“From a Christian point of view, the world need the church, not to help the world run more smoothly or to make the world a better and safer place for Christians to live. Rather, the world needs the church because without the church, the world does not know who it is. The only way for the world to know that it is being redeemed is for the church to point to the Redeemer by being a redeemed people. The way for the world to know that it needs redeeming, that it is broken and fallen, is for the church to enable the world to strike hard against something which is an alternative to what the world offers.”

Stanley Hauerwas & William H. Willimon

(Resident Aliens, 94)