Steve Harper gives us a sound word.
When we begin to live in the light of faith, we see that our salvation incorporates us into the Church. We come to Life as one member of the larger Body of Christ. We cannot live apart from the Church any more than one part can live separated from the body.
This is why “churchless Christianity” will never work, even though some of the concerns it carries are valid. The cure for whatever damage the Church has inflicted on our faith is not our separation from it, but the renewal of it.
Christ gathers all believers to himself, functioning as our Head. We are “one” in him. We cannot individualize or privatize our salvation without destroying what Christ gave himself to accomplish–namely, the joining together of what sin had separated. No family is complete when there is an empty chair at the table, created when someone decided to leave home.
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Past(or) Imperfect 