This Sunday LifeSprings Christian Fellowship will be meeting at the Taylor’s house for the service and having a potluck lunch following it. While this can be considered outside of the normal routine for our particular church, we are really visiting a part of the past over the course of history in the church. In the ancient church, Christians gathered in each others’ homes to do and be church. These gatherings, which were daily in the beginning, were called agape/love feasts.
Love feasts were simple meals that the Christians celebrated and were often accompanied by the Eucharistic celebration (Eucharist is another name for communion or the Lord’s Supper). Everyone a part of God’s family living in the local community was invited to the feast, both the poor and the rich. It was a pot luck meal: People who were a part of the local church in the area brought food and drink for people to eat and they feasted. They made enough so that even the poor went away fed. Before and during the meal Scripture was read and taught and the people worshiped. Eventually the Eucharist became a permanent part of the agape feasts. As time went on and the church fell under persecution, Sunday became the only day for agape feasts and the celebration of the Eucharist. Eventually they died out because of persecution and abuses from within, such as in the church in Corinth (1Corinthians 11).
This Sunday we will be having an agape feast. Don’t worry, we will still be using and we will still have all the wonderful things of the 21st century. Welcome to the Ancient Church, LifeSprings Christian Fellowship!
References
Agape Feast. June 27, 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agape_feast#References (accessed June 1, 2011).
The Agape Feast. June 27, 2011. http://latter-rain.com/ltrain/agape.html.
White, James F. A Brief History of Christian Worship. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993.
