Are we really saying anything different? You are correct in saying that a church automatically qualifies as tax exempt, and this predates the establishment of the 501-C-3 part of the tax code. Churches do not have to be 501-C-3's, but many have thought they did have to do that. And the IRS cannot take away the church tax exempt status, though they threaten and scare us into thinking so.
We are in total agreement here. Almost all churches are misinformed by lawyers and IRS people who want them to spend the time and money to file as 501(c)(3) when it is totally unnecessary. I would state with confidence that several people in the IRS don't even know this.