Hey Church!
I had a group of friends in college who, at some point in their faith journey, had become disillusioned with the institutional church and decided to form their own “house church.” On Sundays, they would have a potluck meal, sing along with selections from a worship-music CD collection, and have a good old-fashioned Bible study, free of all the trappings of established traditions and polity. If you were to ask them the reason why they gathered in this way, they would proudly tell you it was because the institutional church had diverged too far from historic Christianity, which they believed was characterized by the unstructured simplicity of fellowship-meals in homes. The liturgy and administrations of today’s churches were empty, human traditions imposed upon worship over centuries against the pure intent of the Church’s first founders.
Have you met people like this? I have known many like them since college and, in almost every case, their desire to return to primitive house-worship meetings has been driven by a well-intentioned desire for purity in worship AND, unfortunately, also a two-fold error (if I may be lovingly blunt here): first, a strong reaction to a particular hurtful experience in a so-called “institutional” church and, secondly, an “I know best” attitude rooted in ignorance, arrogance, or both. The truth is that the first Christians’ worship gatherings were anything but the unscripted free-for-alls of folklore. In fact, their services were more structured (“liturgical”) than the vast majority of our churches today.
And, besides, even if that wasn’t the case, the idea that there is something inherently more spiritually pure about unstructured gatherings of believers than services that are planned according to the traditional framework of previous generations is itself a false assumption with no biblical warrant.
It is true that early Christians met daily in homes to share a meal (likely potluck) and worship together. But we must remember that many of those first believers were converted Jews and, as such, continued to observe the sacred ordinances of Judaism long after Jesus ascended into heaven and the Holy Spirit gave birth to the Church. Steeped in traditions like twice-daily prayer, twice-weekly fasting, weekly Sabbath, and ritual (think: extremely repetitive) recitation of prayers formed in them a deep appreciation–even a holy reverence–for what we, today, might appraise as overly rigid liturgy. And so, while they met in homes, mostly out of necessity since no church buildings existed and the only other place to worship would have been the synagogue (which Paul clearly did, by the way, and shared the gospel of Jesus with all who attended), their worship, nonetheless, followed the order of synagogue worship almost exactly, with only a few key modifications, most notably the move from Saturday (Sabbath) to Sunday (Lord’s Day) and the realization of Jesus as the fulfillment of all the shadows that had gone before (Temple, sacrifice, washing, feasts, circumcision, etc. as well as new institutions given by Jesus like the Lord’s Prayer, baptism, and communion).
Below is a recreation of what a 1st/2nd-century Christian worship service might have looked like, based on the premise of synagogue worship and the writings of church fathers.
Collections: Food and gifts were given as each had the ability to give (like the offering portion of our service) for the work of ministry, support of visiting ministers/apostles, service to shut-ins (any in the Christian community who could not attend worship in person), and meeting the needs of the poor.
Call to Worship: In the synagogue, and it seems for the first couple centuries of the Church as well, the minister would invite someone from the congregation to lead an antiphonal recitation of the Shema with its accompanying benedictions.
(Leader) “Bless the Lord, the Blessed One.”
(Congregation) “Blessed be the Lord, the blessed One, forever and ever.”
(Leader) “Hear O Israel!”
(Congregation) “Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the Lord is one.”
(Leader) “Blessed be the Name of the glory of his Kingdom forever and ever.”
Later calls to worship would include Isaiah 6:3, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
Benediction to Conclude the Shema (recited in unison): the Emet we-Yatsiv (Hebrew, “true and constant”). Blessed God, specifically, for His faithful Word that endures through generations.
The Eighteen Benedictions: The minister would call on someone else from the congregation to lead 18 benedictions, which were set readings of praise, petition, and thanksgiving. The congregation would rise to its feet and respond to each reading, “Amen.”
Readings followed by lessons from the Law (Torah), the Prophets, the Histories, and the teachings of the Apostles.
Prophetic words: “Then, if a qualified person present, the ruler would invite him (through the minister) to speak: ‘If you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on’” (Ross, Recalling the Hope of Glory, pg. 364-366). Paul rebukes some in the church of Corinth who abused this opportunity to speak in services by doing so in a self-gratifying and unedifying way (1 Cor. 12-14).
The Lord’s Supper: the culminating moment of the service. The Table quickly developed its own liturgy, following but separate from the “Liturgy of the Word.”
Psalms, prayers, and the benediction of Aaron (Num. 6:23-27): There was singing throughout the service, as many of the prayers and chants were sung. The service would close with the famous benediction of Aaron (“The LORD bless you and keep you…”).
Additionally, Christians maintained the customs of daily prayers (the Lord’s Prayer three times daily), twice-weekly fasting (albeit on different days than the Jews), and to some extent the ritual corporate readings and prayers of their Jewish heritage. By the 2nd century (~150 CE), the Sabbath services in synagogue and the daily home-meetings had, for Christians, merged into their own, unique, corporate worship service held on Sundays.
The same basic liturgy continues to inform our worship services today. Every Sunday, we gather to re-enact the gospel story, which begins with a call to worship, gives prayers and songs of praise, petition, and thanksgiving to our Creator, then culminates in the Word of God read, preached, and received in the sacrament, and then sends us out with a benediction, by which we are commissioned to be Christ to the world. It is a holy, ancient, and beautiful thing that we get to do every week!
Come prepared in heart, mind, and body, and ask the Holy Spirit to cause His Word to land on ready soil, that it may take root and bear much fruit for His Name’s sake.
Your brother,
Ryan