Restoring the Early Church.... No thanks!

I've been thinking about this a little today and does "restoring the early church" really make any sense?  Can you imagine any other group, business, organization, university, etc saying, "what we really need to do is go back to the way our organization was 2000 years ago."  Does it make sense culturally, philosophically, educationally, or spiritually to go back to the way things were?  Think about Paul's words to the Philippian church regarding his spiritual journey:

     "Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.  Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.  Let those of us then who are mature be of the same mind; and if you think differently about anything, this too God will reveal to you.  Only let us hold fast to what we have attained."  Philippians 4: 12-16

      Paul is letting the brethren at Philippi know that he's ok in prison, and that he continues to strive forward in his relationship with Christ.  The early churches had their own wealth of problems and issues, at times even fearing for their own survival.  They lacked the texts we have today, they lacked the freedoms, and they lacked the decades and centuries of experience and education we have.  The culture of the early church was one that few if any of us have experienced today.  Do we really want to turn back the clocks on all we have "attained?"

     What I realized this past week was that we, the Church, have lost some of our community.  Being together morning, noon, and night, was a tremendous blessing.  We got up early and stayed up late (maybe too late) talking with our brothers and sisters, sharing a meal, enjoying activities, worshiping God, and sharing our triumphs and our burdens, and it was, in my mind, pure heaven.  Everyone was family and I was blessed to meet new members of that family while reconnecting with lifelong members.  Now I could go for a little more of that type of restoration.

     Admittedly the church (little "c"- institution) and the Church (big "C"- the people) have had our setbacks and struggles and continue to do so today.  But with the exception of the closeness of the community, the idea that somehow things were better back in the "good ol' days" seems like faulty logic to me.  In fact, even the closeness of those early communities were more likely a response to necessity than to mere "enlightenment."  (Today we likely have an even greater ability to fellowship and share with one another, we simply continue to make choices, material and otherwise, that make that more difficult, but that's another post.) Culturally, spiritually, and educationally I think that tremendous strides and additions have been made.  I think the bigger question is, are we prepared, as a Church, to reveal Christ, to be Christ to God's people "for such a time as this?"