In the early days of the U.S.A. a well-known university set very high standards for their students. As you read the following paragraph, can you guess which university that was?
“Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life (John 17:3) and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning. And seeing the Lord only giveth wisdom, let everyone seriously set himself by prayer in secret to seek it of Him (Prov. 2, 3). Everyone shall exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that he shall be ready to give such an account of his proficiency therein.”
That paragraph was from "The Rules of Harvard University" written in 1636. Back in those days Harvard was where ministers were trained to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many of our Founding Fathers were educated at Harvard and believed that the Bible was the Word of God. Yet today there is hardly a hint of Biblical Christianity at Harvard. The University of Harvard has drifted far from the Biblical moorings of its early days.
Peter Greer wrote a book titled "Mission Drift: The Unspoken Crisis Facing Leaders, Charities, and Churches." He proposed that without careful attention, faith-based organizations drift from their founding mission.
New Tribes Mission USA realizes the potential problem of mission drift. Recently they hosted a forum to discuss this topic as it relates to our organization. As a mission, we are proactively working to stem this organizational tendency. New Tribes Mission formed the Theological Consultation Group of which I am a member. We have been examining our current doctrinal statement to make sure that it is clearly worded and leaves no room for misunderstanding. A clearly worded doctrinal statement is a good foundation for combating mission drift.
We also have a number of resource papers available to our members which elaborate on specific doctrinal issues that are hot button topics within Christianity today. These are very helpful in understanding some of the doctrinal issues facing Christians in the world that we live in.
Please pray for us as we seek to combat the potential for mission drift.
Thanks.
Bob
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The Object of Our Faith
Some people say faith moves mountains. That is not true. God moves mountains.
Faith is no better than its object. Faith in faith is nothing but positive thinking. If you put faith in positive thinking, you are going to become discouraged.
There are some who teach that if you will simply believe God for something, that He will give you that thing. That is simply not true.
If you try to apply that teaching to your life, after a while Satan is going to say, "You really don't have what it takes."
Don't get the idea that because your faith is weak that your prayers are not reaching heaven. Weak faith in God is better than strong faith in anything else. Faith is what counts. It is not the size of your faith, it is the object of your faith that really counts.
—Adrian Rogers
