The doctrine of the church in the Scottish tradition has traditionally be more concerned about defending Presbyterianism against episcopacy and Catholicism, and seeking to ensure the freedom of the church over against the state, even if it was an established church. There was been been less debate about the mission of the church until the 1990s when the North American Gospel and Our Culture movement stimulated writing by people such as Darrell Guder and Craig van Gelder on the missionary nature of the church. Inspired by Lesslie Newbigin, this is a major effort to get missiology back into ecclesiology. A place for mission in the self-understanding of the church was certainly needed, but whether this is a take over or a corrective is perhaps a moot point.

Wallace M Alston, The Church of the Living God: A Reformed Perspective, Louisville, Westminster John Knox, 2002. Review, Theology Today, April 2003, 98-100.