We’re saying the same thing but focusing on different things.
You see a car and see an engine. I see a car and see a drivetrain. We’re both right.
The church IS the body of believers. And it has a hierarchical form of a sort. Paul evern refers to it (what kind of person can be a deacon, etc. But the hierarchy is only an attribute of the church.
I’m working with some relational databases right now. To use it as an analogy, the database is the “body of believers”. The interconnectivity (keys, indexes, information used to create universes, etc.) could be the hierarchy. But the database itself is the body of believers, and keys and indexes are also individual data elements (believers).
The hiearchy is a way of “arranging” them, but the individual elements (believers) are what make up the church.
And the analogy is of course not perfect, since believers have a direct and personal relationship with Jesus. That said, you need some sort of hierarchy to schedule bingo games, picnics and handle the openly homosexual music director.
I am saying that the Church has very definable boundaries and structure and that it is not some loose, self defined confederation of believers whose Venn diagrams overlap. There is one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
The Gospels tell us exactly how and why Jesus established that His Church would be lead by a Pope as chosen His form of Church governance and that the first Pope was Peter.
Throughout the Old Testament God had always chosen a single man to guide His Church and He has guided and protected that person through public and private Revelation. This was true of Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph, Moses, Solomon, David and the many judges, kings and prophets that followed. It would be true of His Church too.
In His revelation Jesus specifically discussed the three possible forms of Church governance; the Democratic form, the Oligarchical form, and the Theocratic form before revealing His choice.
In this dialog Jesus asks His Disciples; "Who do the people say that I am?" (Matt 16:16). This was the Democratic option. He got answers varying from Elijah, to John the Baptist, to "One of the Prophets", but no clear, unambiguous or truthful answer. He then asked His Apostles; "Who do you say that I am?". This was the oligarchical form. None responded. These two forms were unambiguously rejected.
Then Peter stepped forward and without consulting the others said; "You are the Christ, the son of the living God.". In response to this Jesus revealed the basis and governance of His Church when He said:
“Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” (Matt 16:17-19)