The claim that “the first social task of the church is to be the church” (Hauerwas) is a typical of postliberal ecclesiology. This paper argues that this ecclesiology (built also on related claims that the church is a culture, and doctrine is a cultural-linguistic system) replicates colonial models in its missionary movement, insulate the church from external critique, and abstract the church from the encounter with God and in-breaking of the kerygma. The social task of the church needs to be found beyond itself. This is made possible by understanding the church as a missionary community, who, echoing God’s act for us in Christ, express its faithfulness to the Triune God through solidarity with the world. Engaging the world as participants of God’s rectifying act to make and keep human life human.