Metamorphosis and Contraction - The Sing Along

So, what do you think?

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Late breaking!

Danny Kaye begins what looks to be a really cool journey answering this question, with his first post:
The Perfect Church

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I have put extensive notes out here on what I think is right about both the home church and the steeple church. Next, I hope to write what I think the perfect church would look like (and yes, I have heard, "If you find the perfect church, don't join it. You'll just ruin it." I'll take that risk.) I would like to hear what you think the perfect church should be.

I don't know whether I have said it here, but I believe that the last frontier of theology is ecclesiology, the study of the church. In the Progress of Dogma, James Orr looks at the history of the church as a giant, chronological walking out of systematic theology. First the church was confronted by errors in the doctrine of God, then of the Trinity, then of the Son of Man, then of salvation, etc, etc. I forget most of his conclusions, but it's a great thought.

The church has walked every doctrine out, except itself. Like the Shulamite, the church has tended to other gardens and her own has suffered. When Constantine filled the ranks of the Christian church with recently converted pagan priests, he liked to have killed it. Soon, we had a full-blown Catholic church and the scriptures themselves were hidden from us regular Joe's. We could not defend ourselves from a misled priesthood, and a thousand years of relative darkness ensued. It took Gutenburg to free us from that, but I believe we still missed some critical points.

What about you?

If anyone else would like to post on the perfect church, I will gladly link all the posts here. I would really like to hear what each of you thinks is important in a church, and what our lives should be like as members thereof.

Once again, I hope to do the Vox Apologia question this week (DarkSyde asks how Christians should reconcile doctrinal differences - cool question), so it will probably next week before I am done with M & C - 4.

See you soon,