In the 1950s and 60s, many churches of Christ experienced heavy teaching on what is permissible or not permissible to do in the building. This became a litmus test for a church’s “soundness” or “faithfulness” to Christ, and many churches split over these matters.
The Reason for Debate
After the meat is boiled off the bones, the underlying principle had to do with how we read and understand God’s word, or, as the debaters put it, how we find authority in Scripture. Maybe you have heard of CENI—an acronym which stands for Command, Example, and Necessary Inference. Preachers pushed this systematic, scientific methodology as the way to derive authority from Scripture. If you can find a command from God, then you ought to obey it. If you can find an “approved example” where God or the apostles approved of an action in the church, then you ought to use that as your pattern for the church today. If you can find a passage which necessarily implies something (it’s an inescapable conclusion), then you ought to use that as your pattern of church life.
Largely, no one had a problem with CENI in theory. It’s always in the application where folks get their undies in a wad, because the Scripture does not deal with all topics with the same level of detail or importance, and some topics leave a lot more gray area than others—thus the debates.
The debated topics which split churches tended to concern how the churches used their collected money (the treasury) and how they used their church buildings.
Churches of Christ, for the most part, all agreed that the New Testament outlawed worship with musical instruments. They agreed that God mandates the Lord’s Supper to be observed every first day of the week and only on the first day of the week. They agreed that anything added to the worship of the church other than five mandated acts (Lord’s Supper, preaching, singing, praying, taking up a collection) would be sinful. They all agreed that denominationalism was anathema and that baptism can only be by immersion. The churches on all sides of these debates were largely in agreement, using CENI to defend all these positions.
Orphanages and Missionary Societies
But problems materialized when several large churches started their own orphanages. They then asked other churches to send money to help support them, and some saw this as sinful—that God has not authorized the church, His special institution, to run orphanages. Neither, they said, does God authorize churches to send money to other churches for this kind of work.
Other churches decided to invest in evangelism and set up missionary societies under the oversight of their respective elderships. They contacted preachers and evangelists who wished to preach the gospel abroad, and they asked other churches to commit to supporting those evangelists in the field. Smaller churches sent money to the larger churches who managed the logistics of getting the money to the men in the field, staying in contact, and reporting back to the supporting churches. Some saw this as destroying the autonomy of the churches. They said God’s word authorizes a church to send money directly to preachers, but it does not authorize a church to send money to another church to take care of that business for them. There is no command, example, or necessary inference to authorize such.
Kitchens and Eating in the Building
Another bone of contention revolved around the use of the church building. Since the building was purchased with the church’s money (“God’s money,” they said), the building should only be used for the specific activities God authorizes the church to engage in. If God authorizes the church to meet regularly, preach, sing, take the Lord’s Supper, etc., then we should use the building to do those things, but any other activity is unauthorized, they claim. “Eating on the grounds” was a term coined at the time. Many churches decided God had not authorized them to eat meals together as the church, so they thought it was sinful to eat together in the church building or anywhere “on the grounds,” which had been purchased with “the Lord’s money.” It would be using the building for something the church was not authorized to do, they said. Obviously, using this line of thinking, installing a church kitchen is a massive step in the wrong direction.
When we have ladies’ or men’s classes at the building here in Mandeville, we fire up the coffee pot and sometimes someone brings doughnuts or something snacky to share. Is that not what people do when they get together for fellowship—they eat together?
Does God Want Us to Eat Together?
Under the old covenant, almost every Jewish holy day was a feast day.
- The Passover was a full evening meal devoted to remembering God’s work of salvation from Egyptian bondage, and it was immediately followed by the week called the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They presented a food offering to the Lord for seven days, and that included much eating (Lev. 23.4–8)!
- The Feast of Firstfruits celebrated the harvest (Lev. 23.9–14).
- The Feast of Weeks was 50 days after the Feast of Firstfruits and celebrated the end of reaping season (Lev. 23.15–22).
- The Feast of Trumpets was on the first day of the seventh month—a memorial feast proclaimed with blast of trumpets (Lev. 23.23–25).
- The Day of Atonement was on the tenth day of the seventh month, and this was the only commanded fasting day for Israel (Lev. 23.26–32).
- The Feast of Booths was on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, and Israel was to “rejoice before the Lord [their] God seven days” (Lev. 23.33–43).
When God ratified His covenant with Israel, He told Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the 70 elders to come up on the mountain to worship. They “went up, and they saw the God of Israel…they beheld God and ate and drank” (Exodus 24.9–11).
When Solomon dedicated the temple, he threw an enormous 8-day feast (1 Kings 8.62–66), and the people “went to their homes joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that the Lord had shown to David His servant and to Israel His people.”
God created eating together as an expression of close fellowship. When people say we have no command, example, or necessary inference that God wants the church to eat meals together, they err greatly! They often point to 1 Corinthians 11, in which Paul chastised the Corinthian brethren for profaning the Lord’s Supper. The problem was not in the simple act of eating a meal together; it was in the way they were disregarding one another, not caring for one another, not waiting on one another. In other words, they missed the fellowship in the meal.
Jesus often ate with His disciples, enjoying the Jewish feast days with them, and eating at various public gatherings. Fellowship of this nature was important. The Pharisees understood eating with someone to be fellowship, and they asked Jesus’ disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Matt. 9.11). In the parables of the Lost Sheep and the Lost Coin, they call their neighbors to come rejoice with them when they find the lost thing (Luke 15.6, 9). How do you think they rejoiced? I imagine it involved eating together because that’s what happens in the next parable of the Lost Son: “And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.” When the older son drew near the house, he “heard music and dancing” (Luke 15.23–25). The point is that the father was back in full fellowship with his son, and feasting together showed that fellowship as nothing else can!
The early church enjoyed feasting together. “And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts” (Acts 2.46). In Acts 20.7–12, we see that, after Paul raised the young man from the dead, he went back to the upper room and broke bread and ate, and he conversed with them all night until daybreak. First Corinthians 11.20–22 shows, at the very least, that those brethren ate together when they got together on the first day of the week. Peter warned Christians of false teachers who “count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you” (2 Pet. 2.13). Jude wrote something similar: “These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves…” (Jude 12).
One of the things we look forward to is dining with Jesus in His Kingdom. Jesus ate His final fellowship meal with His disciples the night of His betrayal, and He said, “I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father’s kingdom” (Matt. 26.29). Wow!
What Should Christian Feasting Look Like?
Christian feasting should be outward-focused. When we allow food and drink to rule us, we are primarily focused on ourselves, and it we fall into gluttony and drunkenness. We do not feast to indulge the flesh but to engage in fellowship and celebrate and share the grace of God with others. “When you give a feast, invite the poor, he crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just” (Luke 14.13–14). Feasting is an opportunity to give.
Christian feasting should be God-focused. Ultimately, we should draw our minds to the awesome blessings we all enjoy in Christ Jesus our Lord. “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10.31). “Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4.4–5).
If it is something Christians should do as a church family, it’s something we can do in the building. I believe it’s something we should do in the building. Should we use the treasury of the church to buy food for these feasts? I do not think that is necessary or expedient. It is best for each family to bring food to share. Those who have much should share with those who have less, no one will lack, and God will be praised.
I don’t want to cause a brother to stumble, if it offends someone’s conscience to eat in the building. But after considering all the verses quoted above, don’t you agree that the Bible encourages God’s people to eat together? Don’t you think it shows that the people of God under both old and new covenants feasted together and that feasting was a good thing?
Let us take more opportunities to eat and drink together—throughout the week and especially on the Lord’s Day. Let us engage in true Christian fellowship, breaking bread together, and sharing with those who don’t have as much. Let us enjoy God’s grace as we extend it to one another.