Calvin had Geneva, the Popes worked on Rome, the Redemption congregations are focused on Phx. There's a reason why every era you still find the church intertwining with what would be considered normal life; as I've said in most of the posts, this is God's creation and he wants to redeem everything (Eph 1:10).
Every inch of this life is desired by God, from the adventurous experiences we're told to chase to the comfortable mundane days we actually have; all of it reflects God. But we know how the story goes, worshipping the wrong things and sin has deteriorated life, which is why the church (rightfully so) is obsessed with realigning it back to it's original intent. However, we still tend to miss on that as well.
John Calvin is like the reformed guy's favorite super hero, we think it's cool to dress up like him while everyone else wants to be Captain America for Halloween. And no question that's a problem, but what he did for the church is worth the praise! However, when you look at the Geneva he was a part of, you can't help but cringe a little. In Geneva you could be punished by the law if you wore the wrong type of clothing or dancing; public meals required grace, no instruments in service, skipping church was not allowed, lewd singing could get you your tongue pierced, what they considered heresy could lead to death, bars were only allowed for bible studies. (If you're a huge Calvinist like I am, take everything I said as lighthearted as possible, even though, it's true... unless someone who has studied Geneva heavily finds any errors, if so please message me and I'll make the changes! :)
In the heritage of Roman Catholicism, governments and kingdoms were very much connected to the church; during the medieval ages kings were seen to have divine rights and during the Roman Empire, Christianity eventually became the state's religion. Outside of all the political corruption that the church got involved with, the biggest problem with this stuff is how people were robbed of being able to truly experience Christ and were forced to live by a particular interpretation.
It's hard to down-talk these eras since they were clearly used by God to spread Christianity, but I wanted to show implementing an interpretation of the truth as the truth. Which is something the church really struggles with.
All of these eras you'll find the theme of a forcing people to live a particular way and it probably has to do with how much easier it is to uphold a moral code than to live out as the hands and feet of Jesus. So when we look through church history we'll typically find the negative side of "Christendom" (a culture where everyone lives like a Christian vs having the choice to do so). What we might be able to compare this to in the states is the Bible Belt.
Jesus constantly battled this thinking with the Pharisees, but we still have it in us. I mean I always try and push my interpretation; this whole blog site is me pushing my interpretation. It's way easier for me to tell others how I want them to live than for me to just live like Jesus. And for as long as I live that'll be something I'm trying to work on, but like the Pharisees we want to add our own opinion to God's ways.
My point is the church does great when we don't focus on getting people to live a particular moral life: making someone understand drinking or smoking is bad, or making someone see that it's ok to drink or smoke, or make someone not be gay, convert believers to a certain political view, do Dave Ramsey, etc. God absolutely cares about us living a moral life and the more time we spend with Him the more we'll see the holy Spirit + our community guide us to kingdom lifestyles. I just think it's distracting for the church to use platforms to preach/tweet/books/face book status our interpretation of morality over enjoying Christ.
Calvin's Geneva applied some definitely misguided interpretations, but it came from the heart that we live in an "already, not yet" world. Calvin wanted Geneva to reflect what God's city might look like, because he believed we are in a time where the new creation is already being brought in, but not yet completed, not until the return of Jesus.
It's natural to mimic Calvin's habit of forcing morality and teach it through microphones, but the body of Christ would do good to learn from Calvin that if we're going to be religious about anything, it should be "all of life is all for Jesus."
Stay at home moms or dads, fashion designers, people who like to exercise, foodies, marriage.. these are things that God made and the interpretation we should be legalistic about is they need to be enjoyed as if Jesus has already redeemed them. This will reflect God's city.