What is your model of the Church?

So I’ve been taking this catechist training class.  One subject we’ve gone over in some depth this week is Vatican II and ecclesiology in general.  Last night, the pastor teaching the class covered Avery Cardinal Dulles’ six models of the Church – Church as Institution, Sacrament, Herald, Communion, Servant, and community of disciples.  The ‘models’ are interesting, representing different ways of seeing the Church and its missions, but I think they have a limited utility.  Nonetheless, the pastor pointed us to a quiz one can take to determine which model of the Church you belong to  (except the designer of the quiz only has 5 models, not 6). 

I came out as strongly biased towards a Church model that is institutional, sacramental, communion, and herald.  This makes sense to me, I see the Sacraments as absolutely necessary for salvation and to experience the Fullness of God’s Love, and I value those aspects of Authority in the Church which make clear what the Truth Christ has revealed is. 

You might want to try the quiz to see if any of these models make sense to you.  The quiz is here. 

My exact scores were:

Institution – 63%
Mystical Communion – 59%
Sacrament – 59%
Herald – 49%
Servant – 31%