The church is to be a countercultural community. . . . God has raised up a people in a fallen culture to be a showcase of his desire for humanity—a people living in union with his purposes and in praise of his glory. . . . The church is to live out the new humanity as a corporate people, calling others into its life, nourishing an identity in Jesus, and teaching the pattern of living into his death and resurrection.
-Robert E. Webber, The Divine Embrace: Recovering the Passionate Spiritual Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2006), 224.