“You cannot join the Church—it is impossible. And all our efforts to get people to join churches are entirely manmade ideas, accomplishing manmade ends with no real significance whatsoever. You don’t belong to a church by signing a card, or by going to a confirmation class, or by making a public confession. You belong to the Church only by means of a redemptive experience, of a saving encounter with the redeemer, with the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is only through this redemptive renewal that you enter the Church at all. If you are in Christ, in that sense as the New Testament uses it, then you are also in the Church, without exception. If you are not in Christ, no matter what ritual or form you go through, you are not in the Church, even though your name may appear on a dozen church rolls. And you can be chastised, and baptized, and pasteurized, and simonized. None of it will do you any good unless you are in Christ.”

~RAY STEDMAN