THE COMMUNITY OF THE KING
In the mid-70's Howard Snyder wrote The Community of the King. It was a follow-up to his provocative book The Problem of Wineskins: Church Structure in a Technological Age.

In many ways The Community of the King should have preceded Wineskins, for Community outlines Snyder's theology of the church -- his ecclesiology. In a nutshell, he contends that the church is by definition charismatic and organic rather than institutional in nature. "Legitimate institutional elements must be subordinate to the charismatic nature of the church."

I mention this because a few months ago I picked up the new (2004) revised copy of The Community of the King, which is definitely new and improved. Specifically in the new book he takes into account the emerging globalization and gives more attention to the Charismatic movement (what Snyder means by "charismatic" in his original definition of the church is slightly different than what Charismatics mean).

Also -- and if for no other reason this makes the revised book worth buying -- he deals with the emerging emphasis in ecclesiology on perichoresis. That is, the church needs to take more of its cues from the internal communal relationship which exists within the Trinity. The church is the image of the Trinity.

This is a rapidly developing emphasis in contemporary Western theology (just now catching up with the traditional Eastern theologians) -- with major work being done by theologians such as Miroslav Volf and the late Colin Gunton.

Snyder does a nice job of integrating the discussion -- talking about emerging structures and some of the issues that go along with them (e.g. the growth of cell churches).

It would have been helpful to have some discussion of the emerging church movement, the new Western house church movements, and the new Apostolic movements. Still, The Community of the King is worth picking up -- even if you read the earlier version in 1977.