Navigating Mission Drift in Churches

In this episode, Mark Clifton and Mark Hallock discuss an article from Chuck Lawless on some reasons that churches drift away from their mission.

1. Nobody’s even talking about the possibility of mission drift – almost as if “it surely won’t happen here.”
2. IF the church has a mission statement, it’s only a sentence on the website.
3. The church ministries have been, and continue to be, siloed from each other.
4. Pastoral leaders have lost any sense of vision for the church.
5. Members have expected their pastoral leaders to take care of them primarily rather than reach outsiders.
6. Recent – and sometimes, not so recent, conflict has left scars in the congregation.
7. Leaders hesitate to make hard calls to keep the mission primary.
8. The church has been large enough that the drift is so slow it’s almost imperceptible.
9. The church’s leadership recruitment process is weak.

Resources related to this podcast:

“9 Reasons Churches Drift from Their Mission” by Chuck Lawless

Anatomy of a Revived Church by Thom Rainer