An ideal church.

What does that mean in the 21st century. We're 2100 years removed from the Christianity of the first century. Jesus said that He was going to build His "church".

James Strong defined the original word of ekklesia as "a calling out, that is, (concretely) a popular meeting, especially a religious congregation (Jewish synagogue, or Christian community of members on earth or saints in heaven or both"

For the first few hundred years most "churches" met in homes, caves and in hiding...not because homes and caves are more "spiritual" than other places, but simply because if they made their meetings public they would most likely be killed. Today, in America, we don't have to deal with that type of persecution, we actually have buildings where the church meets now, and we have signs to tell people where those buildings are. But buildings are not the church, homes are not the church, caves are not the church. People gathered together with a common vision and purpose.

With that thought, I was thinking it would probably make sense to put into words what our ideal of a healthy church is. We share a common vision with our parent church in Chillicothe in regards to this...so, without further adieu...