[aron]

So what are the essential features of our Lord's assembly? First, I see the recognition of Jesus as God's sent Messiah, the Christ. He is surely the Savior of the world. This is the rock. It is solid, and will endure.

But we must take heed with what we build. In Matthew 5 Jesus said, "Let your yes be yes, and your no be no; anything else is of the evil one." I think that when we cooperate with Jesus' building His ekklesia, we should only use what are clearly His essentials; requiring "extras" to be placed in the ekklesia is arguably "of the evil one".

So no requirement of "local ground" that I can see, nor "affiliation with the ministry of the age". No requirement for "one publication" or "one trumpet". No "all ekklesia must be absolutely identical". No "seven feasts". No "trainings". Look at the minimal advice given by the Jerusalem saints in Acts 15:28,29, sent out to the new Gentile believers: it's very basic.

What I see: 1) faith in Jesus; 2) two or three (or more, obviously) gathered together. That is the structure of the ekklesia.

For advice to such gatherings I would perhaps give: 1) try to avoid sin; 2) try to love one another; and 3) if you are ambitious to be great in the heavenly kingdom, be the least here on earth.

But we must be cautious about requiring love, or humility, or even to some degree purity. All will be revealed "in that day." If the master of the field was willing to let tares and wheat grow together, so should we. If we try to root out tares today, we risk damage to the whole crop (Matt. ch. 13).