Mission

This thesis explores a theology of a three-fold form of proclamation of the Word of God, in which "proclamation" is both direct (i.e., sermon and sacraments) and indirect (i.e., witness in acts of love and mission), and seeks to identify whether the life of the Church, thanks to its communicative union with Christ, is a true form of proclamation. Simply stated, communicative union is the shorthand term for the Church's and the individual believer's participation in the proclamation of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.  This project reclaims Calvin as a resource for establishing a fitting and appropriate ecclesiology that naturally participates in proclamation through union with Christ, moving from worship to the missio Dei.

It is a general belief that whenever there is a new invention or discovery, it usually comes up with an attendant challenge or consequence whether positive or negative. Different inventions and discoveries have flooded the nook and crannies of the society. These developments are on the increase on daily basis and some of them already constitute nuisance to some tested values of the society. Among such threats is the unprecedented rise in the practice of cohabitation. This practice, like a wild fire, is becoming popular among young adults of different color, race, ethnic and religion.

L'Unione Europea è nel mondo la regione con la più elevata proporzione di consumatori di bevande alcoliche e con i più alti livelli di consumo . L'alcol è, in ordine di rilevanza, il terzo fattore di rischio per malattia e morte prematura dopo il fumo e l'ipertensione, più rilevante dell'ipercolesterolemia e del sovrappeso, tre volte più importante del diabete e cinque volte più dell'asma (WHO, 2002). Oltre ad essere una sostanza in grado di indurre dipendenza ed essere la causa di circa 60 differenti condizioni di malattia e infortunio, l'alcol è responsabile di danni sociali, mentali ed emotivi, compresi la criminalità e le violenze in ambito familiare, che ogni anno costano all'Unione Europea circa 124 miliardi di euro di oneri tangibili . L'alcol, spesso, viene assunto proprio per i suoi effetti tossici, e molti bevitori, in particolar modo i giovani, assumono l'alcol deliberatamente e consapevolmente per esserne intossicati, ovvero per ubriacarsi; tuttavia, questa modalità di bere rappresenta spesso la causa di molti danni sociali. Inoltre, il rischio degli effetti sociali negativi dell'alcol più comunemente conosciuti, come l'essere coinvolti in una rissa, danneggiare la vita familiare, il matrimonio, il lavoro, gli studi, le amicizie o la vita sociale, aumenta in proporzione alla quantità di alcol assunta, senza alcun effetto soglia evidente. L'aumento del rischio ai livelli più bassi di consumo è in gran parte dovuto a bevitori di piccole quantità che occasionalmente assumono quantità maggiori d'alcol (Rem & Gmel, 1999). Negli ultimi anni in Italia si è assistito ad un cambiamento nei consumi di alcol per lo più dovuti alla cultura del tempo libero. Il cambiamento nel modello di consumo ha visto una diminuzione del consumo quotidiano, tipico del tradizionale modello mediterraneo, un aumento di chi beve fuori dai pasti e occasionalmente, con un adeguamento al modello di consumo nord europeo. Questo comportamento è più pronunciato tra gli adulti fino a 44 anni e tra i giovani di età compresa tra i 18 e i 24 anni, nei quali è forte la crescita del consumo di alcol fuori pasto. Tutti i sistemi di reportistica nazionale concordano sul fatto che i giovani di 18-24 anni sono una delle categorie in cui è più diffuso il consumo a maggior rischio, che comprende il consumo fuori pasto, il consumo abituale elevato e il binge drinking, una modalità di consumo di quattro/cinque o più Unità Alcoliche (UA), che provoca un'alcolemia superiore a 0,8g/l, in circa 2 ore. Allo stesso modo della dipendenza da alcol, il tabagismo è considerato una dipendenza patologica in quanto l'uso di tabacco determina una modificazione definitiva del cervello che rende molto difficile l'astinenza e, nel caso di cessazioni, si associa ad un'elevata probabilità di recidive . I risultati di un recente studio svolto in Italia (Gallus et al., 2011) hanno evidenziato che nel 2010 la prevalenza complessiva del fumo era pari al 21,7%, rispettivamente il 23,9% tra gli uomini e il 19,7% tra le donne, con un consumo medio giornaliero di tredici sigarette; tuttavia il 38% dei fumatori consumava più di un pacchetto al giorno; i soggetti con dipendenza da nicotina di grado moderato-grave, rilevato attraverso l'utilizzo del test di Fagerström , erano circa il 20% dei fumatori che, anche quando motivati a smettere di fumare, non riuscivano a farlo senza un supporto esterno. Il fumo di tabacco in Italia resta la principale causa di mortalità prevenibile; le stime dell'ISTAT del 2012 attribuiscono al fumo di tabacco dalle 70.000 alle 83.000 morti l'anno, circa il 12,5% della mortalità totale e oltre una su quattro di queste morti riguarda soggetti di età compresa tra i 35 e i 65 anni. Secondo i dati raccolti nel 2012 dal sistema di sorveglianza PASSI il 27,9% degli italiani adulti nella fascia 18-69 anni è classificabile come fumatore, mentre il 54% è classificato come non fumatore e il 18,2% come ex fumatore. La fascia di età 25-35 anni è quella a maggiore prevalenza (33%), seguita da quella 18-24 (32%) e 35-49 anni (29%). Il fumo è dannoso ad ogni età, tuttavia è stato dimostrato che il rischio di contrarre una patologia a esso correlata (cardiovascolare, oncologica, pneumologica) è strettamente dipendente dall'età di inizio: un individuo che inizia a fumare a 15 anni ha una probabilità tre volte superiore di ammalarsi di tumore rispetto a uno che inizia a fumare a 20 anni . La fascia di popolazione che maggiormente detiene abitudini rischiose per la salute è rappresentata dai giovani adolescenti, sia perché percepiscono in misura minore la possibilità del rischio sia perché spesso, adottando comportamenti sbagliati,

Awareness of the narrative nature of educational formation can develop Christian professionals. Attempting to answer the question “what is worldview,” opens up new possibilities for truly holistic education of undergraduates, in particular, and to sponsor their responsible discipleship in the professions. We will indicate the thesis’s applicability in sample settings: post-baccalaureate teacher education, doctoral-level ethics courses and settings beyond the university.

What is the relationship between discipleship and mission? In the last generation we didn’t make the connection very well, because in Christendom our lenses for thinking about church became inward lenses. We thought a lot about programs and services for members, and we tended to mission as a program of the church: one spoke on a wheel, and not the hub – not the reason for our existence, not an expression of our identity as a sent people.

Montreal-based indie-rock band “Arcade Fire” have been lauded as the most important band of the last decade. In terms of their cultural and potentially theological significance it has been argued that Arcade Fire is to Gen Y what U2 is to Gen X. This chapter explores the music and content of their latest album Reflektor, released in October 2013. The main influences in this album are Haitian “rara” music, the 1959 film Black Orpheus, and an essay by Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard entitled ”The Present Age,” in which he contrasts the “passionate age” with the “reflective age.” These influences and the resultant themes are explored, with a final reflection framed by the Apostle Paul’s interaction with his contemporary culture, and using the work of Charles Taylor, to discover ways in which this important voice from the margins might speak to and help the contemporary church as it engages in mission in the postmodern world.

Dr. E Stanley Jones through his Kingdom of God perspective had a lasting impact on racism both in India and North America.  Through his formation in India of the Christian Ashram movement in 1930 and transplanting it worldwide, Jones modeled a christian community in which divisions of class and cash had no place.  His book on his good friend Gandhi was instrumental in encouraging Martin Luther King Jr in the formation of the nonviolent civil rights movement.

During an ongoing reform of parish staff led by the Church authorities ofthe Russian Orthodox Church, new positions in parishes are establishing, that of religious educator (catechist), social worker and youth worker. The principal object of this activation of parish life through structural changes is transforming parishes into missionary centers. Nevertheless, not always and not everywhere this initiative is welcomed enthusiastically or results in intensification of social, missionary and youth activities. In fact, many parishes followed the requisitions only nominally. In that context, it is only logical to consider the experience of the Catholic Church, where laypersons over half a century are holding established positions in parishes, including posts with the same responsibilities. However, if in the Russian Church the attempts to involve laypersons in parish work and emerge their role are not only conditioned but also motivated mostly by purely practical reasons, the idea of Church ministry of laypersons in the Catholic Church is based on profound theological foundations. The author sets forth premises of establishment of the parish positions for laypeople in the Catholic Church, introduced mainly at Vatican II. For this, he considers the change in expressing the idea of hierarchical structure of the Church, the council's teaching on Church ministry and relationship between priests and laity. As an example of the practical realization of these theological premises, the author cites the German Catholic Church, where due to limited number of priests lay activity in parishes is widely spread and is quite versatile.
Keywords: Second Vatican Council, ecclesiology, Catholic Church, priesthood, lay people, parish, Church ministry, catechumenate, mission, youth work.

This article investigates the meanings of the word proselytism, and at the problematic forms of proselytism that have had a negative impact on the understanding of Christian mission in various parts of the world, not least in Central and Eastern Europe. The article then goes on to consider the root meaning of the Greek prosēlutos, as the one who draws near, and suggests this as a model for mission today.

The term "fresh expressions of church" has been used since 2004 in the Church of England to refer to small contextual churches that start alongside but aim to be different to parish churches. What is characteristic of a fresh expression of church is not its newness, but its ability to pass on and contextualize inherited theology, ecclesiology, tradition, and spiritual experience. The ecclesiology of fresh expressions of church can be summarized as a dialogical-relational ecclesiology that is focused on a theological centre. There may be around 2,100 of them in the Church of England, both urban and rural. During the past 15 years, the self-understanding of the Church of England, a traditional state church with its parish structure, has changed. The mother church of the Anglican World Communion claims since 2008 to be a mixed-economy church: one that supports and recognizes innovative ecclesial spaces (fresh expressions of church) as church, as well as parish churches. It is the goal to have an innovative diversity of churches in a pluralistic society. At the same time, these churches should be recognizable and contextual. It is the concept of the mixed economy that manages a fair cooperation between parochial and fresh expressions of church. In the meantime, the concept of mixed economy is received not only in the UK, but in different national and free churches in continental Europe, the US, South Africa, Canada, and Australia. Lately, the concept has been taken up by the Community of Protestant Churches in Europe (CPCE).

Firstly, the Roman Catholic «prehistory» of contact between the Panoan groups of Bolivian Amazonia and Jesuit, Franciscan and lay clergy missionaries is described. The paper then analyses the continuity of the evangelization process by diverse evangelical denominations, describing three missionary experiences with the Chacobo since 1955 to the present day. Finally, general insights are proposed relating the anthropological problem of religious conversion.

In recent years, missionaries have discussed and strategized ways to catalyze “church planting movements” (CPMs) around the world.  However, many people have challenged mission practices that are oriented on CPM-theory.  Both sides of the debate appeal to Scripture to support their arguments. Indeed, CPM theorists implicitly and explicitly contend that CPMs are found in the Bible itself.  This article examines and contests any such claim.
This article makes a simple argument: there are no “church planting movements” in the Bible. Although someone might regard this as a “negative” thesis, the aim of the essay is quite constructive. It is utterly critical that certain notions and associations be set aside if we are to develop biblically faithful and strategically wise missiology. Of course, there is much to commend in CPM literature. However, we cannot simply draw out what it good from a CPM theory without examining related ideas, such as its use of Scripture. When applying some aspect of CPM missiology, we may unwittingly assume ways of thinking or interpreting the Bible that are counterproductive. Therefore, this essay tries to help readers discern theory from theology.

Referate der afem-Jahrestagung 1999

Cover Ausbildung als missionarischer AuftragSelten sind so viele Experten und herausfordernde und hochaktuelle Beiträge zur theologischen Ausbildung und zur Vorbereitung auf die Missionsarbeit zusammengekommen, wie auf der Jahrestagung 1999 des Arbeitskreises für evangelikale Missiologie. Die Vorträge beleuchten die Frage der Ausbildung zum missionarischen Dienst im In- und Ausland umfassend aus der Sicht der Ausbildungsstätten in Europa und in den Missionsländern und aus der Sicht der sendenden wie der einheimischen Kirchen.

Die Beiträge machen deutlich, daß die evangelikale Ausbildung tiefgreifende Veränderung nötig hat, um ihrer Aufgabe im nächsten Jahrtausend gewachsen zu sein. Mit Beiträgen von Pfr. Eberhard Troeger, Prof. Peter Beyerhaus, Prof. Thomas Schirrmacher, Prof. Klaus W. Müller, Prof. Lothar Käser, Dr. Nosgwe Buya, Pfr. Traugott Böker, Hans Rothenberger und anderer Missionstheologen und Missionaren.

The text below -written more from a descriptive than analytical point of view -intends to present in historical perspective the ecumenical initiatives which took place since the mid-nineteenth century involving Protestants, Orthodox and lately Roman Catholics and eventually led to the formation ofthe World Council ofChurches (WCC). It attempts to stress the decisive role of the sociopolitical transformations which had a bearing on the building up of the ecumenical paradigm prevalent among the Christian churches down to the beginning of the last decade of our century. Although in more undeveloped form, the text also presents the unfolding of the ecumenical movement in Latin America, discussing some of its more meaningful challenges.

This is a book review of Michael Gorman's 2015 work, 'Becoming the Gospel: Paul, Participation and Mission'.  Working at the intersection of Biblical Studies and Missiology, Gorman shows how participation in the life of God is designed to advance the Gospel, as well as being fundamental to interpreting the writings of the Apostle Paul.

This is mainly an archival contribution whose purpose is to reassess the concrete phases of Nobili's education.  Here I demonstrate that, contrary to what previous historians repeated, Nobili's involvement with the College Romano was very short. Moreover, I have discovered that, before joining the Society of Jesus, he studied at the Seminario Romano. Nobili's school records are the earliest evidence on his life.
The article also hints at some possible implications that this specific Bildung had on Nobili's later missionary activity in India.

The global Church through various gatherings and declarations has spoken a clear word about the essential factor of Christian partnership and collaboration. To witness this consensus, read the following excerpts found in selected major global mission declarations that address collaboration...

The present investigation has as its object the analysis of the language
of documents that have been written in the context of the emergence of the Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata in which is still perceived the use of the typical conceptual apparatus of the Indian period relating to the political matter. Thus, from the reading of sources from the time of the so-called Northern Campaign, under the command of Fructuoso
Rivera, the presence of colonial terms is perceived, especially as far as the “cabildo” is concerned, together with the affirmation of the liberal politics of independence of territories of the former Virreinato del Río de la Plata. Of central importance here is the constitution of the Sovereign Congress of San Borja in 1828, where indigenous and liberal elements coexist for the formation of the State of Misiones, that is, in the eastern territory of the Uruguay River and formerly the Argentinean homonym, which later emerged on the western shore.
Keywords: eastern territory of the Guaraní missions, United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, political and legal notions of colonial period, cabildos, Soberano Congreso de San Borja (1828), Fructuoso Rivera.

Entertainment Industry is significant tools for relaxing and refreshing from any depressions. Entertainment Industry is also considered to be instrument for developing society or bringing social change. Presently, a number of media are considered to be able to entertain people, such as magazines, comics, television programs, game both online and offline, movies and radio channels. In the past, each entertainment medium has its limitation, particularly, in terms of distribution or broadcasting. In this regard, the number of people who could access the entertainment media was lower than in the present. The effective factor enabling entertainment media be accessible worldwide is “internet”. In the latest decade, with the evolution of internet, a number of entertainment websites were established in order to serve a huge number of users

This paper will look at some of the strengths and weaknesses of church planting models and will assess several different popular church planting models that have been used in many different contexts. Also, emphasis will be placed on what each model looks like, how they function, how they multiply, and how they have been used in various international contexts.

Paolo Aranha. ‘Roberto Nobili e Il Dialogo Interreligioso?’ In Roberto De Nobili (1577-1656): Missionario Gesuita Poliziano: Atti Del Convegno Montepuciano 20 Ottobre 2007, edited by Matteo Sanfilippo and Carlo Prezzolini, 137–50. Perugia: Guerra Edizioni, 2008.

«This article challenges the idea tha Roberto Nobili was a pioneer of interreligious dialogue and inculturation. On the contrary, it suggests that his interest today is precisely his theology of religions. A man of the Counter-Reformation, he made propositions as daring as the ones of today's "Asian theology".»

When it came to going to China, Robert Jaffray and his publisher father did not agree. His biographer AW Tozer commented, "Age, paternal authority and the strong leverage of economic pressure-all were on his (dad's) side, while Rob had only his vision, his crusader's zeal and his dogged determination to obey God rather than man."  Robert, at age seventeen, had been profoundly impacted by his mentor A.B. Simpson's prophetic call to go to China as a missionary.  His politically powerful father however was outraged! Senator Robert Jaffray had already decided that his son Robert would carry on the Jaffray dynasty as the next publisher of the Globe newspaper in Toronto, Canada.3 Threatening to disinherit Robert, he cut him off financially, saying that the only money he would give was for a return ticket back to Canada. Robert Sr. even begged his son to become a respectable Presbyterian minister in Canada, anything but an overseas Alliance missionary. Ironically, said A.W. Tozer, the two conflicted Roberts were very similar in temperament. Both "showed the same courage, the same dogged cheerfulness under opposition, the same inability to know when they were beaten." Robert was an unlikely missionary candidate as in his childhood, he suffered from obesity, heart disease and diabetes. All sports requiring physical effort were prohibited because of his health issues. While his obesity disappeared in adulthood, he continued to be plagued with heart problems and diabetes. Because he was a fighter like his dad, he never gave up.

Entre 1632 et 1672, les jésuites ont fait publier en France le récit annuel de leur entreprise missionnaire auprès des Amérindiens de la Nouvelle-France Destinées à édifier le public français et à favoriser la collecte de fonds auprès des grands du royaume, leurs Relations constituent une précieuse source d’informations sur l’histoire de la colonisation française en Amérique du Nord et sur la rencontre entre les Français et les premiers habitants de ce continent. Si vous ne deviez lire qu’une seule de ces Relations, c’est sans doute celle de 1634 qu’il faudrait choisir. Rédigée par Paul Lejeune, cette Relation est le fruit d’une expérience peu commune pour un Français du XVIIe siècle. De la difficile aventure qui fut la sienne naîtra l’un des plus beaux et des plus captivants textes de la Nouvelle-France du XVIIe siècle. Combinant l’inventaire ethnographique et le récit de voyage, la Relation de 1634 représente un témoignage inestimable sur un mode de vie aujourd’hui révolu et sur le choc des cultures engendré par l’arrivée des Français en Amérique du Nord.

This article demonstrates historically and statistically that conversionary Protestants (CPs) heavily influenced the rise and spread of stable democracy around the world. It argues that CPs were a crucial catalyst initiating the development and spread of religious liberty, mass education, mass printing, newspapers, voluntary organizations, and colonial reforms, thereby creating the conditions that made stable democracy more likely. Statistically, the historic prevalence of Protestant missionaries explains about half the variation in democracy in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania and removes the impact of most variables that dominate current statistical research about democracy. The association between Protestant missions and democracy is consistent in different continents and subsamples, and it is robust to more than 50 controls and to instrumental variable analyses.

Jesus is the head of the church. He wants the church to be able to carry out the mission of salvation to the whole world so that everyone can be saved. The ideal church services are always based on the mission of Jesus when He was on the earth. The church needs to implement the holistic concept that is integrated mission of Jesus which includes aspects of physical, mental, spiritual and social. In order for the church grow rapidly both in quality and quantity, the church has to apply the methods base on the Bible. In this study, the research wants to develop the biblical foundation of Old Testament and New Testament and then how to apply these methods in context of Dani's tribe culture in Papua, Indonesia.

Gone are the days when missionaries would pack their belongings in their coffin when they left for the mission field. Gone are the days, by and large, when the missionary would alternate four years in some far-flung land with a year in their home country. The face of world mission has changed. The role and location of the western cross-cultural worker has also changed.

Since its founding thirty years ago, the church growth school of missiology had come to exert a pervasive influence over the world missionary movement. Many missionary leaders, particularly North Americans of a more conservative theological disposition, have welcomed it with great enthusiasm, regarding it as a panacea for many of the shortcomings of modem missionary strategy. Outside the North American context, the reception given church growth theories has been less enthusiastic; the warmth seems to vary according to the cultural distance between the respondent's society and that of North America. Nonetheless, the Institute of Church Growth at the School of World Mission of Fuller Theological Seminary has achieved a high degree of success in having its missiology disseminated through theological and missionary colleges in Europe and elsewhere, thereby exerting considerable influence in shaping church planting and evangelistic activities.

Bartolomé de Las Casas’ The Only Way:
A Postcolonial Reading of At-One-Ment for Mission


Dale Ann Gray, Ph.D.
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, 2018

Advisors:  José David Rodríguez & Gordon (Tim) Huffman

What can sixteenth century Bishop of Chiapas, Bartolomé de Las Casas, teach us about loving the world? Plenty! Especially where neo-colonial asymmetries of power abound. Becoming one with anOther creates a holy, boundary-crossing, multi-lingual hybridity that transforms as much as it informs. This dissertation posits that a postcolonial reading of at-one-ment for mission in Bartolomé de Las Casas’ The Only Way informs a just, liberative, holistic, peaceable, creation-friendly theology of mission by: revealing a complex, multilayered view of God coming to be one with those who suffer; exposing patriarchy, exclusion, and an essentialist stereotyping of the “Other”; and critiquing neo-colonialism and empire and the complicit role of the Church.
After examining the pitfalls of atonement theories from feminist (Darby Kathleen Ray, Deanna Thompson, Rita N. Brock, Rebecca Parker) and womanist (JoAnne Marie Terrell, Jacquelyn Grant, Delores Williams) perspectives, Chapter One shifts the conversation to at-one-ment. By uniting the ideas of liberation in the New Community of Revelation’s New Jerusalem, shalom, and reconciliation, Chapter One explicates at-one-ment as missio Dei, God coming to be one with all. Via a transgressive reading of The Lord’s Prayer through three discreet centuries of empire (first century Roman, sixteenth century Spanish, and the Pax Americana), the next two chapters focus on God sending the Church in mission to love the world in Jesus’ name. Chapter Two addresses the first two phrases of the missional prayer regarding God and God’s Kingdom, while Chapter Three dwells on the petitions and doxological ending. These two chapters dive into the work of Richard Horsley, Las Casas and Gustavo Gutiérrez, for insight into empire and resisting empire in the first, sixteenth and twentieth/twenty-first centuries, respectively. Culminating in a postcolonial reading of at-one-ment for mission in Bartolomé de Las Casas’ The Only Way, Chapter Four offers a theoretical reading and Chapter Five a theological one. Chapter Four employs postcolonial categories of Identity and Mimicry/Mockery, while Chapter Five investigates Hybridity, Boundary/Border Crossing and the Korean concepts of han, dan and jeong as elucidated by Homi Bhabha and Wonhee Anne Joh, among others. Extensive appendixes situate Las Casas, the first century Roman Empire and the current Pax Americana.
Las Casas’ voice in The Only Way resounds today as a call for the Church to love the world in Jesus’ name by: defecting from empire; recognizing humanity in its varied splendor; seeking to be in relationship with the Other; becoming hybrid-border-crossing-multi-lingual interpreters for those who do not speak the Other’s language; extending hospitality to the immigrant; listening, learning and lingering in the borderlands; and through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, coming to be one with herself, one with an-Other, one with God’s beloved world and one with God.

Hudson Taylor interacted with Chinese culture in a way that most westerners saw as unimaginable.  What motivated Taylor to live in such a sacrificial way among the Chinese people?  What can we learn from his life story that can impact our lives in the 21st century?

One of the most facile assumptions about religions, especially in the West, is that concepts of "God" would be more or less the same in the various famous scriptures. What would actual study and analysis of the scriptures, however, reveal about their portrayals of the deity related to such qualities as love? This essay, offered in two parts, compares the contents of the New Testament and the Quran on this important theme. I am very grateful for the translation into German by editor Dr. Carsten Polanz. The article was first published as "The Language of Love in Qur'ān and Gospel," in Sacred Text: Explorations in Lexicography (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2009), pp. 223-48.

Elias Riggs was a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in Greece between 1832-1838. This article reviews the early life of Elias Riggs, investigates how he became an American missionary in the Middle East and examines his missionary activities in Greece.

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to develop a better understanding of the pressures that can cause mission drift among social enterprises and some of the steps that social enterprises can take combat these pressures.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper is conceptual in nature. It draws on resource dependency theory, institutional theory and various extant empirical studies to develop an understanding of the causes of mission drift. This analysis is then used to examine the practical steps that social enterprises can take to combat mission drift.

Findings – The paper highlights how high dependence on a resource provider and the demands of ‘competing’ institutional environments can lead to mission drift. Based on this analysis the paper sets out various governance mechanisms and management strategies that can be used to combat mission drift.

Practical implications – The paper sets out practical steps that can be taken to try to prevent mission drift, including governance mechanisms such as constitutional and legal safeguards, separating commercial and social activities, external accreditation, and management strategies to maintain commitment to organisational values and mission, and manage key resources dependencies.

Originality/value – The paper will be of value to other researchers attempting to understand the dynamics social enterprises and in particular processes that can lead mission drift, and to managers of social enterprises keen to combat these processes.