Evidence from the literature of the early church as it developed through the centuries shows that the church always celebrated Communion as the focal point of worship until after the Reformation when the focal point shifted to preaching. . . . Nevertheless, the Reformers of the sixteenth century uniformly insisted on maintaining both the Word and the sacrament as necessary parts of a full service of worship.
-Robert Webber, Common Roots: The Original Call to an Ancient-Future Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 113-114.