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.
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