I came across a good discussion on mission and church and Steve put my thinking on mission infront of church very well in the comments.
misisology is the lense through which ecclesiology dhould be formed not the other way round.
Check out the full discussion here
Who does mission? God’s people. Who are God’s people? The church.
Sure, God had a mission before he had people, but the church can’t be doing mission if there is no church.
What is the most important thing in life? It is to love the Lord with all your heart – i.e. to have a right relationship with Him. That is what makes a person a part of His church. When a person has that love of God then mission flows. So our missiology flows from our comprehension of ecclesiology (that God first loved us, that we then loved him…).
However, if we have a different view of what Church is, that it is this organisation of people that we can join if we choose rather than it being Christ’s body, then I can see that we might place less importance on church (especially as it often tends to be a rather big let down!) and believe that mission take precedence.
Whilst I’m a bit of a rebel when it comes to the practice of church in this country I do recognise that I am a part of the church (Christ’s body) and therefore my calling is to both my brothers and sisters AND to those who have still not responded to God’s love.