By Shane Bennett
Introduction
Sometimes I make people mad. Now if I were saying this from a pulpit somewhere, I might claim it happens because I take tough stances on controversial issues or because I get all John the Baptist-y on people and point out their sin. Since it’s just us, I can be honest and say that usually when I make people mad it’s because I do dumb stuff. Spend money I haven’t earned yet. Commit to things I haven’t the time or skill to do. Lose track of one of my own kids. You know, stuff we all do, right? So a life goal of mine is to do less dumb stuff with increasing frequency.
This also applies to my efforts to encourage people to give their best for those currently without access to the gospel. Here’s a quick look at some events from my mobilization hall of shame:
- I told one of my staff she had to use her sick leave to go care for her dying father.
- I took a couple of men who had hardly been out of their state to four Asian countries in nine days, dragging them through some of the toughest neighborhoods on the planet, asking them to eat food they hadn’t even seen on the Travel Channel.
- I promised a friend I’d research the Afghans of his city in too little time and with too few people. It was a dismal failure.
In an effort to be less dumb, I’ve been wondering lately about how I motivate people to give their valuable time, energy, and money to the unreached and unengaged. And not just how I do this, but how we do this or things like it.
Inviting People to Join God’s Purposes
Think for a moment about what motivations you appeal to when you invite people to join you in God’s purposes. Do you ask people to respond to great need with great compassion? Certainly a valid motivation. What about guilt? You know, “How many Bibles do you have gathering dust on a shelf, when [name the people group] have none?” It’s hard to argue with that logic. But the guilt fails to carry the water when home is a long way from the well.
The particular motivation I want to think about with you today is summed up nicely in the inspiring but perhaps problematic call of Francis Xavier to “tell the students to give up their small ambitions and come eastward to preach the gospel of Christ.” It’s the “what I’m doing is more important than what you’re doing” motivation. And I think it may be pretty dangerous.
Catching One Kind and Killing the Others
When we, with genuine hearts, call a group of people to join in what we believe God is doing, establishing his name among all nations, we may inadvertently imply that what they’re currently doing is somehow subpar. In fact, we sometimes explicitly declare this! God knows, perhaps what people are doing is subpar, but it’s arrogant on our part to say so.
It’s one thing to communicate this to my daughter, son, or pastor. I know them. We can discuss it. But to say such to a group of people or broadcast it by print or web is risky. It will certainly appeal to some. I wonder though, if we get our few at the cost of alienating most. Because most will be dishonored by the implication that their jobs, vocations, and visions are not really what God is up to. Some will respond with slight aggression. Most will simply ignore us. It’s like fishing with a type of bait that catches one species, but kills the rest in the process!
Did Jesus Do This?
Now it seems that Jesus may have used this precise motivation when he called some of his guys to leave their fishing nets and follow him, saying he’d make them fishers of men. Was our wise Father Francis simply paraphrasing Christ? I don’t think so. Jesus knew these guys. He was addressing novice disciples and calling them to the next step in a rabbinical process they were privileged to participate in.
Conclusion
Feel free to push back on this with comments and corrections (below). As I said, I’m wondering about these things. We need hundreds of thousands of laborers thrust out into the harvest field. Particularly given that the nations have moved in to our neighborhoods in the past few years! It won’t do to celebrate a few dozen (even a few hundred) missionaries if in the process of calling them, we offend everyone else to the degree they don’t participate at all.
» Related articles from our archives explore top ten myths about missions and four ways we motivate people to engage the world. Be sure to check out the insightful reader comments, too!
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Shane,
I think you’re dead on. Who am I to say what someone else SHOULD do? I can invite them. I can inspire them. I can give them a vision of what God might be inviting them to do, but I can NOT win by denigrating what they’re doing today.
You spoke in our Perspectives class last year in Greenwood — thanks for doing that. It was a blessing!
But one of the other instructors was not invited back this year because he did exactly what you’re talking about — he cast a huge vision about unreached people groups, but in the process, he wound up poisoning the atmosphere by making it sound like ANY other task we tackle is less. So people who are raising kids they’ve adopted from China were made to feel “less” because they weren’t living in a mud hut somewhere, or in an urban slum. I had to talk to that sister and calm her down … help her realize that God was asking her to raise those kids to the glory of God, and that she didn’t need to do that anywhere but here, UNLESS GOD SPECIFICALLY CALLED HER TO GO ELSEWHERE.
Guilt is effective, but not in the long run. As you noted, that doesn’t carry much water when the well is so far from home.
Why can’t we trust the Holy Spirit who works in us to also work in EVERYONE ELSE?
Scott
Shane –
Good stuff! Met you through Perspectives in Grabill, IN this spring.
I teach it in this way:
Fear, guilt, obligation, shame (and lots of other descriptors) are all coming from our Ego.
Love, authenicity, genuineness, invitation (and lots of other descriptors) are all coming from our Essence.
When I come from my ego, the results can be a short term success, however the long term results get shaky, at best.
Operating from essence calls for the other person to come from their essence. From that place 1+1= more than 2. It is expontial and so powerful. When coming from essence, the short term success can be slow to see, however the long term results are rock solid.
All the best!
Mike
PS – I like the well water analogy and plan to borrow it!
So. Interesting to read your comments today and the responses. I’m on the team here in Indy with Scott (above) and as he mentioned we’ve dealt with it for our Perspectives line up, but it is a real concern overall. I personally have had it with the shenanigans that preachers pull from the pulpit to make their point… Guilt, shame, etc…. So I’m working really hard at not being that jerk. BTW Shane, you’ve never made me mad. Yet. 🙂 But the point is a big one that we really need to re think.
I’m preaching at a community church this Sunday. Reformed. I’ve been hammering against the GUILT and DUTY motivators for a few years now. Pushing for the motivation to be LOVE- for God, his kingdom and purposes… So as I prepare for Sunday I’m asking myself that question. How to motivate without being a jerk. I’m passionate about what I do… the niche I’m working in. Doesn’t mean everyone else is or should be. I’m gonna make the case for God’s glory with plenty of Piper and Stott quotes mixed in with scriptural view. But when it comes to a call for action I’m thinking I’m just gonna challenge them to fall in love with Jesus. Again. Be in awe of him. Worship. I figure from there I’ll let the Holy Spirit tell them where they are screwing up and what they need to do.
One less guilt trip this Sunday morning anyway. Thanks for the conversation Shane.
Mel
Scott: Thanks for reading MCat and for writing in. I appreciate the back up! And the real world case study? A speaker gets fired! I wish I’d had that for my article. Thanks for passing it along.
Mike: Thanks for reading MCat and for writing in. Thank you for the good stuff regarding ego and essence. I know for me, it’s easy to grab for the short term results. I appreciate the reminder to think beyond that.
Mel: Thanks for reading MCat and for writing in. Thanks for the helpful thoughts. Please feel free to come back here and post a link to your talk this Sunday. Then we can all weigh in on how well you followed your plan!
Shane,
Well said!
Your article underscores the need for relational discipleship as a part of reaching the unreached, fulfilling the Great Commission.
I’m pretty sure the only people I’ve stirred to “go” are people I’ve already had relationship with. Maybe one exception in the past 35 years.
Guilt & obligation are great motivators in the short term, but the after effect is indeed treacherous. People resent being manipulated.
Trip: Thanks for taking the time to read MCat and write in with your thoughts. I appreciate it. The perspective from 35 years of effort is valuable.