Thank you so very much for your insightful post, dear xzins!
I think the Church is that body that is descended from the body that Jesus started: They went from Jerusalem, to Judea, to Samaria, to the uttermost parts of the earth.
But they WERE NOT just anyone who decided to hang out a shingle with the words "First Church of the Stuff We Think Is Right."
Indeed. TXnMA used a metaphor on
on another thread which I find particularly helpful:
I was amused at how much true Christians are like multicolored wires in a complex cable. When one strips away the externals that appear to differentiate us -- like the colored insulation distinguishes and isolates one wire from another -- what is left is the solid metal core where the Power flows. And those cores are very much alike -- just as true believers are all alike when standing at the foot of the Cross.
You might find it userful to follow the link that A-G provided -- and to "back-track" up the thread to d1scern the context.
To carry the methaphor even farther, there are those in "organizations calling themselves 'churches'" who are like a brightly-colored wire with nothing but insulation: strip them down, and there is nothing left...