Merlin's Mustache

Two Quick Short Stories & You’ll Understand!

Taken from the book Mission Drift Chapter 15 Pg. 169

Working in close collaboration with like-minded local churches is perhaps the easiest way to stay on mission. But from our experience, it’s also the most complicated.

Story One: Several years ago, while working in Rwanda with World Relief, I (Peter) gathered with staff and clients in a rural church to disburse small loans to assist entrepreneurs to start or expand their businesses. It was a time of celebration. Each client shared a business [lan and dreams for the future.

We later learned something alarming. Right after the staff members left, the local pastor called a special meeting with all the clients – a conveniently timed Bible lesson on tithing. He began his talk describing how the Bible required each member to tithe 10 percent. He then preached that tithing was required on any funds they received. Since they had all just accepted a small loan to invest in their businesses, he required each member to tithe 10 percent of the total loan amount. It would be like your pastor showing up after you just took out a $100,000 mortgage for your home and required you to “tithe” $10,000.

Members tried to share about the difference between productive investment and profit, but to no avail. If they wanted to to continue attending the church, they needed to pay up. The group of entrepreneurs disbanded after the first cycle, and it was not a positive experience for anyone involved.

Story Two: On another occasion working for a Christian microfinance organization in Rwanda, I received a recommendation from a senior denominational leader. Attesting to Sheila’s character, volunteer experience, and capacity, the letter was one of the most glowing reporsts I’d ever reviewed. We hired her.

Less than a year later, we discovered Sheila was stealing from the organization. It turns out Sheila was also the niece of the denominational leader who provided the reference. Conveniently, this detail was left out during the application process. Even more disheartening, when we discussed the issue with the denominational leader, he threatened us. He made it clear we’d face issues if we dismissed Sheila. Not denying the allegations, he misused his power to protect a family member.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case. “I know the church is described as the Bride of Christ in Scripture, but too often it acts like Bridezilla,” Gil Odendaal of World Relief remarked.

BOTTOM LINE:  Therefore, the question is why would organizations desire to tie themselves to the church when it seems it would so much easier to operate alone?

FYI, Merlin now, I was not at all familiar with ‘zilla term so consulting my phone I learned the term is assigned to a bride or a bride-to-be who is extremely demanding and difficult to deal with ticking off their friends, insulting family, abusing florists, photographers, and caterers! Get the picture?

NEXT UP: In God’s wisdom, the local church is God’s Plan A. God has no Plan B. Is that statement COUNTERCULTURAL or what? What’s sad is that man’s Plan B Mission Untrue may already be in practice by key leadership individually within the Church, or across or throughout congregations! That’s just the way the devil strategically facilitates DRIFT! I Repeat. God has No Plan B, in case you missed it!   

Relational Drift

For centuries, the local church was the centerpiece of outreach and service. The rapid creation of separate parachurch org’s is a relative recent phenomenon. Para, parachurch’s prefix, is Greek for “alongside” or “beside.” The purpose of the parachurch org is to come alongside, to support, the local church.

Following World War II, a concentrated effort to respond on a massive scale to the devastation of Europe and Asia began. Newspapers carried images of suffering in Europe and Asia to the doorsteps of many Americans, prompting a compassionate response. A few years later television opened eyes to the world’s needs. The result was the rapid increase of Christian relief and development org’s motivated by faith, but largely disconnected from the local church. Over time, many of these org’s, like Christian Children’s Fund, received increased funding from a variety of supporters.

No longer were partnerships with churches necessary. In fact, sometimes stifled organizational growth. Parachurch ministries and outreach org’s pursued independence. More significantly, a separation developed between the “works” of justice and the “message” of salvation. Slowly, the church was given the responsibility to share the Good News verbally while the work of physical restoration went to nonprofits.

David Bronkema describes the implications of this period: “In effect, the theological rubber band that held the two elements [of the Good News and good deeds] … had snapped.” But not all org’s walked away from the local church. Mission True org’s know the importance of collaboration with local congregations.

BOTTOM LINE:

One of these org’s is World Relief. Today they actively work to connect churches around the world. Every outreach program has to have a clear plan of action grounded in local church partnership. They recruit through local churches and actively seek to strengthen church networks. World Relief understood from the beginning that the building up of the church is the anchor to mission!

NEXT UP:

This collaboration with the local church can be complicated: resembling either a “bride,” OR “Bridezilla?”

Mission True organizations recognize that the local church is the anchor to a driving mission.

Drift. The very word conjures images of a boat blown by the wind and led by the currents. Lacking a clear destination. Floating endlessly.

            You don’t have to be an expert sailor to realize that there is an easy way to prevent your boat from drifting. Throw an anchor overboard.      

          When I (Peter) was in middle school, my brother and I would carry an old boat on our heads to the Concord River. We’d cast off. I’d do the rowing, Jon the fishing. The boat leaked, which only added to the adventure.

          An old cinder block and some rope served as our anchor. Nothing fancy, but it worked. Anchors are perhaps the most ancient of nautical adventures. Cinder blocks, old tires, or welded iron – they all do the trick.

          For org’s who desire to protect against Mission Drift, on of the most powerful anchors is the local church.

National Revival to Global Missions:

“We were birthed in a church, Park Street Church in Boston,” said Stephan Bauman, president and CEO of World Relief. Park Street Church in historic downtown Boston is home to many “firsts” including introducing Billy Graham to the revival ministry. Graham became a lifelong friend to Park Street’s pastor, Dr. Harold Ockenga. Graham said that “nobody outside my family influenced me more than [Ockenga] did. I never made a major decision without first calling and asking his advice and counsel.” Today Graham and Ockenga are credited as being the bricklayers of a revival toward Christian orthodoxy that swept across the nation.

But Park Street’s pastor was concerned with more than his own congregation and those across the country. He was convicted “that missions make the church” and “that the local church is the key to world missions.” He cared deeply for the needy. And he understood God’s heart for the vulnerable. As the president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), Ockenga oversaw the creation of the War Relief Commission, which started partnering with local churches in Eastern Europe following the devastation of World War II.

Today it is known as World Relief, a global relief and development agency serving over four million people through 2,500 staff members and 60,000 volunteers in over 20 countries. World Relief’s birthplace was symbolic of its mission to partner with the church, a mission that is still at the heartbeat of the organization today.

BOTTOM LINE: “Everything we do is through the local church,” shared Bauman.

NEXT UP:  Did you know “drift” is birthed when the “works of justice” are separated from the “message of salvation”? Anyone relate?

CONCLUSION

As I (Peter) was packing up and getting ready to leave Rwanda to return to graduate school, my pastor warned, “People who go to schools like Harvard end up walking away from their faith. Please don’t it happen to you.”

          When I arrived in Camgridge, I braced myself for the secular assault on my faith. Bur what I found surprised me. Despite Harvard’s steady institutional drift since its founding, there is simply no doubt that God is still changing hearts in the halls once officially devoted to Christo et Ecclesiae, Christ and the Church.

          Once in Cambridge, I received an invitation to a barbeque at Jeff Barneson’s home. Jeff led InterVarsity Christian Fellowship on the campus, and I was amazed at how many people were there. Even before classes started, I realized Harvard was full of people eager to live out their faith. I struck up a friendship with Jimmy, and we decided to meet regularly to pray for the school and our classmates.

          But an even greater surprise was that throughout my graduate school experience, there was a surprising openness to issues of faith. My classmates were incredibly intelligent, driven, and compassionate. They were not bombastic, but rather open to thoughtful conversation. We all had questions and were there to thoughtfully discuss answers.

          When Billy Graham asked Harvard’s former president, Derek Bok, “What is the biggest problem among today’s students?” Bok replied “Emptiness.” To fill this emptiness, many students are asking real questions about life. And none of us had the intellectual audacity to claim we had figured it all out!

          In its early years, Harvard overtly encouraged students to explore the relevance of Scripture and faith in all areas of life. While not explicit today, there is still honest exploration. And despite the changed mission, people are coming to Christ at Harvard.

          While in Cambridge, I read a book called Finding God at Harvard, and I realize my experience was not an anomaly. While some walked away from their faith, many others found new faith in Christ while studying.

          Harvard’s motto, Veritas, “was just another, shorthand way of recognizing Jesus Christ, who was seen as the ultimate Truth.” Throughout the university, lives are being transformed as the God of Truth continues to reveal the divine in the midst of honest pursuit.

          However, as much as we see God still at work at Harvard, we can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Harvard had remained true to its original purpose.

          What if this institution had figured out how to vigorously pursue academic excellence without giving up the quest for Truth?

          What if leaders had learned to stimulate innovation but not at the cost of losing their core identity?

          What if they trained men and women for global engagement yet also encouraged leaders to devote themselves fully to the living God?

          What if it had remained Mission True?

Harvard, ChildFund, and the Y slowly drifted, and the world will never know what would have happened if they continued to be Mission True.

          Today, too many boards, staff, and leaders are silently choosing to follow this well-worn path of Mission Drift.

          Monitoring inputs and outputs, they forget to measure what matters most – their ability to implement their full mission. They hire for technical competency alone. Soft-pedaling their Christian identity, they do not defend their mission. Growth becomes their primary definition of success.

          However, in researching this book, we discovered there is another option chosen by courageous Mission True leaders. The more we learned their stories, the more we were encouraged. From their founding, these leaders stood unwaveringly upon the truth of the Gospel. In all areas, they have demonstrated intentionality and clarity in retaining Christian distinctiveness. They are committed to Christ, first and foremost.

BOTTOM LINE:        

  Today, you have the privilege of choosing which path your organization, church, ministry, life will take. Will you follow the path toward Mission Drift OR will you have the intentionality, courage, and resolve to follow a path of faithfulness? Imagine the potential impact of a generation choosing to remain Mission True.

NEXT UP:

For the brevity of the hour and the necessity of its message, the next seven posts, Lord willing, will be taken verbatim from chapter 15 of Mission Drift, titled: Save the Church – Mission True organizations recognize that the local church is the ANCHOR to a thriving mission.

..

Peter Greer and Chris Horst have identified one of the deepest challenges any leader faces: how to ensure that an organization stays true to its mission, especially when that mission becomes countercultural! (merlin now: Actually, being countercultural is all most of us oldsters have ever known, whereas you birthed since ’80, may regard the past 35 years as more or less, normal; and your parents as being paranoid, or worse). And, Peter & Chris squarely and succinctly have faced the more specific challenge of our time: how to create lasting institutions that forthrightly place the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ at the heart of their mission.

          I appreciate the way Peter and Chris are careful to affirm t want us to ponder the path to the “Y” from the “YMCA.” The Y has gradually elided not just three quarters of its name, but much of its original Christian mission, and most traces of its founding history, from its institutional identity. What happened to the comprehensive vision of human flourishing that once might have placed the real good of basketball in a context of greater goods and God’s ultimate good? Drift happened.

          To be sure, one person (or generation)’s “drift” is another’s “growth.” But Peter and Chris remind us that too often, institutional drift is fundamentally unintended, the result not of sober and faithful choices in response to wider changes but simply unchosen, unreflective assimilation. Peter and Chris are not asking us to create organizations that never grow or change – they are asking us to create organizations that do not drift passively downstream when the cultural currents become swift.

          They are marvelously honest about the sources of drift. Money plays a key role (as they remind us, you cannot understand the secularization of American colleges without understanding the role of the Carnegie pension bequest). There is also the simple failure to pay attention at crucial moments, such as the selection of board members, or the words we use to describe ourselves and our cause to diverse audiences. Most of all, there is the scandal of the Gospel, which constantly calls all human beings and human institutions to repentance and transformation rather than accommodation and self-preservation.

          This book addresses two dimensions of Mission Drift. The first kind is the drift that can happen on our watch, even under our very noses, when we take our mission for granted. The second is the drift that may or will happen after our watch, and direct influence, has ended.

          The first kind is above all a call to personal humility and accountability. I found their reminder of why leaders fail – precisely at the moments when they seem to be succeeding – bracing and challenging. The greatest temptations it seems, comes at moments of great success or promise of success, the moments when it is easier to forget our desperate need for God, without whom we can do nothing truly good or enduring.

          The second kind of drift, meanwhile, is a call to institutional humility and accountability. I’ve had the opportunity to personally witness what happens at 11 a.m. in the offices of International Justice Mission, when meetings, email, and phone calls screech to a halt and the entire staff gathers for prayer. Peter and Chris describe the board members of the Crowell Trust talking time every single year to pray and read its founding funder’s vision out loud. These are vivid examples of institutional humility (as strange as that phrase sounds) practices that keep ambitious and energetic people grounded in something beyond themselves, something that came before and will endure after their monetary stewardship of the organization’s mission.

          The point of this book is not to denigrate or denounce the institutions that have changed, even from Christian roots, to become something quite different. Indeed, we need institutions that cross boundaries and barriers in our pluralistic, secular world, making room for faith without requiring it. I love Peter and Chris’s appreciation for the genuine flourishing, and room for faith, that is possible at secularized institutions like Harvard University. There are still plenty of young Christian men who are called to play basketball at the Y, alongside neighbors who may not share their faith. Avoiding Mission Drift does not require us to retreat into safe, sectarian subcultures.

          But some of us are called to tend earthen vessels that hold an incomparable treasure: the scandalous offer of grace from the world’s Creator, through the sending and self-giving of the Son, in the power of the Spirit. Staying Mission True requires first of all that each of us become, personally, more and more deeply converted by this unlikely and beautiful mission. And then we are called, no doubt with fear and trembling, to do our best to build structures that will help that mission be encountered and believed long after we are gone.

          BOTTOM LINE:  Thankfully, this is not just our mission – in fact, in the most important sense it is not our mission at all. It is the mission of the One who will remain true even if all prove false, who has never drifted from His love and creative purpose. “The One who calls you is faithful, and He will do it.” I Thess. 5:24

NEXT UP: We’ll see, won’t we? Unknown yet.

“Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion – it is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ.”  Billy Graham

“Worship is the highest act of which man is capable. It not only stretches him beyond all limits of his finite self to affirm the divine depth of mystery and holiness in the living and eternal God, but it opens him at the deepest level of his being to an act which unites him most realistically with his fellow man.” Samuel H Miller

After reading the Miller quote and pondering it some hours, I had a compelling hunch to go deeper, and discovered that this Samuel H. Miller, dean of the Harvard Divinity School, had died in his sleep Tuesday night, March 21, 1968.

The spring of 1968 was a most memorable historic spring for me, reminding me of preparing for our Hesston College Gospel Team tour thru the upper midwest over Easter Break thru NB, MN, ND, & MT plus the Martin Luther King shooting April 4th just days prior to our embarking.

Miller was age 68 at his death and planning to retire the coming June (only 60+ days away) and would have retired two years earlier when he developed a serious heart condition, but he declined retirement convinced that his work was not yet done saying “I want to move theological education one hairbreadth closer to reality,” he told a friend. Evidently more than a hairbreadth was needed to turn the crimson tide for Harvard spiritually!

Miller took over for Dean Douglas Horton at Harvard in 1959, soon after a successful endowment drive saved the Divinity School from possible elimination. Imagine. Harvard without a Divinity School, when that was the very reason for its beginning, but in the end, or at least by today, or YET, that is practically what happened. You see, ever since COVID occurred, I often add the 3 letter word “YET” to many of my comments or statements, simply because in many instances I believe the truth is not yet known or revealed, including even our fuller understanding and comprehension of His TRUTHS. I tend to gravitate to His words from Matt 10: 26-31 “Have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul & body in hell.” Apparently there are no exemptions offered except by the blood of Jesus!

Back to Miller, being primarily a churchman who brought a new emphasis on study for the parish ministry, having just come from 25 years as pastor of the Old Cambridge Baptist Church–with a congregation made up primarily of laborers, social workers, and students. “I love this Church more than anything else in the world,” he once told a friend. Perhaps that was the first wedge or crack for Harvard’s dismal future? Am I being predictive or judgemental? Likely humanly both!

Miller’s lifelong concern — particularly while at the Harvard Divinity School–was a ministry alert to society and to social problems. His strong aversion to what he once called “ecclesiastical incest,” an interesting term, led him to establish a number of new programs at Harvard. Forming a new Department of the Church at Harvard was Miller’s most notable accomplishment offering courses in the relationship of the church to society and sponsoring a field work program–in mental hospitals and prisons–for prospective ministers. Miller will probably be remembered most for what one friend called his “genius in worship.” Thus his all encompassing quote in the introduction above. “He had the ability to express man’s spiritual needs and yearnings in a language which was neither traditional nor frantic, in its attempt to be modern,” (perhaps that being the second wedge or crack in Harvard’s theology foundation), as so stated by Miller’s successor, Krister Standahl.

The administrative details of a practical ministry never interested him. A friend remembered that while Miller was at his former church, he was not interested in committees or attendance but when the church’s spire was in danger of being condemned, it was Miller who rallied the congregation into raising $45,000 for its renewal and spurred a drive for a new prayer chapel as well. I’m wondering if perhaps by including the prayer chapel in the drive for spire funds, the two possibly divided fractions united such that each got what they wanted. Such maneuvers still work today; hence we may experience Mission Drift.

Therefore, it is not surprising that one colleague viewed Miller’s numerous displayed photographs of the Maine coast as distinct symbols of Miller’s uncluttered life for “He was a free man.” Indeed, Miller felt life deeply and was a strongly spiritual man. “The mystery of life,” three words he often used, for him was not mystification, but rather, a way of openness and sensitivity. Miller was a 1923 graduate of Colgate University with a B.Th., but received honorary doctorates from seven colleges and universities.

Now for the rest of the story:

According to Quora, Harvard Divinity School today is overwhelmingly Unitarian Universalist in orientation. It claims to be non-sectarian, but Unitarian is still a belief set, which is to say it’s a denomination of deism or new ageism. To my knowledge they don’t believe or per se endorse the Trinity or the divinity of Jesus Christ and thus the importance of the resurrection of Christ is null & void. I can’t imagine the Harvard School today affirming any of the core affirmations and declarations that Protestants and other Christians have affirmed throughout the generations. In many ways Universalism is more reflective of deism, Buddhism, and the New Age movement and thinking, than it is concerned with Christianity or the role of Jesus Christ in our lives.

SO WHAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE HERE CONSIDERING THE ABOVE EXAMPLE OF HARVARD’S BETRAYAL OVER 58 YEARS SINCE Miller’s death?

1. First it reminds me I should re-read Mission Drift (MD) soon! These are the words that grace the inside fly cover of MD:

“Without careful attention, faith-based organizations drift from their founding mission. It’s that simple. It will happen. Slowly, silently and with little fanfare, organizations routinely drift from their purpose, and many never return to their original intent. Harvard and YMCA are among those that no longer embrace the Christian principles on which they were founded. But they didn’t drift off course overnight. Drift often happens in small and subtle ways. Left unchecked, it eventually becomes significant.

          Yet Mission Drift is not inevitable. Organizations such as Compassion International and Intervarsity have exhibited intentional, long-term commitment to Christ.

          Why do so many organizations – including churches – wander from their mission, while others remain true? In MD, HOPE International executives Peter Greer and Chris Horst tackle these questions. They show how to determine whether your organization is in danger of drift, and they share the results of their research into Mission True (MT)and Mission Untrue(MU) organizations. Even if your organization, church, marriage, family, even your personal life, is MT now, it is wise to look for ways to inoculate yourself & your responsibilities against drift. You’ll discover what you can do prevent drift, how to get back on track, and how to protect what matters most.

• Please understand, all of the above is written, as I always try to do on this blog, first & foremost, to myself.
• I do hope as this Samuel H Miller had such a heart for true worship, that you were as blessed as I was today during our corporate worship service; in word, in song, confession, praise, renewal, encouragement, even communion… If not, don’t kid yourself about not being anchored in MT corporate worship, perhaps even a MT disciple based small group. Go now to Point 5 below and read the last 25 words, and thereby recognize & practice that the local church is the anchor to any thriving mission, first within its walls for its adherents, and then to the surrounding community, or what’s the point? Churches limping along culturally driven on hospice infusions may be likened to dribbling gasoline on even a few stubborn hot coals for the ensuing eventual death or destruction for those in the vicinity.
• MD is not merely a slippery slope encounter. At my age and perception, & definitely not necessarily wisdom, MD is an all-out war being perpetuated on & amongst us by the Evil One to win by any means available.
• FYI I’ve listed the book’s 15 uniquely revealing chapter sub-titles: (1.) MD is a crisis facing all faith-based org’s; (2.) MD is pervasive, but is not inevitable; (3.) Mission True (MT) org’s believe the Gospel is their most precious asset; (4.) MT org’s make hard decisions to protect and propel their mission; (5.) MT leaders assume they will face drift & build safeguards against it; (5.) MT org’s have clarity about their mission; (6.) MT org’s have clarity about their mission; (7.) MT board members understand their top priority; (8.) MT leaders set the cultural tone for the organization; (9.) MT org’s hire first & foremost for heart & character; (10.) MT org’s partner with donors who believe in their full mission; (11.) MT org’s track metrics reflective of their full mission; (12.) MT org’s  understand the Gospel demands excellence in their work; (13.) MT org’s are fanatics about rituals and practices; (14.) MT org’s boldly proclaim their core tenants to protect themselves from drift; (15.) MT org’s recognize that the local church is the anchor to a thriving mission. Personally, I may have placed chapter 15 earlier in the book!

NEXT POST may be Wednesday or later. Ruminate well on the above. Paramount pertinent information for these times of rampant deception.

(Inspired by June 25 My Utmost For His Highest. Oswald Chambers, of course!)

…what shall I say? “Father, save Me from this hour”? BUT FOR THIS PURPOSE I came to this hour. “Father, glorify Your name.”John 12:27-28

As a saint of God, my attitude toward sorrow and difficulty should not be to ask that they be prevented, but to ask that God protect me so that I may remain what He created me to be, in spite of all my fires of sorrow. Our Lord received Himself, accepting His position and realizing His purpose, in the midst of the fire of sorrow. He was saved not from the hour, but out of the hour.

We say that there ought to be no sorrow, but there is sorrow, and we have to accept and receive ourselves in its fires. If we try to evade sorrow, refusing to deal with it, we are foolish. Sorrow is one of the biggest facts in life, and there is no use in saying it should not be. Sin, Sorrow, and Suffering ARE, and it is not for us to say that God has made a mistake in allowing them.

Sorrow removes a great deal of a person’s shallowness, but it does not always make that person better.

Suffering either “MAKES ME INTO HIS LIKENESS,” or it can destroy me. MY CHOICE!

You cannot find or receive yourself through success, because you MAY WELL lose your head over pride.

And you cannot receive yourself through the monotony of your daily life, because you give in to complaining.

The only way to find yourself is in the fires of sorrow.

Why it should be this way is immaterial. The fact is that it is true in the Scriptures and in human experience.

Bottom Line One: You can always recognize who has been through the fires of sorrow and received himself, and you know that you can go to him/her in your moment of trouble and find that he/she has plenty of time for you.

But if a person has not been through the fires of sorrow, he/she is apt to be contemptuous, having no respect or time for you, only turning you away.

Please understand when you will receive yourself during the fires of sorrow, God may make you nourishment for other Seekers.

BOTTOM LINE TWO: Sin Destroys;   Sorrows Removes Shallowness;   Suffering Either Defines or Destroys Us;     Success Distractions prompt pride prior to a fall; & Life’s Monotonies cause complaining.

These 4 S’s & 1 M will both attract and nourish other Seekers.

NEXT UP: We’ll see, won’t we?