Re: The Early Christians: In Their Own Words

So the individual Christian communities represented the ultimate reality of

the church which has its life in God. The only valid church order was the 
guidance of the freely moving Spirit. The church must not be looked for 
where man is, but where God is, yet the divine, invisible church came to 
active expression in every wor****p meeting. She has reality in the Spirit 
as the mother of the believers, the bride of the coming Messiah, and the 
body of Christ. The Lord is the Spirit. The Spirit is the church. So
Christ 
in the members becomes the church as the “coming Messiah.” The church is 
the action of God turned toward humankind, the religious and social 
manifestation of the Spirit at work on earth.