The Danger of Mission Drift OR Making the First Thing Second (or third or fourth or worse)

On Sunday I spoke about my greatest fear for my ministry and for our church -- Assumed Evangelicalism, or to put it in the vernacular, assuming the gospel. Or to put it into business terms, mission drift. Or to put it in Pauline terms, making that which is of first importance, anything other than that.

Here is the definition of Assumed Evangelicalism as defined by David Gibson, the author who originated the term.

Assumed Evangelicalism believes and signs up to the gospel. It certainly does not deny the gospel. But in terms of priorities, focus, and direction, Assumed Evangelicalism begins to give gradually increasing energy to concerns other than the gospel and key evangelical distinctives, to gradually elevate secondary issues to a primary level, to be increasingly worried about how it is perceived by others, and to allow itself to be increasingly influenced both in content and method by the prevailing culture of the day.”

The danger of the "culture" referred to here is not necessarily limited to the influence of our secular culture on the church, although that is a significant concern. It can also refer to the ever-changing tides of Christian culture. There is a pendulum out there that endangers all churches as it swings back and forth. Many Churches shift and move in the interest of 'meeting people's needs' or 'being relevant' or whatever church-speak we use to justify drifting away from the gospel and toward something else in order to keep people or attract more.

When we assume the gospel we don't deny it, we just forget about it. Forgetting is not denying, not running from, not abandoning, but it is just as bad and its consequences are just as terrible. When we forget about the center of our faith - the gospel - and of the central necessity of living a life of faith and repentance there is always the danger that we will lose the gospel. The danger for us as a church is that we will do many things that look very religious, yet are only that - religious, all the while abandoning true gospel-centered Christianity. It happens in ways that are subtle and in ways that take some time to work themselves out which makes it all the more dangerous.

One of the ways this happens is in the mission statements, vision statements, or purpose statements of many churches. But it can also happen, and more often than not does happen, in the emphasis of the church in its preaching and teaching ministries. I mentioned in my message that churches which claim to be 'spirit-led' is an example of one way in which a church can sound biblical and spiritual, but actually engage in dangerous mission drift.

Let me give an example.

I found this on a church website under their "Core Vaues" (Their spelling not mine. I'm sure they meant "Values" but we'll let that slide for now). These are things that, for them, are "non-negotiable." The last of the three of them -- one on the importance of Scripture and one on the centrality of Christ -- is this:

Spirit Led: we know that only the Holy Spirit brings life, personally and in the local church. Apart from Him we can do nothing.

This sounds so spiritual. It sounds biblical. It sounds like a priority that all churches should have. And that's why it's dangerous. It is duplicitous and insidious not to mention contradictory to the other of its stated core values. Here's why this kind of statement is troublesome.

First, the first phrase of the "core vaue" is theologically incorrect. Christ is the head of the church and as such the church as his body is animated, given life, by Christ alone. (1 Corinthians 12:12) The Holy Spirit is given to the church and the believer by Christ and it is only because of our union with Christ that we receive life. (John 15; 1 Corinthians 14:45)

Second, the next phrase -- "Apart from Him we can do nothing" -- is a paraphrase of a statement taken directly from the Gospel of John. Who is the "Him" "apart from" which "we can do nothing" in that context? It's not the Holy Spirit. It's Jesus. In fact, they are Jesus' words! He says these things about himself NOT about the Holy Spirit. Here's the verse in its entirety.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.”

The problem, then, in the second half of the above statement is that it deceives the reader into thinking that the Holy Spirit is the one from which the believer gets his spiritual life and in whom he must abide. Jesus would vehemently disagree with the "core vaue" as stated above.

Third, this "core vaue," if taken to its natural conclusion, endangers the church. Is the Holy Spirit important to the life of the believer? Yes. Is the Holy Spirit important to the life of the church. Yes. But, we need a proper doctrine of the Trinity, pneumatology, soteriology, and ecclesiology in order to properly situate the Holy Spirit and his work in relationship to Christ, believers, and the church. This statement demonstrates knowledge of none of these. This ignorance pushes the gospel out of its proper place and replaces it with something important, but not that which is of first importance.

Which leads me to my final point. This statement leads us away from that which is of first importance rather than toward it... and the Holy Spirit would be very upset by it. Paul is clear, following the lead of Christ, what is of "first importance" to the believer and the church is "that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures..." (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). As one commentator notes about this verse, "“Of first importance” implies that although everything in the Bible is important, not everything is equally important. Some doctrines are more important than others. The gospel is most important." Which is why it consumed the entirety of Paul's ministry; it was the architectonic principle of everything he did, "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified" because the gospel alone is the "power of God." (1 Corinthians 2:2, 5b)

Do you see how subtle and spiritually sounding mission drift can be in the church? When we replace the center of our faith -- Jesus Christ as revealed in the gospel -- and the central necessity of living a life of faith and repentance in response to the gospel into any other position than first and foremost in everything we do as a church and as individual Christians we are in grave danger. Not only do we operate contrary to Paul, but we operate contrary to our Savior, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit whom he sent to minister on his behalf in our midst. Notice what Jesus says to his disciples about the work of the Holy Spirit in their role as apostles following his ascension in John 16:13-14, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you." Put simply, the sole ministry of the Holy Spirit is to glorify Christ. His ministry is the same as Paul's, to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

If we move the gospel out of its primary place we lose that which is the source of our spiritual life, both individually and corporately. We lose what is the only message we have for people -- believer and unbeliever alike. We lose what makes us distinctively CHRISTian.

May it never be!

Soli Deo Gloria