The church in many of its local manifestations is essential for the way we understand mission. Nevertheless, we must be careful never to permit our understanding or practice of mission to become too narrow or restrictive. It must never become ecclesiocentrically confined or controlled. The emergence of the church is taken as the fruit of mission, not as the goal of mission. It is an outworking of the kingdom and mission of God in which we are asked to participate.
Thus, “When the church is in mission, it is the true church. The church itself is not only a product of that mission but is obligated and destined to extend it by whatever means possible. The mission of God flows directly through every believer and every community of faith that adheres to Jesus. To obstruct this is to block God's purposes in and through his people” says Alan Hirsch.
