My mother’s wisdom on the community of believers:

I think the Church universal is better served when we [...] focus on loving and serving one another.  Perhaps [...] we can create a community of Who We Are within our fellowship.  In the community of Who We Are we can be loved and accepted as we are, and our friends and acquaintances from all corners of our lives are then free to come in and out and “try” the community of believers — we’d be the ones who are open and loving and just Who We Are — which I think is very attractive.

If we insist on being a community of Who We Ought to Be, however, I fear we’ll attract very few, as few of us ever think we’re Who We Ought to Be, whether we’re basing that assessment on Biblical truth or not.  [We] can never live up to it anyway and more often than not become hypocritical in some way by trying to be Who We Ought to Be.