Is "Church" the "Kingdom"?

"God chose to indwell and empower to spread his salvation through Jesus Christ and that organism is the church. "

That is my question. Wasn't that organism the household? "Find a man of peace... stay with him..." Peter's house in Capernaum, where it all started... Zaccheus... Simon the Leper... The day of Pentecost... Cornelius... Lydia... Ekklesia - not a synagogue, but a bunch already together.

I have not "quit church to be the Kingdom of God in my community" because I have some kind of hurt.

Not at all! I LOVED church! Loved the people! Loved being on the platform or in the pew! We were the people that pastors wept over when we had to leave. Never left a church on bad terms*.

But where was the fruit? It wasn't in what I did when I invited people to church or clubs. It was in what I did in my home and community. Applying the 80/20 rule meant... giving up meetings and loving my neighbor instead.

We're finding that discipleship is effective in real life. I see my friend being bossy, and I challenge her. She sees me being argumentative and gives me the Word. My husband models loving parenthood to a single dad. The family and community are the most natural accountability system in the world. And we are, for the first time in our Christian life, seeing transformation regularly. 40 years in the desert was long enough for me:)

Isn't that discipleship as Jesus demonstrated it? And, yeah institutionalization can be eliminated. Paul lined it out so well!

*And had total sympathy with the breakdown of my pastors... Almost all of them, actually. 2 divorces, two suicides, one porn addict, one affair... That alone makes me think there is something not quite right with our way of doing church... Is it spiritual attack? Or is it disobedience to what Jesus told us to do?