The phrase “a timely book” gets used more often than it should.
That said, Mission Drift: The Unspoken Crisis Facing Leaders, Charities and Churches deserves the label.
The goal of the book is to guide nonprofit leaders to help their organizations stay true to their calling. “Without careful attention,” they write, “faith-based organizations will inevitably drift from their founding mission. It’s that simple. It will happen.”
Although many of principles of the book would help any organization — Christian or not — the authors and the publisher (Bethany) are explicit in their own Christian conviction and reason for writing. This book has Gospel motivation in its spine: “If we continue to apologize for our faith, conceal its importance, and drift from our core, we will lose the very uniqueness our world so desperately needs.”
Very often, the discussion hits close to the PCUSA house. They write about seeing majestic buildings of mainline Protestant tradition, now vacant: “Many churches and denominations have lost their saltiness. They have forgotten why they exist and have moved away from a core commitment to the Gospel. Today, the resemble little more than a country club without a golf course. And so their light dims and their pews sit empty.”
Various institutions get profiled in the book — YMCA, Harvard, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Christian Children’s Fund, Compassion International — as examples of both drift and non-drift. But even in their use of real-life examples, the authors express a humble hesitation:
If this book reads like the overzealous and self-righteous friend eager to critique others or makes Mission True [their name for organizations which set up guards against mission drift] organizations take pride in their accomplishments, we will have failed those who have drifted and failed those who have remained true. If Mission Drift becomes a bully stick for boards and leaders — in either direction — we have dreadfully missed the mark.”
I found this to be one of the greatest strengths of the book. You don’t finish this book feeling like you’ve got a cocksure blueprint for your organization’s present and future fidelity. Just the opposite. The authors’ desire for leaders to never lose the burden of vigilance; there is no detente with mission drift. Of course, change and innovation itself is not the enemy — “not all change is drift” — but change which fundamentally re-answers the “why?” question of an organization’s existence is deadly.
I won’t attempt to summarize every chapter, but here are a few of the highlights
- “The Importance of the Board” (chapter 7) The organization’s board cannot be passive or full of sycophantic adulation for whatever the CEO or major donor desires. The boards have a crucial responsibility to steward the organization with integrity.
- The necessity of personal piety: “Incremental, slow, personal mission creep often leads to organizational mission creep. Mission True leaders not growing in Christ lead their organizations with feet on shaky ground.”
- The heart: “Mission True organizations are obsessed with issues of the heart. They believe everything we do is downstream from who we are. Without attention to our personal faith, we are without an anchor and left to drift.”
- On hiring: “Excellent organizations know the importance of hiring. They refuse to settle. Leading organizations are patient in hiring and believe an open position, no matter how painful, is still better than a position filled with the wrong person.”
- “Follow the Money” (chapter 10): “Mission true organizations partner with donors who believe in their full mission.” … “There’s no guarantee that financial success will be the result of remaining Mission True. But even if funding runs out and you close your doors, is this not a better outcome than lasting while compromising on things most precious to you?”
- Excellence: “Slapping an ichthus (the Christian fish symbol of the early church) on product packaging does not mean it honors God. Christian shoddy is still shoddy.”
- Organizational culture: “Peter Drucker, one of the greatest management voices in history, said, ‘Culture eats strategy for breakfast.’ Mission True organizations get this. They focus on the little things. They understand how important practices and norms are to the living and breathing cultures of their organizations. The small decisions each and every day may seem inconsequential, perhaps even trivial, but these little things protect against Mission Drift.”
- The surprise chapter (chapter 14): I certainly didn’t see it coming. With all the focus on parachurch ministries and Christian-affiliated non-profit institutions (i.e., not actually churches, but related to churches), the authors might have left off any talk of the actual church. They could have taken as an assumption that we all agreed on the chapter’s thesis: “the local church is the anchor to a thriving mission.” They could have … but they didn’t — and I appreciate that.
Conclusion: If you head a nonprofit organization of any type — church, parachurch, philanthropic, missionary, etc. — then I would encourage you to buy a copy of this book for each member of your board. It doesn’t attempt to be a one-size-fits-all solution to everything pertaining to “mission drift.” The benefit to you will come from the important conversations you’ll have with your board as a result of reading through this book together.