Mission is the Essence of the Church

So many ecclesiologists (theologians who study the church) consider mission to be central to the identity of the church. Some go beyond centrality to say that it forms the very essence of the church, and that the church is nothing without mission. And yet, so many pastors read this, acknowledge it, and respond by making mission one of the programs of their church. They put somebody over the "Missions Department" and extol the virtues of the program that they've created. Missions IS the very identity of the church, not a program added to the identity of a church! In order to be missional in the way that ecclesiologists consider that it should be, a church must be completely transformed from the inside out and every pattern and form of the church re-evaluated in light of a missional calling.