Charting Mission Drift in the Local Church

Even while there are starbursts of hope on the horizon, mission drift should never be taken lightly. Shifting away from the biblical teaching and practicing biblical evangelism are symptomatic of and precedent to identifiable doctrinal drift. When a pastor or church no longer esteems direct evangelism appropriate, it is usually disguised by emphasizing relationship evangelism or servant evangelism. Non-participation in direct evangelism easily morphs into antagonism to direct evangelism. While there is a warning here, at the end of this blog I highlight four encouraging trends displaying that God is truly at work in His church.

This topic is like trying to make sense of bowl of Jambalaya. There are so many interacting and moving parts that it becomes difficult to comprehend the blending and rehashing. The goal of this short blogpost is to introduce four overlaid charts that seek to develop a framework for identifying the problem of evangelistic drift. Each of the four charts introduces another layer of consideration into this topic. 

Chart One introduces the lifecycle of an organization. Chart Two applies the lifecycle terminology to the development of a denomination, from evangelism and church planting all the way to disintegration. Chart Three inserts red boxes to show how views of evangelism overlay over the lifecycle of an Evangelical church movement. Chart Four shows how institutional churches try to tap the zeal and power of an evangelistic fervor of the “incipient stage” with “church planting,” or the growth of the “formalizing state” with “church growth.” Other layers could also be added to this framework. It is the view of this author that what is needed is a return to New Testament evangelism in theory and practice at every stage of church life. It is only by following the teachings and examples of the Bible that God’s love is shed abroad in believing hearts. 

“And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Romans 5:3-5.

This tribulation produced love from God then flows through the entire church when they are zealously obedient to Christ’s Great Commission.

Chart 1: Five Stages in Organizational Lifecycle

The chart above displays the five stages of a social institution, as described by David Moberg in his book, The Church as a Social Institution. These five stages are descriptive of organizational reality. They will provide the basis for understanding the rise and fall of the local church. Let it be clear that if a local church lasts 100 years in the United States, it is an unusual church. This is especially so if it maintains its original purposes and goals after 100 years. Most churches close long before they achieve their 100-year mark.

This fact begs the question: have there not been Baptist churches in the United States since the State of Providence was founded in 1638, how can it be that churches do not survive, and new ones must be planted? The reason is mission drift and doctrinal drift. After these two forms of mildew eat away the heart of the churches where they thrive, the leave a hollow shell that eventually closes.

The five stages in the lifecycle of an organization are:

• Incipient Stage: Typified by zeal and fervor, founding members will cross rivers and plains to preach the gospel to one and all. Revival fires glow. The Holy Spirit is breathing out a new work of God.
• Formalizing Stage: Typified by hard working pastors who gather congregations together, continuing in the footsteps of their founders. They boldly evangelize and gather members into churches.
• Administrative Efficiency: Sometimes one or two generations removed from the founders, the new pastors apply new methods and principles of administration to best shepherd the flock of God in their care. There is no need for outsiders to be brought in since the churches are healthy and prosperous from the efforts of the founding generations.
• Institutionalization: As evangelism wains, so love diminishes, and zeal for spiritual things becomes rare. Soon the church becomes introverted and works-oriented as it focuses on its own health and survival. Love grows cold. Church leaders run the church like businessmen do a business. The Spirit slowly says, “Ichabod.”
• Disintegration: The church knows that it is dying. They may have money in the bank. They may control sizable real estate. But soon the numbers diminish, and they are no longer able to pay the light bills. Desperation mounts to maintain the institution that they once were. This is a sad time for any church.
• Political Assimilation: To Moberg’s five stages I have added 5-B. There are some churches that defy the funeral home envisaged in this last stage. When a church receives support from taxes, they can continue indefinitely no matter how many people do or do not attend that church. The giving to the church is less important. Practicality speaking, evangelism is less important. This is where State-Churches do not follow the five-stage paradigm of Moberg.

Every local church fits somewhere on this paradigm. It is helpful to begin to evaluate where we are so that we can best return to the biblical teachings and methods.

Chart 2: Stages of Denominational Power

As churches walk their way through their own history, each stage marks difficulties and opportunities for them. Early church planters are unknown in their towns and cities. They are like outcasts seeking to start another church in a town that may be filled with other churches (in the U.S. for example). But once a new church begins to grow, the church planter gain recognition and respectability. If God continues to bless their work with faithful members his spiritual “power base” increases.

Soon the church planters may find themselves in conflict with the pastors of institutionalized churches that are waning. If church planters are more spiritually oriented (as the paradigm suggests), they may lock horns with pastors that have slipped down the slippery slope of compromise. It may appear to be generational conflict, but on a deeper level, it may be a Great Commission conflict, and even a doctrinal conflict.

Meanwhile, the institutional churches generally hold the levers of power. They control the finances and board rooms of the institutions created by prior generations of churches, such as conventions, schools, and even publishing houses. The older pastors understand church politics, and they do not intend to give up that control.

Are these battles only generational or institutional? It seems like there is an underlying evangelistic or spiritual component that may ignite or fuel these battles to epic proportions.

Chart 3: Stages of Evangelistic Philosophy

Before a church becomes a dying church, biblical evangelism has long been abandoned. Evangelism may be discussed in the hymns and Sunday School curriculum, but it is no longer practiced. There is a key point in a local church’s lifecycle when aggressive evangelism is considered counter-productive and unnecessary.

The church did not start out that way. Most Evangelical churches are founded by Evangelists through Revival Movements. Souls were aggressively sought. Direct evangelism was encouraged from the pulpits and practiced in the pews. But as the church budget grows and church staff swells, there is often a moving away from the urgencies of evangelism.

Culture begins to encroach into church evangelism methods. Mass marketing and client-management tools replace personal evangelism. Sermons no longer plead for souls to be saved. The need for a healthy weekly offering weighs heavy on the heart of the pastor as he prepares his sermons. Prominent people from town may now attend his church. The pressures of success are real. It takes an unusual pastor to keep the bow of the ship of the church clearly pointed toward Christ’s Great Commission. Praise God for men such as these!

On the other hand, ungrounded leaders listen to the sirens of culture calling out to ship’s captains, causing them to veer towards spiritual reefs. 

Chart 4: Attempts to Regain Patterns of Growth

Some local church sociologists may market a “form of godliness” (2 Tim 3:5) of techniques of church planting or church growth to institutional churches. These techniques fit with the evangelistic philosophy of institutional churches. However, these culturally relevant methodologies often lack the two essential components for power in witness:

1. The power of the word of God, Hebrews 4:12-13: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”
2. The power of the gospel of Christ, Romans 1:16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.”

The culturally relevant methods have all the trappings of earthly success, but they lack Holy Spirit power. They also lack the love of God, which God sheds on His people as they evangelize through persecution for the gospel.

Natural means yields natural success. Spiritual means produces spiritual success. Earthly means yields temporal success. Divine means produce eternal success. Regenerate Christians have been gifted the “power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Why would we trade in this most powerful weapon for the broken cisterns of human methods.

God blesses His Word. He blesses His Gospel. He blesses biblical evangelism.

Several Amazingly Encouraging Trends

As Moberg’s five stages of organizational life are studied, there are trends that show that Southern Baptists are breaking the mold of mainline U.S. churches. The first major miracle was the Conservative Resurgence that took place especially from 1980 to 1990. As the recipient of a Doctor of Philosophy from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, graduating in 2001, I became a student after Dr. Albert Mohler led significant changes at the school. I am deeply grateful. In the majority of U.S. seminaries, I would have had to fight for inerrancy, the virgin birth, and the substitutionary atonement in most doctoral seminars or colloquia. My degree would have had little to do with biblical evangelism and a lot to do with sociology of religion. Southern Seminary was both rigorous and a breath of fresh air in my academic preparation. The six SBC seminaries remain an encouraging modern trend.

The six seminaries takes biblical inerrancy seriously and are firmly planted on the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. There is brilliant hope for the future.

The second positive trend that I have experienced for over 25 years is that SBC leaders are constantly seeking out young talent. When Dr. Jason Allen was hired as President of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where I taught on campus for 19 years, I was truly impressed. The SBC machinery of churches, associations, entities, committees, boards, conferences, conventions, and fellowships allows young talent to be noted, trained, and deployed, some into prominent leadership roles. The highly qualified Dr. Allen came to Midwestern as President at the age of 35.

A third trend regards the North American Mission Board’s (NAMB) Church Replanting ministry. Their Replanting webpage (https://www.namb.net/church-replanting) is devoted to replanting and revitalizing struggling churches. Included on this page is Mark Clifton’s weekly podcast, “Mondays with Mark.” This emphasis shows that NAMB takes the reality of organizational lifecycles seriously, to the point where they have implemented a strategy to address this threat.

Fourthly, NAMB's new "Evangelism Kit" (https://www.namb.net/evangelism/kit/) is an amazing breakthrough in mobilizing Southern Baptists all across the U.S. to be involved in New Testament evangelism. This kit marks a full return to incipient stage evangelism by affirming and encouraging New Testament principles of evangelism.

Additionally, there are some amazingly positive trends on the mission fields of the world where Evangelical missionaries are drawing from the raw material of the New Testament to develop powerful movements of evangelism and discipleship. While a study of these trends is beyond the scope of this paper, they only add to the encouragement of God’s hand at work.

And yet drift happens and is happening. Like Jambalaya, these charts exemplify many moving parts in organizational stages and mission drift in the life of the local church. What might be some takeaways? Here are four recommendations:

1. Identify the organizational stage of your local church.
2. Consider your philosophy of evangelism.
3. Acknowledge compromise if it has taken place.
4. Repent of compromise and ask God to restore you to your first love and the sound pattern of His Holy Word.

Although mission drift will always be a part of a fallen world, it need not snatch us into its net.