The Incarnation is the center of the New Testament teaching about the church. Paul calls the church “the body of Christ.” As Jesus was the truth of God in flesh and blood, the church expresses the gospel of Jesus in living flesh and blood reality. The church exists to demonstrate the gospel and by that demonstration to spread it. By its very nature, the church is called to live itself into its world in order to transform it.
Sadly, the church doesn’t do a very good job of demonstration. Most non-Christians I talk to don’t object to Jesus and his teaching, but they have a major problem with the church. And so do many of us.