The body of Christ is meaningful in so far as individual Christians have Christ as their collective head. It is not individual local churches of which Christ is the head. It is not even individual Christians who are members of local churches. Rather, all Christians of the church age are those who comprise His spiritual body of which He is the spiritual head. No allowance is made in the New Testament for an unbaptized Christian, one who is not a member of a local church. The regular pattern is regeneration, baptism, and local church membership. However, if a believer is not a member of a local church, he is still a part of the body of Christ. He may well be out of order as a Christian in this age, but he is not out of the body Church.
Rolland McCune, A Systematic Theology of Biblical Christianity, Vol. 3, p. 209.
