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Christian Building Day 116
First century Christians needed no "god houses." Their rites were little more than a sacred meal and fellowship. They initially attended local synagogues but when they were excluded they began to congregate in homes. True Christianity does not need buildings. One of the major problems for the institution of the 2000's is that Christians are hopeless temple worshippers.
We rely more and more on sanctuaries, convincing ourselves that four walls and a roof make a church. We forget that the Body of Christ is the real church and that we do not really need shrines. We even keep some shrines going even though the Body of Christ has long since died. The Early Church realized that worship palaces were secondary. One of the earliest surviving Christian buildings from AD 232 is the Dura Europa Church in Syria. It is little more than a modified house. Two rooms were knocked together for the assembly, and another was turned into a baptistery with a canopied font and elaborate wall paintings.1
1Kraeling A.E., "Excavation at Dura Europa Final Report 8, Part 2: The Christian Building" (New Haven 1967).
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