Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 10
Hector describes early assemblies as not “seeker-friendly,” with pagans/catechumens sometimes dismissed before prayers/communion, loud overlapping prayer that needed restraining, the holy kiss, Saturday-evening meal/communion, and a brief pre-dawn sermon because laborers had to work; what does that portrait expose about what early Christians believed worship was *for*, and what parts of that would most unsettle our assumptions about inclusion, reverence, time, and the purpose of gathering?
Another way to ask: Early worship wasn’t designed to make outsiders comfortable, and it included practices that might feel strange today. What does this show they thought worship was for, and which parts would most challenge our ideas about welcome, reverence, time, and why we gather?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
Based on Hector and Wendell’s descriptions, early worship was primarily for forming and expressing the church’s embodied life—prayer, table fellowship, and family-like unity—rather than attracting outsiders, and that would unsettle modern assumptions about open access, polished reverence, and service structure.
- Wendell says early Christians “did not use their meetings… as evangelistic tools,” and often “pagans were kept out,” with “no such thing as seeker-friendly services.”
- Hector adds catechumens could attend some parts but were dismissed “before the prayers and the communion,” which he calls “fascinating.”
- Hector describes prayer as loud and overlapping—everyone praying “all at the same time,” sometimes needing to be “calm[ed] down” and restrained.
- The “holy kiss”/“kiss of peace” is presented as embodied unity; Brian quotes that believers “knew this in their bodies,” and outsiders wondered what worship did to give them “dignity and confidence.”
- Hector notes a Saturday-evening gathering with a meal and ending with communion, plus a pre-dawn service with a brief sermon because laborers needed to work.