"That Grotesque Anomaly..."

I just received a review copy of The Living Church by John Stott (IVP, 2007) and have been skimming through it before I send it out to be reviewed. In the first chapter Stott lays out a few of his assumptions about his readers. The very first is worth repeating here.

First, I am assuming that we are all committed to the church. We are not only committed to Christ, we are also committed to the body of Christ. At least I hope so. I trust that none of my readers is that grotesque anomaly, an un-churched Christian. The New Testament knows nothing of such a person. For the church lies at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. It is not a divine afterthought. It is not an accident of history. On the contrary, the church is God's new community. For his purpose, conceived in a past eternity, being worked out in history, and to be perfected in a future eternity, is not just to save isolated individuals and so perpetuate our loneliness, but rather to build his church, that is, to call out of the world a people for his own glory. ... True, we may be dissatisfied, even dillusioned, with some aspects of the institutional church. But still we are committed to Christ and his church. (pp. 19-20)

Edited 12/3/07.

"That Grotesque Anomaly..."