It’s likely that, should a believer from the first century manage to arrive in one of our churches, he would not recognize it as such. The Church today has drifted from the model we see in the New Testament, and we are unaware and unconcerned. But we cannot deny that the churches in this country are in a state of decline, and this situation bodes ill, not only for the churches, but for our nation as well. Here is Part 1 of Absimilation, an essay in blank verse.