The purpose of meeting together in the early church

Acts 2:42:

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

I've already talked about preaching in the New Testament.....it was directed toward non-believers and it was always the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection that was preached. There was no preaching IN the church to other believers.

So what did they do in their regular meetings? According to Acts 2:42 they taught/studied the doctrines that the apostles delivered to them, they fellowshipped together, prayed together and ate together. Now, I believe that the "breaking of bread" was the Lord's supper because they all partook of one piece of bread in which they broke into pieces and shared together. But also, if you look at the institution of the Lord's supper, they were eating the Passover meal, so I believe it was also a normal part of their weekly meal.

So the New Testament Church did 4 main things:

1. studied doctrine together
   
2. fellowshipped together
3. prayed together
4. partook of the Lord's supper and a meal together

So many "churches" nowadays preach at least 3 times a week, sometimes more, and people just go sit in a pew and listen (or sleep) and then go home! There is very little fellowship, very little prayer, very little studying doctrine and very little eating together, though some do observe the Lord's supper each week.

There are a couple of good things I can say about the denominational church we attend for now. We do not observe the Lord's supper weekly or study doctrine weekly, but there is a lot of fellowship and a meal together every week as well as a weekly prayer meeting. I love the people there, I just wish it was more like the New Testament Church!