The Lord's Supper Rehearsal Dinner for the Wedding Banquet of the Lamb (Part 1 of 2)

"How would the Twelve conclude that the newly instituted Lord's Supper was not a full meal?"

"What better way to typify a banquet than with a banquet?" - Steve Atkerson

The meal is potluck, or as we jokingly say, "pot-providence." Everyone brings food to share with everyone else.

When the weather is nice, eveything is placed on a long folding table outside. A chest full of ice sits beside the drink table. Kids run wildly around. After a prayer of thanksgiving is offered, people line up, talking and laughing as they load their plates with food. In the middle of all the food sits a single loaf of bread next to a large container of the fruit of the vine.

Chairs for adults are clustered in circles, mainly occupied by the women, who eat while discussing home schooling, child training, sewing, an upcoming church social, or the new church we hope to start. Most of the men stand to eat, balancing their plates on top of their cups, grouped into small clusters and solving the world's problems or pondering some interesting topic of theology. The atmosphere is not unlike that of a wedding banquet. It is a great time of fellowship, encouragement, edification, friendship, caring, catching-up, praying, exhorting, and maturing. The reason for the event? In case you didn't realize it, this is the Lord's Supper, New Testament style!

Foreign though it may seem to the contemporary church, the first-century church enjoyed the Lord's Supper as a banquet that foreshadowed the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. It was not until after the close of the New Testament era that the Lord's Supper was altered from its pristine form.

NTRF is part of a growing body of believers who have come to see the importance of following New Testament patterns in church practice. We have taken to heart the evangelical belief that the Bible is our final authority, not only in matters of faith, but in matters of practice. We see theological significance in the distinctive practices of the apostolic church.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• New Testament church
• house church
• home church
• simple church
• family church
• relational church
• organic church