07/26/2026
This was to good not to share!!!!!
“The #1 Reason Gathering Together in a Church Falls so Short”
When it comes to what Christians should be doing when they gather together in a church building, those who staunchly defend the building-oriented model of the church would have you believe that our gathering together would typically include an optional greeting, an opening prayer, a staged worship service with a song list arbitrarily chosen by the worship leaders, church announcements, taking up an offering, a lecture style sermon to a passive audience, and occasionally an altar call, prayer for the sick, or communion service. Allowing for minor variations, this same predictable order of service is essentially the same in all Protestant churches and is viewed as sacrosanct by multitudes of churchgoers. But not a trace of this common, liturgical routine is to be found anywhere in the New Testament.
Acts 2:42 is the seminal verse describing the nature of early Christian gatherings; “And they continued steadfastly together in the apostles teaching and fellowship, in breaking of bread (eating meals together), and in prayers….So they continued in the temple (“Solomon’s Porch” - not the temple building itself because it was strictly off limits to anyone but the Levitical Priesthood), and breaking bread from house to house…” Their meeting together was not artificially contrived, rote, nor mechanical but organic, participatory, spontaneous, and fluid. They were not ritualistic affairs with an artificially imposed format composed of passive spectators staring at a stage. Rather than being a weekly, artificially programmed event, the early church was largely spontaneous, interactive, and participatory. (See I Cor. 14:26) It was about quality not quantity.
Furthermore, what is almost never mentioned in conjunction with Paul’s admonition is the additional exhortation included in the same verse, “...but exhorting one another, and so much more as you see the Day approaching.” - (Hebrews 19:25b) This rarely happens in church services where the format is largely routine, the format preprogrammed, and the length of the service predetermined within set time-limits. Very little “exhorting one another” actually takes place beyond passing pleasantries and trite Christianese platitudes. The speaker may include some exhortation in their message, but the participatory element of “exhorting one another” is rarely fulfilled. The larger the gathering becomes, the more problematic the fulfillment of this exhortation becomes. The fact is, that your typical church meeting is not only not conducive to individual participation, it hinders it because it unconsciously places a chokehold on believers’ participation and restricts their ability to manifest their individual contributions and gifts as shown in I Corinthians 14:26.
This I Corinthians 14:26 dimension typified by the gathering together of the "ecclesia" practiced by the early believers is radically different from the predominant model of a preprogrammed order of your typical church gathering with its rigid order of service, staged worship performance, by-the-book rituals and religious liturgies, a lecture style monologue delivered by an officially ordained member of the clergy, and a largely muted, passive, spectator type atmosphere sitting in their seats staring at a stage. As Frank Viola & George Barnes humorously stated in their landmark book, “Pagan Christianity”, “This arrangement makes it nearly impossible for one worshipper to look into the face of another. Instead, it creates a sit-and-soak form of worship that turns functioning Christians into “pew potatoes” - (pages 39, 40)
As little as two or three gathered together in His name can easily do the other without a church building.
