The church building is intended as a place where the Christian community can gather to pray and to celebrate the liturgy. The first Christians went to the synagogue, the Jewish house of prayer, to read the Scriptures (later called the Bible) and to pray. Afterwards, they would celebrate the Eucharist at someone’s home (Acts 2:46).
Soon these house churches were specifically reserved for the celebration of the Eucharist, and Christians no longer went to the synagogue. Although the architecture changed over the centuries, the overall layout of the church building remained the same.
