Whenever you build an organization (and this would include mission organizations), there is an inexorable tendency to have the mission shift from the original mission to the maintenance of staff positions.
In his recent (very fine) book, David Mamet says something very important. He is not talking about mission organizations per se, but rather human organizations. This happens to our institutions for the same reason that weeds grow in our gardens. “In the growth of any successful organization, a now-entrenched bureaucracy may work to change its object from production of a product to protection of its (useless) jobs” (The Secret Knowledge, p. 76).
What would we think of a mission organization teaching agricultural techniques to the native peoples, and their instruction included an exhortation not to worry about weeding their gardens because “these were Christian gardens”? Laughable, right? So why do we think that vice-presidents of administrative development and hiring can’t grow in Christian organizations?
We should throw ourselves into the work of ministry. When we do this, some things will fall off or break, of course. The purpose of the church is not to be well-organized. The purpose of missions is not to be well-organized. The purpose of the church is to do the work we are called to, with organization being a means of keeping our tools sharp. When the organization decides that the best way to do that is by keeping them all in the tool box, the problem I am talking about has manifested itself.