Have you observed that when an individual, family, church or school drifts, it is never in the right direction? When there is drifting in a relationship, it is said that the people involved are drifting apart. We constantly hear of an organization experiencing mission drift. Drifting will always happen when there is a loss or slide away from one’s purpose for his/her existence. This is true for a family, church, school or community. If life simply goes on according to what comes naturally, there will always be a drifting away from its ultimate purpose.
A common definition of drifting is a gradual shift in attitude, opinion, or position. Drifting is gradual and, most times, people do not even know it is occurring. The longer that a person or organization drifts, the farther off course they will end up. This is especially true for Christians and Christian organizations. Consider what Dr. Ed Stetzer recently said.
Nobody drifts toward theological orthodoxy.
It is interesting that we never hear of a Christian school drifting toward God. Instead, the educational landscape is littered with schools that were once strong, God-honoring and biblically-grounded institutions and now have no semblance to the truth of Scripture. Unfortunately, we have the tendency to only see drifting that takes place in another person’s life or another church or Christian school. We seldom see that we are drifting or our church or school is drifting away from its moorings. The reality is that Western Christianity has been adrift for several decades. If we are going to turn to God with our whole heart, we must first admit that we are not where God wants us to be.
Once we recognize that we have drifted away from the Lord, we must try to pinpoint when and where the drifting began. This is true for our individual lives, families and churches and schools. Whenever I have gotten off course, I have to back track to the point where I started to drift. Then I have to intentionally get back on the right course and be disciplined to stay on the correct path.
I have heard from many readers that they are committed to turning to God with their whole heart. I challenged readers in recent weeks to determine in their hearts to turn to God on April 23rd. As we prepare to turn back to God, it is important we understand God’s main purpose for our existence. Again, this is true for an individual, family, church or school. In the hectic rush of everyday life it is easy to forget why God created this world and then made man in His image. It is critical that we know that God’s purpose behind all of creation was to express Himself for His glory (Romans 1:20; Psalm 19:1-3). My life, family and ministry should be committed to glorifying God in all that I think, say and do.
I encourage you to examine your life and see if you have drifted from God’s purpose for creating you. Then, we need to examine our home life and try to identify any drifting from God’s purpose that has taken place. Church leaders and Christian school staffs should sit down and look at all of their programs and see if there has been any mission drift that has taken place. As God shows us areas of our lives and ministries where mission drift has taken place, we need to return to where the drifting started and get back on the correct path.
If you or your school is a KEM Prime Member, I want to recommend that you watch four videos over the next couple of weeks. These 30-minute videos will help you remember what is God’s ultimate purpose for our lives and ministries. You will find these videos under the Kingdom Essentials heading. They are Lessons 3-6. If you are not a KEM Prime Member, I encourage you to consider membership by clicking here.
If we haven’t been intentional in being all that God intends us to be, we probably have drifted off course. Let’s go back to where the drift started and be determined to get on the correct path! It is critical that we start today!
I want to thank several readers who shared passages of Scripture in response to last week’s blog. Keep the comments coming. Also, there have been several new subscribers to these weekly blogs. If you are one of these people, thank you for signing up. I encourage you to read the last 4-5 posts in order to better understand the purpose behind this week’s blog.
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