What Church Was Like in 150 AD (per Justin Martyr)
Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2026 5:37 pm
I greatly enjoyed Gavin Ortlund's video discussing what a church service would have been like in AD 150, according to Justin Martyr's description of it.
He lists 7 things to expect (if you were there wanting to attend a church service at that time) at the beginning of the video, and then expands on all of them throughout the remainder of the video:
1 - Plan on Sunday, not Saturday - Today we take this for granted, but back then Sunday as "church day" was a relatively new thing, for both Jewish and Gentile believers.
2 - Don't look for a steeple (or a church building) - Church in the mid-2nd century was house church.
3 - No need to bring a Bible, you wouldn't have owned one; but you would hear it read and preached, both the Old and New Testaments
4 - You won't get a bulletin, but you won't need one, the service will be relatively simple
5 - You won't be a face in the crowd - not able to sit unnoticed in a corner. The service was participatory and communal.
6 - Come hungry. The Lord's Supper is going to be part of an actual meal.
7 - Expect both structure and spontaneity - more spontaneity than modern high church service, but more structure than low-church types are used to.
Towards the end, he brought out what we can learn about the Eucharist and how it was viewed and practiced according to Justin - it was weekly, it was sacred, it was climactic within the service, and it was limited to baptized believers. His discussion of the "fencing of the table" and how that should be a challenge to evangelicals was interesting. From my perspective, we might also think the frequency of its observance could also be a challenge to us. They managed to observe it weekly AND take it seriously, without opening it to all and sundry.
He lists 7 things to expect (if you were there wanting to attend a church service at that time) at the beginning of the video, and then expands on all of them throughout the remainder of the video:
1 - Plan on Sunday, not Saturday - Today we take this for granted, but back then Sunday as "church day" was a relatively new thing, for both Jewish and Gentile believers.
2 - Don't look for a steeple (or a church building) - Church in the mid-2nd century was house church.
3 - No need to bring a Bible, you wouldn't have owned one; but you would hear it read and preached, both the Old and New Testaments
4 - You won't get a bulletin, but you won't need one, the service will be relatively simple
5 - You won't be a face in the crowd - not able to sit unnoticed in a corner. The service was participatory and communal.
6 - Come hungry. The Lord's Supper is going to be part of an actual meal.
7 - Expect both structure and spontaneity - more spontaneity than modern high church service, but more structure than low-church types are used to.
Towards the end, he brought out what we can learn about the Eucharist and how it was viewed and practiced according to Justin - it was weekly, it was sacred, it was climactic within the service, and it was limited to baptized believers. His discussion of the "fencing of the table" and how that should be a challenge to evangelicals was interesting. From my perspective, we might also think the frequency of its observance could also be a challenge to us. They managed to observe it weekly AND take it seriously, without opening it to all and sundry.