The Remarkably Ordinary Church
For I received from the Lord that which also I delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread.
Paul is handing down something he himself received—a simple, repeated act. Bread taken, given, remembered. Nothing flashy happens here. It is a plain account of a plain meal that carries eternal weight, passed from the Lord to Paul to the church at Corinth.
The Aquila Report's piece "The Remarkably Ordinary Church" picks up this same thread. The author admits to once believing churches needed to be extraordinary to matter, but no longer thinks so. What churches need instead, the piece argues, are congregations that don't grow tired of doing the same things week after week: gathering to sing, opening the word, praying together, pointing to Christ, eating and drinking the bread and cup.
That's exactly what this verse shows us in miniature. The Lord's Supper wasn't instituted as a spectacle but as something to be repeated, handed down, done again and again in remembrance. The ordinary rhythm of bread and cup, prayer and Scripture, is the very way the church has always been sustained and pointed back to Christ.
The article is careful to note this isn't an excuse for mediocrity—faithfulness in the ordinary is its own kind of substance. There is something steadying in this. You don't need your gathering to feel spectacular for it to be doing exactly what it should.
For the full reflection on why these unremarkable practices matter so much, take a look at "The Remarkably Ordinary Church" from The Aquila Report.
Read the source: The Aquila Report →