Why do we do church the way we do?

Who decided that as a church, we have to meet in a building, we have to have a worship service followed by an offering, followed by a sermon, followed by whatever? On the recommendation of a friend I ordered a book that apparently traces the history of how and why we (as far as mainline Christianity) do church the way we do church. I'm excited about reading it because I've always wondered when the traditions of Christianity came into play. I mean, I understand the basic stuff...many of our current traditions(baptism/communion/worship) were all shaped during the Reformation in response to the Catholic way of doing things. But even the Catholic way of doing things has changed over the years to resemble more of a Protestant mindset. If you take a look at a contemporary Benedictine service, I'll bet you that it looks more radically Protestant than did Luther, Calvin or Zwingli's services! in our culture today, many of the so-called "emergent" churches have services that more closely resemble a medieval Catholic service than an Evangelical Protestant one. But seriously, who decided that we should take an offering? Who was the first person to put kneeling benches in front of their pulpit? Who decided to build a pulpit? Did Jesus use one? Did Jesus practice exegesis? Did the disciples take an offering after their services at Antioch? Who was the first youth minister? Who decided that worship should go before a sermon and not after? Did the early christians wear their "best Sunday clothes" to church, or did they wear whatever? These are the things I wish to know...