It is not idealistic…
In an excellent post on the Vision for the Church, Alan Knox wrote about the danger of calling the Biblical (in this case, Paul’s) vision too “idealistic”:
There is a danger is calling Chester’s definition “idealistic”. Once we call something “idealistic”, it generally ceases to be our goal. Our vision is adjusted toward something that is “doable” or practical. But, in Scripture, Paul did not lower his goal because communities were not living up to the “ideal”. Instead, he continued to keep the “ideal” as his goal and, at the same time, continue to exhort the communities toward that vision.
And he continues to warn us not to ask the wrong question:
…what if we fall short in one of these areas? That’s the wrong question. We will fall short. No community is perfect. The question is: what do we do when we recognize that we are falling short in one of these areas? Then we seek to move toward the “vision”, by allowing the Spirit to make us into a more mature community in Christ. What do we do if we do not see any failures in our community? We humble ourselves, repent, and acknowledge that pride is blinding us to who we really are. Every community needs to mature in some way. And, once a community has matured in that way, that community still needs to mature, perhaps in another aspect of their community life. Maturity will continue until we are made perfect in Christ on the last day.