(I wrote the below a year ago and disagree with some of it now. We should not get caught up to much in Jewish culture (as Paul warned in Galatians) but be more relevant to our own cultural mores, eg for a Maori it may be Marae style, for a POM it may be drinkies at the pub etc...)

One thing I have realised is the near impossibility of not being massively influenced by your cultural past when you start something new. I have certainly seen this as we have started meeting from house to house instead of a designated building. I can shut my eyes and imagine those first Christians gathering together to celebrate and do ‘church’ for the first time. What would they have done? It would have been very difficult not to do what they were so used to doing as Jew’s. What would they have done when they gathered together for the first time in a house? A’ Christian Shabbat’ is my guess, with the bread and the wine now reminding them not of the exodus but of Christ as he commanded (Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the Law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to fulfil them. Matt 5:17) . An extended family with an open door (“Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay.” 1 Peter 2:?) Doing Shabbat was most probably the first form of the early church and is still the most pared down (and the most powerful!?) form of church there is.

The New Testament I believe fleshes out the above point. Often when a particular church is mentioned, a certain person or household is mentioned. One can imagine that the extended family such as aunts, uncles, slaves and servants were a significant proportion of those churches. When Lydia or Aquilla and Priscilla became Christians and saw churches established in their houses it would be strange if most of the church was not made up of family connections. Remember that in those cultures you had several generations living in the same house and also living close by. And if these Christians named in the Bible were Jews then you can bet that their churches were just an extension of their Jewish roots. The obvious story about the extended family being a church is of course the story of Peter and the Roman Jailor. It specifically mentions that the whole ‘household’ were saved and baptised. They could not have all wondered down the road the next day to the local community church, so a church would have been birthed out of that extended family. This family was not Jewish, but those who brought them to Christ were, so again this gentile family when they gathered together most probably had a similar look and feel as Shabbat.