A decade ago, Chris Horst, Anna Haggard and I published Mission Drift. Recognizing how prevalent drift is within organizations, we have been on a journey to answer the question, “How do we remain Mission True?” Internally at HOPE, we designed an assessment—a project completed thanks to Becca Spradlin’s tremendous investment of time and effort. This assessment builds on the Mission Drift Survey and provides specific organizational application.

Becca launched her own organization to equip organizations to stay On Mission. She has just released a new book, and we wanted to share it! Read on for an introduction to her recent project, Lead on Mission.

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By Becca Spradlin, Guest Contributor

In 1948, J. Howard Pew and his siblings created the Pew Charitable Trusts. Through these trusts, the heirs of Sun Oil company (now called Sunoco) gave to a variety of charities, often giving anonymously.

In 1970, J. Howard Pew gave resources to help establish the Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. He also committed to give annually towards its operations. A year later, Pew passed away.

Fast forward twenty years. In a story on the Pew Charitable Trusts, this was reported:

Today, the Pew Charitable Trusts give millions of dollars to Princeton University and other Ivy League colleges. They have cut off the annual funding to the Gordon-Conwell seminary. And they join in partnerships with the very kind of government-supported programs that J. Howard Pew despised. (emphasis added)

What happened? How did the organization make a 180-degree turn from the founder’s original intent?

If you’ve read Mission Drift (and I strongly recommend that you do), this case might sound familiar. I had the privilege of joining the HOPE international team right around the time this book was published, over ten years ago. Given my background in ratings, I was asked to develop an assessment to identify areas of potential mission drift within the HOPE network. In Peter Greer’s words, “It’s not if we’re drifting, but where are we drifting.”

In 2014, we began piloting Mission True Assessments internally at HOPE. As Mission Drift continued to gain traction, requests began to come for help in detecting and preventing drift. Given HOPE’s practice of being openhanded, my team and I began doing workshops and assessments for other like-minded organizations, both businesses and nonprofits, like Edify.  Several years later, On Mission was born and I’ve been doing mission drift research and consulting ever since.

While most of my work focused on mitigating drift in nonprofits, I wondered if drift was happening among faith-driven businesses. A few years ago, JoAnn Flett, the executive director of the Center for Faithful Business at SPU, shared about Al Erisman’s book The ServiceMaster Story and the Pollard Research Fellowship, which studied the case of ServiceMaster. ServiceMaster provided a rich example of how businesses can effectively cultivate faith and develop a culture that seeks to honor God. It also illustrates the sobering reality of how businesses often drift away from their higher purpose over time.

As I spoke with more business leaders and advisors, the story was the same. It was the exception, not the norm, for Christian-led and owned businesses to maintain a higher purpose over time. This disappointing trend was one of the motivators to write, Lead On Mission: Advance Faith at Work. Avoid Mission Drift. Build a Legacy of Eternal Impact.

However, another compelling driver was equally as strong. Drift only matters if you’re moving away from something incredible. There is incredible eternal “fruit” being produced today all around the world through Faith Forward companies. Lead On Mission was written to celebrate and encourage this type of impact, impact that matters for eternity.

Faith Forward Companies: Businesses That Strive for Eternal Impact and Avoid Mission Drift

The global faith and work movement continues to grow and build momentum. Lives, families, and communities are being transformed as God works in the marketplace. Given this rich, eternal impact, more focus is needed on the sobering shadow side of this movement.

All too often, unintentional neglect in planning for culture and values continuity results in the rapid unraveling of a firm’s God-honoring ambitions. The sad reality is that any company is one leadership or ownership transition away from losing its higher purpose.

Case after case shows how decades of effort to advance the Kingdom of God in the workplace can be undone in a few years or even months.  In the process, team members may even turn away from faith as a company’s culture deteriorates.

As the research in Mission Drift and Lead On Mission demonstrates, drift is the default path for every organization that pursues a higher purpose. In businesses, however, drift happens even faster as one ownership or leadership change can completely change a company’s culture. As disappointing as it is to see this persistent, rapid erosion, there is hope. There are some remarkable exceptions that offer practical guidance on how to avoid mission drift.

Faith Forward companies aspire to make an eternal impact through their work, both today and for generations to come. Their leaders take steps to cultivate and perpetuate a higher purpose. They apply their faith at work by building healthy organizations that create space for spiritual growth alongside operational excellence, strong financial performance, and beneficial outcomes for society.

Now, more than ever, Faith Forward leaders and companies are needed in the marketplace.  As fewer people cross the threshold of churches in the U.S., the opportunity for employers to create faith-friendly cultures that point people to God’s love for them only increases.

There is an urgent opportunity to cultivate faith at work and to advance it for years to come, but this requires uncommon intentionality. Given the silver tsunami underway, the imperative of building businesses that sustain a legacy of eternal impact and avoid drift, is only increasing. Without intentionality, leaders’ ambitions to make an eternal impact will not endure the planned and unplanned transitions or challenges ahead.

Faith Forward leaders operate with a long-term view in mind. They strive to build their businesses for ongoing performance and eternal impact. Lead On Mission shares the common practices between these leaders and their companies.

Whether your company is discerning how to cultivate faith at work or you already see eternal “fruit,” let the cases and practices in Lead On Mission provide practical insights and encouragement for the journey.

Read stories of Faith Forward companies, as well as cautionary cases of those that drifted, in the book, Lead On Mission: Advance Faith at Work. Avoid Mission Drift. Build a Legacy of Eternal Impact. The book shares case studies and practices that businesses use to create, cultivate, and perpetuate a higher purpose while avoiding mission drift.  Visit www.leadonmissionbook.com to learn more and order your copy.

 

About the Author

Becca Spradlin, founder of On Mission Advisors, specializes in executive facilitation, organizational assessment, strategy design, execution, and change management. Becca started On Mission to help Christian business and nonprofit leaders define, protect, and champion what matters most in light of eternity.

She has facilitated workshops, strategy design, and evaluations of businesses and nonprofits across five continents. She is certified in change management, adult learning, and human-centered design. She holds a master’s degree in applied economics from Johns Hopkins University and undergraduate degrees in business and communications from Grove City College. Becca is also a proud “alumni” member of HOPE International, where she served for more than eight years.

She is the author of Lead On Mission: Advance Faith at Work. Avoid Mission Drift. Build a Legacy of Eternal Impact. She also coauthored the Mission True Workbook with the authors of Mission Drift. She served as a research fellow at Seattle Pacific University’s Center for Faithful Business, researching faith cultivation and drift in Christian-led businesses. She writes and speaks on how companies can define and align their firms around faith and avoid drift. Becca lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with her husband and three daughters.