text: Thank you for the insightful reply.  I think you are quite right about the great value that an institutional infrastructure can have for the human community that constitutes the Body of Christ.  And, as you suggest, it is important that the institution serves the community and the values of Jesus, not the other way around.
  But I sometimes wonder if maybe the Body of Christ includes all individuals who put into practice in their own lives the message of Jesus in Matthew 22:35-40, Matthew 25:31-46, Mark 12:28-31, and Luke 10:25-28.  I realize that ultimately this line of thought leads to Perennialism.