What do people mean when they talk about the visible and the invisible church?

I hope I'm not getting anyone into trouble here, but I have a, well, let's call him a close relative,

who has a gift for getting into places he really shouldn't be.

He once took me to an air show when I was a child, breezily ushering me into an area that was intended exclusively

for members of the media. When challenged by an official, he nonchalantly flashed a laminated batch.

It might have been his library card for all I know, and the door was duly open for us.

It was a bit like that bit in Star Wars, where Alec Guinness waves his hand mysteriously in front of the stormtroopers and says,

these aren't the droids you're looking for, except without a library card, obviously.

Not everyone who identifies as a member of the media is actually a member of the media.

And in the same way, not everyone who seems to be a member of God's church is actually a member of God's

church. That's what we mean by the visible and invisible church. The visible church comprises all

those who claim to be or identify as followers of Christ. The invisible church comprises all those who

really are followers of Christ. Jesus invisible church comprises all those who really are followers of Christ. Jesus tells

a story about this in Matthew 13. A man sows good seed in his field and his servants are perplex

when the field turns out to have weeds in it as well as wheat. We thought you only sowed wheat.

What's with all the weeds? The master says

rather ominously, an enemy has done this. So what would you like us to do, say the servants?

Shall we go and root up all the weeds? No, says the master. If you do that, you might accidentally

root up the good stuff. Let them both grow together. I will separate them once and for all

when the time comes for the harvest. The thing about wheat and weeds, as I discovered in the mid-1980s

during a short-lived stint as a gardener, is that it isn't always easy to spot the difference

between a weed and a prize-winning flower. Some of the most

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