The Church is the people of God in all countries at any time. It is not the buildings or the organisation. In the early church, there was no central hierarchy as such. Each congregation was independent. Divisions of church hierarchy are not as serious as divisions in the faith. Divisions in the faith are what the apostles wrote of in their letters. But no matter the problems, there is always a church.

It depends... if they are divided over those who think for themselves and those who just blindly follow what the pastor tells them, then I think the situation is normal and you are better off to go with the ones who are thinking. And you may see a lot more of this kind of division in the future, as people start to wake up to the difference between the Kingdom Gospel Jesus preached, and the popular gospel Paul preached. This will explain the difference: http://gospelenigma.com And that resource may explain much of the division you are already beginning to see.

In the beginning there was only one Christian religion, then the divisions started. I'd say if anything, a divided church is two churches.

No, a divided church is still a church but she has to return to her first love for God. The brothers and sisters of this divided church must revisit the first church and to study and to relearn to understand their commonalities which unite rather than their differences which divide.

You know, you could probably make a case either way. God created us in all our individuality. He delights in our differences. He made us that way. We are not meant to be mindless automatons. That said, we are supposed to live in unity, harmony and peace. We are supposed to love each other. So I guess as long as the differences are amicable, there probably isn't any problem. It is when we fight among ourselves that it is a problem. It is when we make our differences more important than loving God and loving one another that it is a problem. Anything that distracts us from Him is a sin, even if it is a good thing. For example: God created sex. Sex is a good thing. It binds couples together in love. It creates new life. It is definitely a good and Godly thing. But when you make sex a means to an end, when you misuse it, when you allow it to come between you and God, it becomes a sin. The sex is not the sin. The act of allowing it to become more important than God and a distraction from God is a sin. By the same token, I would say that divisions within a church, if they become a distraction that keeps us from loving God and loving one another, are a sin. But amicable divisions that reflect our diversity but don't distract and don't cause anger are probably not a problem. I guess maybe the Moravian Church motto might fit here: In essentials, unity, in nonessentials, liberty, in all things, love.

It is still a church, just a troubled one.

sounds like it

I like singwell's answer. If the word church refers to community/congregation, you will have variation in interpretation and practice around a core of common values. Being part of an interfaith church, this variation varies even more greatly to include all faiths, A fundamentalist in this environment may consider this a divided church. From another perspective our common shared values is the glue that keeps us going. Weather a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist or Agnostic etc. in practice, we are able to appreciate each other in some way and possibly deepen our understanding of each others way of being in the community and the world.