The Church

My facebook status right now contains what I think is a great definition of the church. "It is God's embassy in a specific place". Embassy is a great word. The church is not the kingdom, but it is the kingdom represented, the voice for the kingdom, the ambassador of the kingdom of God. What is the kingdom of God? This is an entirely different blog post, nay, an entire book? Briefly, I think the kingdom of God is how the earth conducts itself when every man, woman, and child lives in total submission to God's will, and is full recognition of his awesomeness. The church is the ambassadors for this kingdom, which has been inaugurated by the death and resurrection of Jesus, which has disarmed the evil powers that previously held sway over the affairs of men and women. The church testifies to the Lordship of Christ as demonstrated at the cross and His Resurrection as the meaning of everyone's life. This works out in the unique way in which the people of the church go about their lives before the watching public. The church does this by worshiping, committing heartily to one another, and calling light into both private and public darkness, through word and deed. In this way the church is an embassy.
But in order for the church to do this, it must be visible. People must recognize it as a church. This does not mean that it has to have the word church in it's name, but that it has a place that everyone knows they can go where they will be in the midst of followers of Jesus. Church however is a good name for that group, because "church" avoids cultic associations. The point is that the church is visible and stationary. If the church was invisible,that is, a mysterious conglomerate of believers in Jesus, how did the messenger know to deliver the letter to the Corinthians? Feel free to add to the discussion with your comments.