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You mean watching the same play, with prescribed largely perfunctory prayers and responses, ritual readings, and a 10 minute sermonette by “priests” in ostentatious garments is not what you see in the record of the NT testament church (rhetorical ?)

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I often have fun answering rhetorical questions, so I’ll answer yours! In a positive way, I hope!

As for your question, the answer comes as well, that depends!

I’ve done some research into the earliest churches, and from what we can tell, there WAS a certain amount of ritual and recitation. At the very least over the Lord’s Supper, as well as the confession of faith in the Creeds, which came into being before the Bible was compiled. Some of the earliest canons of Scripture were compared to the earliest Creeds in order to ensure that they were ACTUALLY the Word, and not just Bible fan-fic.

At the same time, Jesus DID blast the people who recited overly-long prayers without any meaning to them.

So.

I suppose the difference is, is the Word in that ritual, and does it have meaning for the church, or do we just do it because we’ve always done it, and is nothing more than empty words?

I’ve done some research into the earliest churches, and from what we can tell, there WAS a certain amount of ritual and recitation.

You did not get that from the inspired record of the NT church, and i think the last book was penned by about 90 AD.

Not that any amount of ritual and recitation must be bad, and there was some ritual in baptism, ordination and anointing of the sick. And we all have some ritual in our life, and and recitation "Praise the Lord!") in our life. But the born from above believer is to be sensitive to the Lord's leading in obeying Scripture, and be ready to change our plans accordingly, and not become set in our ritual practices. However, as regards church meetings, what we see in the descriptions of NT meetings in Acts onward is not the Catholic theater described before, and sometimes not what you see in typical evangelical meetings.

How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. (1 Corinthians 14:26)

And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him. When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted. (Acts 20:7-12)