Churches and Inward Drift

Ton Ranier, President of Lifeway, has published provoking thoughts about churches that have an inward focus.  He says that any church that has been in existence has a tendency to have an inward focus. He says that:

"All organizations tend to lose their focus and forget their original purposes over time. I call this almost imperceptible movement “inward drift.”  The attitude becomes one of protecting the way "we’ve always done it" rather than looking back to the original purposes and reasons for existence. Numbers of stagecoach businesses failed, for example, because they thought their primary purpose was to make stagecoaches rather than to provide reasonable and rapid transportation.  "

Tom lists five signs of inward focus in his post.  How many of the signs are evident at Bethlehem? Read more