pause for architectural oogling

We are moving into a digital age. Our constant challenge is to blend the old into the new, to draw the past into the future, to keep church architecture reflective of the culture the Church is trying to reach out to. I've solved it. Simply crash a space ship into your existing building:

That is The Crystal, the new entrance to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Here's another angle:

Conde Nast's April issue chose the seven new architectural wonders of the world. Sadly, none of them were churches. The other one that caught my eye is the New Museum of Contemporary Art in Manhattan:

Look a the neighborhood it's in. Seems a little out of place.

The thought crossed my mind as I looked up images of the architectural wonders of the world: church buildings are always trying to blend into their neighborhoods, but what if they stood out? Of course, they shouldn't stand out in a culturally irrelevant, terribly ugly, cast-a-shadow-for-five-city-blocks way.

But what if they stood out for their architectural beauty? What if people made a point to drive visiting friends and family by the cool building downtown that happened to be a church? What if people saw it go up, or moved into town, and thought, "That's a church? It looks like an art museum!"

What if?