In this season of Church history, holding onto the essentials of our faith is more important than ever. Some have included their opinions in their faith, defining those opinions as essential truths. The most vocal ones that require the inclusion of their opinions into the faith are dismissing fellow believers because they have not aligned their faith with their opinions, opinions that are not basic truths about Christ and the Church.

Moving away from an original purpose and entertaining ideas apart from the essentials is called “Mission Creep.” Mission creep happens when we lose focus on the essentials and begin to move away from an original purpose. It can happen in business, government, and sadly, within the Church.

Paul wrote to Timothy about such a creeping trend and what Timothy should do with his teaching to prevent such a departure, “Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers” (II Timothy 4:14). 

Good teaching does not always involve discovering something new. It is a constant return to what is most important, a constant journey back into the past to discover again how to live in the present.

Paul reminded Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (vs. 15). Those who try to return the Church to her original mission are the approved workers in God’s Kingdom. This invitation to the past can be met with mockery or dismissal when people only want to hear something new to tickle their ears.  In this process, we can forget the words of Solomon, “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). This passion for the new creates quarrels and disagreements that have little importance in the expansion of God’s Kingdom.

Paul defined mission creep as a disease, “But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene” (vs. 16-17).

One purpose of the early creeds of the Church was to prevent mission creep holding people to the foundational truths of their faith. What we explore beyond those basic truths can be interesting, but they do little to strengthen the Church or expand its influence. Mission creep can take us away from what matters most to God and begin to infect the Church with an unhealthy curiosity about things that don’t matter, things that divide God’s people infecting them with unhealthy pursuits.