The Christian life may seem to be individual and private, but really it is not; it is a corporate life, a body life. You alone are not the Body; you are a member, and you need others as members in order to realize the church life. When we stop trying to do good by ourselves and learn to depend on Christ and live by Him, we are a living member and prepared to be a functioning member of His Body. Then we have to realize the church life by definitely presenting our body to the Lord, by having our mind renewed, and by having our spirit on fire. When the body is presented, the soul transformed, and the spirit on fire, then we will have the church life. We will be a living, functioning member—not a troublesome, cold, or dead member. We will not be a member out of function, but a prevailing and aggressive member in function. We will have the reality of the church life.

(The Economy of God, chp. 20)