Re. NT churches: My beliefs on the subject differ somewhat from yours, I think (if I'm understanding your remarks correctly). I view any church that takes Scripture alone as its authority, and that obeys it in good faith as best they understand it, as a "New Testament Church." Some churches of course may understand the NT more accurately than others-- in particular, as regards which church practices are presented as normative in the NT-- but this is a difference of degree rather than of category.
In my observation, the view that "all NT church practices are normative" causes several difficulties. One is that, if we don't speak in tongues, it forces us into lots of hermeneutical gyrations to explain why that "doesn't count." Similarly, it allows us to get far too caught up in conflicts over minutiae like (for example) whether the Lord's supper was just a token bit of bread and wine, or a full meal (I've never known a church to practice this, but they seem to have done it thus in early Acts, and also in Corinth). But more importantly, it undermines the unity of the universal Church by leading us into the trap of taking an "us vs. them" view of other Bible-believing churches (thus making us at least as sectarian as "denominational" churches, and perhaps more so); and it also misplaces our priorities in leading us to exalt church order above the work of evangelism, shepherding, and teaching.
I believe unapologetically in New Testament principles (or, more simply, in obedience to the New Testament) as a goal for Christian churches-- but not as a point of separation from other churches who believe the same gospel that we believe.
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In my observation, the view that "all NT church practices are normative" causes several difficulties. One is that, if we don't speak in tongues, it forces us into lots of hermeneutical gyrations to explain why that "doesn't count." Similarly, it allows us to get far too caught up in conflicts over minutiae like (for example) whether the Lord's supper was just a token bit of bread and wine, or a full meal (I've never known a church to practice this, but they seem to have done it thus in early Acts, and also in Corinth). But more importantly, it undermines the unity of the universal Church by leading us into the trap of taking an "us vs. them" view of other Bible-believing churches (thus making us at least as sectarian as "denominational" churches, and perhaps more so); and it also misplaces our priorities in leading us to exalt church order above the work of evangelism, shepherding, and teaching.
I believe unapologetically in New Testament principles (or, more simply, in obedience to the New Testament) as a goal for Christian churches-- but not as a point of separation from other churches who believe the same gospel that we believe.