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| “They devoted themselves to… the breaking of bread…” |
| —Acts 2:42c |
For three previous posts, I have explored the phenomenon of some people who move from church to church trying to find a church that genuinely fits their ideal of what a church should be. Sadly, when you try to inquire what these folks wish to experience in a church, you find that most people have a hard time defining exactly what qualities the perfect church, or genuine church, would display.
Of course, it goes almost without saying—though I have said it repeatedly—that a “genuine church” is not a building, nor an institution. It is a group of like-minded believers who gather together in unity and focus.
In trying to answer the question: “How does a group of believers form a genuine, Christ-honoring, life-supporting, question-answering church?”—we need to turn to Scripture for a biblical definition of a genuine church. Dr. Luke records four elements that comprised the early church in Acts 2:42:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
In the last two posts, I suggested that the believers striving to create a genuine church need to start their quest by laying a super-strong foundation of the Apostles’ teaching, through a study of and devotion to God’s written Word, and then those believers need to work diligently to create a milieu in which heartfelt, soul-refreshing fellowship will occur.
The third element is to become devoted to the breaking of bread. Most of the time, the phrase “breaking of bread” refers to the Lord’s Supper—the Sacrament of Holy Communion, or the Celebration of the Eucharist. Sadly, in many Protestant churches, this critically important Feast of Remembrance, Communion, and Hope is relegated to an occasional event tacked on to the end of a normal Worship Service.
In other traditions, Communion is offered at every Worship Service. To outsiders from such traditions, or to those who have no particular tradition at all, this may seem like “overkill” and they may feel that such frequent repetition must surely decrease the value of the sacrament.
As one who has the privilege of attending a traditional and liturgical Worship Service in an Evangelical Presbyterian Church—a denomination where traditional/liturgical services are not the norm—I must confess that I have come to greatly appreciate the value of coming humbly, and in repentance, to the Lord’s Table each week.
No matter what you may personally may feel about the frequency of sharing at the Lord’s Table, apparently it was important enough to be one of the four key elements of the early church. After all, as Jesus concluded His earthly ministry, just prior to His arrest and crucifixion, He instituted this Sacrament with His closest followers.
So, how would a genuine church handle this important matter of the breaking of bread? By now you’ve probably noticed that I have withheld any specific recommendations or “How-Tos” regarding this topic. Those will come in the final blog post in this series.
In the next post, I will examine the fourth and final element of a genuine church.
Based on a blog originally posted on Saturday, August 1, 2015
