How do we see the Church?

We are just completing some research in the schools where we work looking at how young people view the world and how they view Christianity. Once completed we are looking at over 1,500 young peoples views on life and there have been some really interesting comments. As you can imagine with that many there have been some really varied answers, i think my favorite was to the answer to the question ' what are the 3 main influences in your life.' which had 'my testicles' as one of the three. 
One of the questions i was most interested in was 'What do you think of the word Church?' This had both some encouraging replies but also some distant and derogatory comments. This challenged me to think about how i see the Church. Working for a Christian organisation that is often termed as a parachurch organisation some people would put words in my mouth. I once heard someone say parachurch organisations are called that because they are like parasites where it takes rather than gives. This is totally against everything YfC and in particular Nottingham YfC believe. In Revelation it talks about the Church being the Bride of Christ and so if we love the bridegroom we must also build up, encourage and love His bride. When someone last asked you about Church, what did you say? Did you winge about something that you didn't like? Did you dismiss the question and move onto another subject or did you tell them how beautiful and amazing it is. 
How do we see the Church? Let's build the Bride of Christ up as honour Him.

Richard Dawson