The different meanings of "The Church"

Recently I was in conversation with a very nice friend who expressed his concern with the contrasting views of what "The Church" is from the Orthodox point of view and from a protestant point of view.  The Church in his view was the body of the faithful that were saved.  And in his opinion, the Orthodox view the Church as the institution of Hierarchy with priests and laymen that is a means by which the faithful become sanctified.  I don't think that what my friend was saying was wrong, but I don't think he realized that the Orthodox Church doesn't view things like many of us in the West do, namely as an either-or scenario minimalism, but rather as maximalists that embrace the many facets of truth in each of God's interactions with us.  The best example being that many in the west struggle with giving honor to the Holy Virgin Mary and the Holy Saints and Angels, somehow thinking that this detracts from the honor given to the Holy Trinity.  We as Orthodox do not think of it as a competition at all, but fully know that without God there is nothing.  We don't hold back love to the Saints out of fear of forgetting this, but rather our love for the Saints helps us grow in love for God.   

So it is not that we as Orthodox don't see the Church as the body of the faithful that are saved, but that we also recognize that the Church can also mean a method of salvation.  The key is to understand that Jesus Christ himself likened the Kingdom of God and Heaven as many things that fall into both of these realities.  Our Lord spoke of the Kingdom of Heaven being likened to 10 virgins with lamps, 5 of which were wise, but the other 5 were foolish.  But He did also speak of the Kingdom as a mustard seed that grew into a great tree.  But then again He spoke of it as a man that sowed good seed in his field but while he was sleeping an enemy sowed tares among the wheat.  But then again he likens it to leaven that secretly grew.  And many more of course, but it is clear that there are many facets of the diamond that is The Kingdom of Heaven, which we can logically equate to the Church.

St. Gregory the Great and Dialogist says in his homily on the parable of the 10 Virgins, that "Often in the sacred scriptures the Church of the present time is called the kingdom of heaven.  In another place the Lord says: The angels will come and gather in all causes of sin from the kingdom of my Father(Mt13:41), although in that kingdom of blessedness, in which there is the greatest peace, there will be no causes of sin to be gathered in.  Again it is said: But whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and so teaches others' will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever observes and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Mt 5:19) In fact, anyone who preaches in words what he does not fulfill in his life is breaking a commandment and so teaching others.  But no one who won't fulfill through his works what he is teaching can reach the kingdom of eternal blessedness.  How will such a person, then, be called least in it, when he is not allowed ever to enter it?  Accordingly, what does this passage mean by 'the kingdom of heaven' but the Church of the present time?  The teacher who breaks a commandment is called least in the Church since his life is contemptible and therefore his teaching is despised."- Homily 10