I honestly believe that the furniture that we use in most church buildings hinders our practice of the Lord’s Supper. This ties into the last post, since most of our furniture was inherited from other religious groups. Let me explain some of the hindrances I see:

The communion table. The standard communion table isn’t a table. It’s a modified altar. If I set down a big piece of furniture with no legs, no way to sit around it, and then told you it was my new dining room table, what would you think? I know, some modern coffee tables don’t have legs, but still, in any other context we would not call that chunk of wood a table. So how does that get in the way of our taking communion? Well, one of the basic points that I’ve come to see is that the Lord’s Supper is about the table, not the altar. The sacrifice took place on the cross; the Lord’s Supper is about the table fellowship after the sacrifice. There’s a reason why Paul calls it the table of the Lord. Yet our “table” reinforces the idea of a reenactment of Jesus’ sacrifice. [Some churches don’t have tables like that, either having real tables or nothing at all. Consider yourself fortunate. Why spend thousands of dollars on something that hinders our worship?]

Pews. Where did these come from? Some of you that are smarter than I might can fill in the gaps of history for me. Pews hinder our worship in multiple ways, but none greater than when it comes time to “gather around the Lord’s table.” It is extremely difficult to create a table atmosphere when sitting in pews. It’s extremely difficult to create an air of fellowship when sitting in pews. It’s not impossible, but it’s harder than it should be.

Those are the two main problem areas that I see. Feel free to defend our traditional furniture or to point out other hindrances that you see.