Kenneth Korby on the problem with speaking of visible and invisible church

“To be caught in the tug of war initiated by the use of the words ‘visible’ and ‘invisible’ is to be threatened always to flee into the invisible, thereby turning every day churchly life over to machinations, devices, techniques, and powers of all sorts. Or, to choose to concentrate on that reality that corresponds to ‘visible’ is to shift the understanding of the Word of God and faith so that the inner life of the church is drained off into the quagmires of experientialism and into the legalisms of righteousness by works or rituals. And yet, to hold to both terms ‘visible’ and ‘invisible’ is very nearly to be caught defenseless against the ‘two church solution’ that has so often threatened the church’s unity and the Gospel.”

Kennth F. Korby, Theology of Pastoral Care in Wilhelm Loehe with Special Attention to the Function of the Liturgy and the Laity (Fort Wayne: Concordia Theological Seminary Printshop, n.d.), 91.