Article
Don’t Let the Mission Get Hijacked
When new people come to a new church seeking to add new programs.
Keeping a new church plant laser-focused on its proper mission is vital to the success of the ministry and the sustainability of that new local church. A new church gives so much opportunity for a fresh vision of keeping gospel mission central to the reason for existence as a church. But a new church is also attractive to those who would love nothing more than to steal the platform of the new church and use it to elevate their favorite program or ministry. Like moths to a flame, these mission hijackers are drawn to the newness of the church and swoop in hopeful for a locale for their action.
Two Categories of Hijackers
There are two categories of mission hijackers: the devious and the well-meaning. And even the latter are potentially detrimental, especially to a young church. Church planters would do well to stay on the lookout for both types of newcomers and invite them to come along in a good and godly mission with loving exhortation.
The devious may appear godly and religious, but they carry with them underlying motives and divisive agendas. They often show up after leaving another church. At previous churches, they have felt marginalized or underutilized. After a few visits to your church, they have shared how much they love it, and they feel at home. This can feel like a massive win for a church planter who has been praying for just a couple more solid families to help staff all the needed volunteer positions.
But soon, they begin to push and promote the direction that they have for the church, and it wedges up against the original mission of the church ever so slightly. Compromise comes easy at the expense of welcoming people into the church. It feels like a successful addition, but in reality, we welcome leaven into the lump (Gal. 5:9). Planters will do well to continue relentlessly in their mission without stepping aside from it to these disgruntled detractors. May we adopt the spirit of Nehemiah, who, when he was tempted to leave his mission of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, replied, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down” (Neh. 6:3).
Even trickier for church planters are the mission hijackers who do not intend to be that; those who are genuinely pure and sweet in their motivations. They do not understand how their pet program could pull efforts from the main work the church was planted to accomplish in the first place. Further complicating the temptation of missional drift is the fact that the things they want to do are often good things: things filled with efforts of helping others, humanitarian work, and genuine compassion for their neighbors. But good things are not always gospel things, and your church was planted to deliver the gospel to people, not merely good deeds. Good works are a necessary fruit of the gospel, but not every good work needs to become a ministry program. Your church was planted to make disciples, not to accommodate every ministry passion.
Warning, Church Planter
The pastoral epistles are filled with warnings from Paul to the young pastors Timothy and Titus about avoiding these types of distractions. In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, he describes these mission hijackers as “swerving” from love and faith (1 Tim. 1:6). A swerve doesn’t always look like a complete change of direction. Sometimes it’s just a sudden change of lanes. Many will convince themselves they’re still on the right road and direction, without realizing that the lane they’ve aligned with will lead to a gradual separation from the holy mission of the church. Similarly, Paul warns Titus to avoid things that are “unprofitable and worthless” distractions (Titus 3:9).
Since launching our church, I’ve heard plenty of ministry ideas, and I think it’s helpful to filter those ideas through a system of considering their missional impact, like a spiritual “return on investment” evaluation. Church planters should ask questions about how demanding launching a potential program or ministry will be. Is that demand and effort going to produce more disciples following Jesus?
Not every idea of a new ministry is inherently bad or distracting, but it might be distracting for your church at this stage.
Certain ministries just require a larger budget and a larger volunteer base. I remember a couple of genuine families who wanted to reach our community through starting a youth football league. Their desire included the gospel, and I believe their intention really was pure. But as I considered the amount of money, volunteers, and time that would go into running a football league, I realized that it would completely dominate a whole season of our church calendar. We had to politely communicate that effort would distract from our real mission. That does not mean that a church running a football league in an evangelistic way is wrong. But it was wrong for us at that stage in our ministry, as it would’ve certainly pulled away from our efforts of making disciples.
4 Categories for Evaluating Opportunities
Early on in our church plant, I learned from J.D. Greear a helpful tactic of categorizing ministry ideas proposed by people coming to our church.1 Over the years, I’ve adapted them into four categories: block it, bless it, boost it, or brand it.
We block ministries that are motivated by pride or divisiveness, doing everything we can to discourage them from happening either in our church or another.
We bless ministries that are godly and good, but would be a distraction to our local church’s mission. We genuinely pray for their success, but we can’t afford to put our effort into them.
We boost ministries that align with our mission, but can happen in smaller pockets of our church. They’re led by non-hijackers, who gather a small group of volunteers and steer the activity toward genuine evangelism and discipleship. Our church will often financially support work in this category.
And finally, we brand ministry ideas that fully align with our mission, meaning that we make a whole church push toward that ministry with all the budget and effort we can.
Guard your church plant from swerving into that lane of gradual mission drift, and one day you’ll be able to look back and thank God for the exits you avoided, thankful to be continuing on the road of missional faithfulness.
