Why do we have the church building?

"In the process of replacing the old religions, Christianity became a religion."  Alexander Schmemann, teacher and writer

Bare with me here. I'm going to start a series (or at least hope to) that helps explain how we as a Christian culture ended up in buildings, sitting in pews or chairs, facing forward,  and listening to sermons each Sunday. Where did all our present "Christian" methods, rituals, schedules, events.. whatever you want to call them, come from? And are they Biblical? 

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Do you realize that Jesus came to abolish temples, priests and sacrifices. He said so on more than one occasion. He called his followers temples of the Living God. Collectively, he called them the church. Nowhere in the New Testament do we find the terms church (ekklesia) refer to a building. It always referred to an assembly of people, not a place. You never went to church. You were the church.

New Testament scholar, Graydon F. Snyder states, "The first churches consistently met in homes. Until the year 300 we know of no buildings first built as churches."

http://chathamchurchofchrist.org/article_acts242.html

In fact, as you read through the New Testament, you'll see that all of the epistles were written to home churches. Some have argued that Christians were not permitted to erect churches or didn't have the money, but this is simply not true. They chose to remain in homes. In fact, if a church grew too large, they would often knock down a wall or remodel the house to accommodate more people. Larger than that and they expanded into other home churches.

Although Christians had picked up some other pagan practices along the way, it wasn't until Constantine, emperor of Rome (285-337) came on the scene that things began to change.  After Constantine's questionable conversion to Christianity, he was determined to make the Christian faith legitimate.  In his pagan beliefs, that meant a sacred building, priests, and sacred rituals. So after 327 AD, he began erecting the first church buildings throughout the Roman Empire. In doing so, he followed the path of pagans in constructing temples to honor God (More on Constantine's pagan beliefs in a later post)

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He named his church buildings after saints just as the pagans named their temples after gods.
He built church buildings upon cemeteries of dead saints because these places were considered "holy"
These early buildings were magnificent and spacious designed after Greek pagan temples with large basilicas which provided ample space for seating passive and docile crowds to watch a performance. And much like the Roman basilicas they possessed an elevated platform where the clergy ministered with a rail separating them from the laity. In the center of the building was an altar or altar table considered the most holy place in the building because it often contained relics of martyrs and because the elements of communion, the sacred bread and the cup sat on top.

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The bishops and priests and "Holy" men sat behind the altar on  ex cathedra or thrones. The sermon was preached from the bishop's chair which was believed to hold the power and authority and was covered in a white linen cloth.

Interesting, don't you think? As I've been reading about this, it has brought several questions to my mind. Many of us were raised in Christian churches. We don't know anything else. It's what our parents did, and their parents before them. Church is just church. It's just the way things are and always has been.

Now, I'm not bashing church or church buildings at all. I still go to church. But all I'm saying is what if all these years we've been doing it wrong?

Information taken from Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna