Krispy, You are right? The definition of "thriving" is quite subjective. Maybe Revelation 2 and 3 could help us. I think in an attempt to communicate, several posts including mine talked more about what is not healthy. We have no model in Scripture of "thriving" churches because people (afterall) make up the church. We do have a model of what healthy elder brothers should look like, though (from the Bible). And we have real life examples, today of the good, the bad and the ugly. Pilgrim
I would suggest you look at the first part of Acts. That is where the first thriving church was found. For modern day examples look at the persecuted church in the 10/40 window. The house churches in China and Iran are a good example.Posted by Bearmaster.
Beloved,Please end this thread. It wasnt my intention to spark debate and some replies on this thread don't seem very beneficial. Please ignore this thread for the sake of peace.
_________________Elias
Very good point, bearmaster.