Nothing makes me sadder than to listen to Christian parents who are obviously experiencing mission drift in their homes. They are totally unaware this drift will most likely take their children away from the core spiritual beliefs the parents think they are instilling. In fact, the drift can become so severe the children grow up to reject God entirely.
Recently, I was privileged to read the new book Mission Drift: The Unspoken Crisis Facing Leaders, Charities, and Churches by Peter Greer and Chris Horst. Although I think it is absolutely imperative for all leaders of churches and ministries to read this book, it may be even more important for Christian parents to read it as well.
You see, mission drift is when an organization (your family) forgets its purpose in favor of practicality. You make tiny, little, seemingly meaningless decisions on a day to day basis. What we often don’t realize (until it is too late) is that the sum of these decisions has caused us to drift away from our core mission: raising children who will be dedicated Christian servants of God and who will go to Heaven when they die.
Today’s children are lonely. Oh, they are surrounded by people from the time they wake up until they hit the pillow at night. Yet, that is perhaps the worst loneliness of all – the loneliness that won’t disappear when other people come into view.
A hidden fear of every parent is that their child will not have friends. We want our children to be loved by their peers as much as we love them. You would think we would quell this fear by teaching our children how to be a good friend, but often this training only comes in the midst of some type of “friend” crisis erupting in the lives of our children.
