conclusion

While exceptions, questions, and irregularities about many matters related to the ordinances are bound to arise in a discussion about the proper context and form (the homebound, differently-abled, etc.), it is important we don’t muddy the waters further than is necessary. 

Our student ministries aren’t churches, and they’ll operate healthier when we know this. We’re not churches, but we are a part of churches, and it matters that our students know this. So baptize lots of students and take the Lord’s Supper often, but do it with all of God’s people.