The Church... John Stott

The church lies at the very center of the eternal purposes 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 past eternity, being worked out in history, and to be perfected in 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