Hi Jake,
If what you say here:
The idea that there is one church per city, and each of these city-based churches is somehow distinct and separate as an entity, seems to directly contradict the idea of the universal corporate Church.
Is true, then why did Jesus Himself refer to 7 churches in Revelation? Why did Jesus not just say "send it to the Church".. why "seven churches"?
Revelation 1:11
saying "Write in a book what you see, and send it to the
seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea."
Ephesus is a church - city, not denomination, house/street name, or country
Smyrna is a church - city, not denomination...
Pergamum is a church- city, not denomination...
Thyatira is a church- city, not denomination...
Sardis is a church - city, not denomination...
Philadelphia is a church - city, not denomination...
Laodicea is a church - city, not denomination...
So if we want to see how God/Jesus views the church entity, we can see that in Revelation 1:11.
But the idea itself, actually comes from church history. The Bible of course, reflects how things were at the time. It's no surprise that the Bible does not mention denominations or more than one church per city, because that's how things were.
I submit this section from this book, emphasis mine.
The Word of Truth: A Summary of Christian Doctrine Based on Biblical Revelation By Dale Moody
p. 435
The New Testament also speaks of the church as the one body of Christ composed of all true believers in all places, but it never speaks of a plurality of churches in one city (Col 1:18,24; Ephesians 1:22; 2:14-21;3:6-10;4:4,12; 5:23-33). It comes as a jolt, but it must be said again that the modern concept of a plurality of churches in one city is never found in the New Testament.
Dale Moody's credentials as a theologian can be found here:
http://archives.sbts.edu/the-history...rs/dale-moody/
I also present to you what the Orthodox church, one of the oldest churches, says:
http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articl...nOneBishop.php
The model of church organization that was formed during the first three centuries of Christianity was based on the principle of "one city-one bishop-one Church",
It should be quite evident then, that historically and factually speaking, there were churches organized according to territorial boundaries.
I agree with what you said here:
"If we really want to be semantically strict, the only true "church" is the body of Christ, the universal church consisting of all believers. "
That is precisely what we believe. There is only one church, and the expression of that is one church per territory or city. Multiple churches per city does not reflect the "one church" very well.
In regards to:
"I think most Christians understand the distinction that when we say "church" in reference to a building, it's really just shorthand for "a meeting place for members of the Church""
If we are talking about denominations, like the Roman Catholic church, Orthodox, or even the pentecostal mega-churches, it's a whole lot more than "just a meeting place". "Just a meeting place" is like "hey, let's meet for church at the park today, and next week we can go to a cafe". That's "just a meeting place". But denominations are not like that.