What "Mission True" Means for IFWE

The Institute for Faith, Work & Economics (IFWE) is committed to being Mission True. If you listened to our interview with Chris Horst, the co-author of Mission Drift and Vice President of Hope International, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

In this broken world, Christian organizations can easily follow the money or the cultural trends and drift from their commitment to Jesus Christ. As a member of the executive team at IFWE, I want to share with you our commitment to Jesus, his life-giving Word, and the advancement of his kingdom. It’s challenging for any organization to remain Mission True, and IFWE is no exception.

I joined IFWE in January 2014. Like any new employee, I’ve found it very helpful to reflect on our mission statement:

Our mission is to educate and inspire Christians to live out a biblical theology of faith, work, and economics.

The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks, “What is the chief end of man?” The answer is “To glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

These words don’t appear in our mission statement, but they are an integral part of it. There is nothing we desire more than for our daily work and effort to bring glory to our God and King.

Let’s take a look at each part of IFWE’s mission statement.

Our Mission Is to Educate and Inspire Christians.

In churchy language, we would say that we’re a discipleship organization. We sincerely want to help believers grow in their faith in Jesus Christ.

We want to equip you with tools – like this blog – that will inspire you to go deeper in your walk with the Lord. Nothing would make us happier than for the entire IFWE community to grow closer to Jesus Christ through careful study of the Scriptures and eager pursuit of him in your daily lives.

We want to encourage and equip you to live out your faith.

Our goal is not to increase Christian navel-gazing and the pondering of lofty thoughts. The God of the Bible is an active God. He created and actively sustains all things. He calls each of us to follow his example through a life of word and deed.

Living out our faith means that we have a biblical framework for the real-life decisions we make and actions we take every day – from choosing a church to choosing a career field, from teaching our children how to pray to pulling the lever in the voting booth.

This leads to the next part of our mission statement.

We want to help Christians live out a biblical theology.

The key word here is “biblical.” We are committed to a high view of Scripture and believe it is our only rule of faith and practice.

We have theologians on our staff and in our network of scholars that help ensure that we are faithful to God’s Word. This investment is not for credibility. It’s not our goal to achieve a high level of academic standing. We are committed to teaching the truth of God’s Word because God is worthy of nothing less. Being made in his image, we are also worthy of nothing less than the truth of Scripture.

The final part of our mission statement involves faith, work, and economics. Does God really care about these things? Stay tuned. We’ll take a look at that tomorrow.

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John Kyle

John Kyle is the executive director of The Fellows Initiative, a growing network of Christian leadership development programs for new college graduates. He is also the founder and president of Kyle Venture Advisors, a consulting firm serving for-profit and nonprofit organizations. John has more than 30 years of experience in the tech industry and with nonprofits. He has a bachelor of science degree from the University of Kentucky, an MBA from Heriot Watt University and a postgraduate diploma from the University of Derby. He is currently completing a PhD in leadership at the University of Derby. John has served as a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in America for more than 20 years. John and his wife Shirley live in Loudoun County, Virginia.