‘To be a Christian is, by definition, to be part of the community of God’s people. To be united with Christ is to be part of His body. The assumption of the New Testament is that this always finds expression in commitment to a local church. The centrality of the church means the centrality of the congregation or it means nothing. Commitment to the church is easy while the church is an abstract, universal reality. But the New Testament assumes commitment to real people in local churches with all their faults and foibles.’

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church, pp,85-6.