The gospel not only creates individual believers but also a visible covenant community called the church. Christ established His visible church to serve as the primary place where the life-long process of unlearning many of our old, deep-rooted notions of the way of life that the Bible calls holiness and learning the true gospel-way of obedience is to take place. The visible church is the place where the ascended Christ’s “gifted ones” (Eph. 4:7-13) administer the ordinary means of Word and sacrament so that believers are not only created but discipled into Christ’s image over a lifetime.