Why Do We Sit in Pews?

Last week we talked about how the church is not a building or an event; the church is people. Which makes me wonder… how did we get here? When did we start having church buildings? When did we start sitting in pews? Preaching from pulpits?

Did you know…?

• ·         The first church building archaeologists have discovered is from the 240s AD – it was a house that was remodeled by tearing out the wall between two rooms to form a larger meeting room, with a third room used for a baptistery.[1]
• ·         Church buildings were not common until Constantine recognized Christianity as a legal religion in the 4^th century.
• ·         Even when Christians began meeting in buildings, there was no seating for the fir 1,300 years – except for “stone benches along the back wall for the elderly or infirmed.”[2]
• ·         It is only since the 16^th and 17^th century that fixed pews became the standard seating arrangement in church buildings.
• ·         The sermon, more or less as we know it today, didn’t exist as the primary focus of church gatherings until the Protestant Reformation. This was in contrast to the Roman Catholic liturgy, which placed the Eucharist as the high point of the “worship service.”

So in the history of the Christian church, the way we do things now – the order of service with the sermon or mass as the high point, with all of us sitting in pews facing the same direction towards a person or small group of persons leading the service – is relatively new. It hasn’t always been this way.

Photo by Matt Jiggins from Toronto, Canada (Church Pews)
[CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

What, then, was it like back in the New Testament? What did it look like when the early church met together?

First, we know that it was Jesus’ practice (as well as that of His disciples after He ascended) to go to the synagogue on the Sabbath (Mark 1:21, 6:2; Luke 4:16, 6:6, 13:10; Acts 13:14, 42-44, 17:2, 18:4). During this time, believers would gather together for “prayer, song, reading, and exposition of the Scripture,”[3] as well as other ceremonial or ritualistic acts.

While the primary purpose of the Sabbath is not gatherings, but rather rest from work, it seems that early Christians continued their custom of gathering together to celebrate/worship their Creator and Savior, to fellowship with each other, and to teach/learn from the Scriptures. There is evidence that they met together in large public places, such as the outer court of the temple, as well as many examples of church gatherings in the houses of believers.

Second, we have a handful of passages that give us insight into what their gatherings were like (Acts 2:42-46; 1 Corinthians 11:17-26, 14:26-33; Ephesians 5:18-21; Colossians 3:16, 4:16; 1 Timothy 4:13; Hebrews 10:24-25). When we combine all the pieces together, we get the following picture of church gatherings.

1. 1.       Met house to house (or public space), ate together
2. 2.       Met to admonish (caution or reprove gently), exhort (comfort, encourage, urge), edify (build up, strengthen)
3. 3.       All could/did participate, sharing through:

a.       Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs

b.      Gratitude/thanksgiving

c.       Reading

d.      Teaching

e.      Prayer

f.        Giving to those in need

g.       Communion

The key difference between then and how most church gatherings take place now is that they came together, not as an audience or spectator, but as participants. They met as the family of God and everyone shared with each other for the good of each other.

It is important how we gather together :

·         In such a place that encourages everyone to participate

·         In such a manner that gives everyone an opportunity to participate

·         In such a size/quantity that allows for everyone to participate

We are all the church; when there is only one person or a small group of people “up front” leading out, the idea develops that they are the church, that they are supposed to feed us spiritually. In reality, each of us must daily go to Jesus to be fed spiritually, and then when we meet together, we come to share from the nourishment we have been receiving from Jesus.

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[1] http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/asktheexpert/ask_churchbuildings.html

[2] http://www.patheos.com/blogs/nadiabolzweber/2012/01/the-problem-with-pews/

[3] Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church