Gone are the days where the general populous knew the most basic Scriptures like Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark or even the Christmas story. Today most children, teens and young adults struggle to identify Biblical narratives against popular fiction like Harry Potter or The Hunger Games.

Mission Drift is what happens when your church slowly moves away from where it's called by God to go. And we call it a mission drift because, typically, it happens very slowly. So slowly that often you don't even notice.

It's not a sprint away from your Mission; it's a slow, unnoticeable, sometimes undetectable, drift.

I met with a church a few years back, and I asked them many of the same questions I presented in my previous post. I was sitting a team of leaders putting different church areas into a “Mission” or “Method” category. When I came to Sunday School, their answer was clear. They believed their Sunday School was a Mission in their church, not a method. 

As I often do in these moments, I asked them to explain…

We know that your mission is your purpose, and the method is how you're accomplishing it. But something you need to identify in every meeting is how each one manifests itself during a conversation. 

When I meet with churches to discuss mission and method, I'll start by listing a series of ministries or traditions that happen in that church, and I'll ask the group if they think that thing is a mission or a method of the church. 

In every church, and in every ministry, there are two things that are in constant competition with each other. 

Your Mission, and Your Methods.

And if you don’t know how to tell the difference between the two, then you’re in for some frustrating days, and your church will be less effective in sharing the message of Jesus and loving your neighbours than it should be.  So today we’re going to start a conversation about the difference between Mission and Method and going to help you, big time.

In almost every church I visit, people ask me this question:

“Mike, why aren’t young people committed to the church anymore? They seem to have forgotten about loyalty!”

Why don’t Millennials stick around at the churches they grew up in? Why aren’t they coming back to their ‘home church?'“