Some gems from The Peaceable Kingdom by Hauerwas:

Of course, Christians arc not just asked to see themselves as sinners We are to do something about our sin. We are called to be disciples and even to count ourselves among the righteous. Our call is not a general admonition to be good, but a concrete and definite call to take up the way of life made possible by God’s redemptive action for us in the cross. To be redeemed, as I suggested above, is nothing less than to learn to place ourselves in God’s history, to be part of God’s people.

(emphasis mine)

Quite a far cry from the “personal salvation” (even though I think that there IS such a thing, it does not take place outside the participation in that community (The Catholic Church has a saying: “Outside the Church there IS no salvation”)

To locate ourselves within that history and people does not mean we must have some special experience of personal salvation, Redemption, rather, is a change in which we accept the invitation to become part of God’s kingdom, a kingdom through which we acquire a character befitting one who has heard God’s call. Now an intense personal experience may be important for many, but such experiences cannot in themselves be substitutes for learning to find the significance of our lives only in God’s ongoing journey with creation.

We Christians locate our lives in relation to the history of a people. The gospel is not a “truth” or philosophical theory that can be appropriated by an individual in the hope of giving some meaning to his or her life. On the contrary, we find ourselves part of a com¬munity with a very particular kind of citizenship. As citizens our self understanding may change, but this occurs only as we acquire the virtues necessary to sustain a community of peaceable people through history. Likewise, Christian ethics must serve and be formed by the Christian community, a community whose interest lies in the formation of character and whose perduring history provides the continuity we need to act in conformity with that character.

(again, emphasis mine)