Picking up the creed, Karl Barth speaks of the significance of the local gathering, the congregation:
[I believe in the church] means that I believe that the congregation to which I belong, in which I have been called to faith and am responsible for my faith, in which I have my service, is the one, holy, universal Church. If I do not believe this here, I do not believe it at all. No lack of beauty, no ‘wrinkles and spots’ in this congregation may lead me astray.
Dogmatics in Outline, page 144.