# “The church is God’s new community” by John Stott

- Link: https://tollelege.net/2010/04/11/the-church-is-gods-new-community-by-john-stott/
- Published: 2010-04-11T11:09:49-05:00
- Author: tollelege

“I am assuming that we are all committed to the church. We are not only Christian
people; we are also church people. 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 unchurched Christian.
The New Testament knows nothing of such a person. For the church lies at the very
centre 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…

So then, the reason we are committed to the church is that God is so committed.”

–John Stott, [_The Living Church _(](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0830838058?tag=toletaupanre-20)
Nottingham, UK: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 19-20.

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