Motivating with inner vision is an art and is accomplished as much by what we don’t do as it is by what we do.
—Wayne Jacobsen
The phone shatters the Monday morning quiet. “Pastor, I’m sorry to bother you on your day off, but I won’t be teaching my children’s class anymore. I know it’s only been a month, but it just hasn’t been as much fun as I thought. It’s a lot of work, and I’m sure God has something better for me.”
Once again, ministry succumbs to cost.
How often has this happened not only in service but in discipleship as well? I actually had a young lady try to convince me there was no contradiction between her claim to be a Christian and her promiscuous lifestyle. “With all the sexual temptations of our day, God certainly can’t expect a single person to be celibate.”
Who is teaching this crossless gospel—full of fun and glitter but devoid of personal cost? Not the one who said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).
Pointed words, no doubt, if time has not worn them into mere poetic abstraction. God has given us great and glorious promises, but we possess them only as we follow him in the face of self-denial, not as we frolic in self-satisfaction.
That’s the dilemma for pastors—we who must motivate human beings. How do we get people to embrace what costs so much, especially in an age where personal enjoyment is king?
Surprise Them!
In the same way we can make a child eat peas by hiding them in the spoon we just magically turned into an airplane, maybe we can get people to the cross if we sneak it up on them unannounced.
Ignore those distressing Scriptures about dying to self. To meet the needs of our culture, we have to start where people are, and ours are after self-fulfillment and self-esteem. Therefore, we need to focus on God’s blessings—forgiveness, freedom, heaven. Downplay what must be surrendered to him—the right to please ourselves.
We can keep a little of the cost, calling people to periodic church attendance, a nominal monetary contribution, and an outwardly good life. People will go that far (after all, any religion worth believing ought to require something), but a cross is archaic.
All would be well, except that to ignore the challenges of discipleship will not bear the test of time. The door to Christ’s life is marked “Obedience,” and that’s not always fun. Christianity without sacrifice eventually turns out as bland as it is unreal. People either get tired of it or disillusioned by it.
And you can’t expect them to swallow a hidden cost when it emerges. That’s why Jesus said to count the cost before you start.
Pay Them!
“What’s the easiest way to motivate people?” I have been asked that question often, and I have no doubts about my answer.
Pay them!
Salaries provide excellent leverage for commitment and accountability. Not that the average Christian can be bought, but we are all well ingrained with the American work ethic. I’ve never heard of a paid staff member calling late on Saturday night to say he couldn’t teach the next morning because Aunt Maude was throwing a family reunion at eleven-thirty.
Making Christianity the source of someone’s bread and butter is a great solution. If you don’t believe me, look at ex-pastors who have taken other avenues of ministry or employment. Ever notice how those who so eloquently addressed their congregations about tithing or regular attendance have a hard time living up to it when the church no longer signs their checks?
Of course, we cannot afford to put everyone on staff. But don’t despair; other variations on this salary idea can be equally effective.
“We know that people will give more to this ministry out of greed than out of a pure heart. Since we’re using their money for godly purposes, we don’t mind appealing to greed to get it.” To my great shock, that guideline came from the mouth of the chief fund-raiser of one of America’s well-known Christian ministries. No doubt this is Christian fund-raising at its worst, but the point is made. There are other things besides money to offer people in the face of sacrifice. For instance …
Special status. “Become a ‘partner’ in this ministry” or “We’re looking for a Women’s Ministry Coordinator, and if your family wants to make this its church home, I’m sure you’d be just perfect” or “For a one-thousand-dollar donation, we’ll enshrine your name in our Hall of Faith.”
People will do a lot for status. And according to the fund-raiser, a lot more for status than because of obedience. People want to feel important and know that others recognize their efforts. Organs, pulpits, and entire educational wings can be acquired by offering to put the donor’s name on them for all to see.
Acclaim. You can’t give everyone a title without eventual devaluation. So use titles only for special needs that require a lot of hard work with little reward, and use personal acclaim or affirmation to motivate for smaller needs.
Every person serving in the church ought to get a letter or personal call from the pastor periodically, right? Any good pastor should spend a day a week writing thank-you notes or recruiting. There was a pastor in my city who called one of our elders and asked him and his wife to be leaders in his church because they were such “good people.” The possibilities here are limitless.
Freedom from guilt. People will do a lot to alleviate guilt. But for the church to use this adequately, it must first create the guilt so it can provide the way to relief. “After all Jesus has done for us, is a thousand dollars too much to ask to help with our building fund?” “How many souls have you led to Christ over the last year? At the downtown mission, we’ve touched over five hundred people. Your contributions give you part of the credit for that.”
Few Christians live in the security that they are meeting all of God’s expectations. Probe the fringes of guilt, and you’ll obtain an immediate response. People will do a lot to salve it.
Guilt can be used without people even realizing it. Appeal to a sense of loyalty: “Won’t you do this as a special favor to your pastor?” and people think they’re motivated by love. Or use crises: “Unless you give today, this ministry will not be able to continue,” and their guilt will look like generosity.
Relieved fears. “The fires of hell rage hot. Who knows but that tonight on your way home you’ll die in a car accident and get a taste of its flames if you don’t volunteer for the nursery?”
That’s a bit overdone, I admit, but fear is an All-American in the sport of motivation. My greatest year of discipleship as a child came after I thought I’d missed the Rapture. A change of family plans and a missed message brought me home from school by bus when my parents had picked up my other brothers. I was in sixth grade, and as the bus emptied, I noted my brothers were not aboard. Maybe Jesus had come back and I had been left (which, given my lifestyle in the past couple of weeks, was not unthinkable).
I ran the quarter mile to our house and found it empty. Alone for the next hour, I prepared my life to meet the Beast and the Great Tribulation. Eventually the family returned, to my great relief, but in the ensuing months I found it easier to walk in righteousness.
Plain and simple, all of these options work. They’ve been tried and tested in church programs for years. You can stake your ministry on them.
But I’m not sure you should.
Expediency Problems
I probably should have admitted this earlier, but I wanted you to read this far. I’m not a pragmatist. I care less about what works than what’s right. In the long run that’s what yields enduring fruit.
People do respond when someone appeases their desire for success or their self-doubt, but have we looked at the long-range implications of motivating people this way? I find four that bother me.
First and foremost, these tactics are a step away from new covenant motivation. They don’t rest on inward change and a personal calling to please the Father, but on personal expedience—what’s in it for me? Anyone will do an unpleasant task if the compensation matches the cost. Jesus adequately warned us that fear will never work in the long run, and serving him to be seen by others is fruitless activity.
Second, they put the priority on activities, not people. The task is the end; people are only the means. No wonder people eventually wear out. Serving in children’s ministries because of guilt wears someone on two fronts—the guilt that lingers and carrying on a task not freely chosen. This approach only works with an ever-expanding base of participants, where the incoming replace the burned-out. Biblical priorities compel us to reject such a notion and realize people are the goal of all ministry.
Third, the pastor turns into a promoter. Some are comfortable with this; I am not. If a pastor feeds and equips his congregation, he shouldn’t have to waste time thinking up tactics to keep the sheep cooperative.
Finally, though these methods will get response, they are not ultimately effective. I know I risk sounding like a pragmatist with a statement like that, but there are barriers in personal growth and ministry that expedience will never cross. How do you make “dying to the flesh” worthwhile circumstantially? Following Jesus doesn’t always lead to immediate benefits. Our marching orders are clear: “He who wants to save his life must lose it.”
There’s no way to make expedient the giving up of a night’s sleep to counsel someone through a painful bondage into God’s freedom, or driving 250 miles to help a single mother move into a new apartment in a strange city, or risking vulnerability with new people after having just been taken advantage of by the last ones. I’ve seen people do all these with joy, because they were motivated by something deeper than expedience.
Rees Howells, the Welsh coal miner turned intercessor, understood it. His father didn’t. During one period of his life, Rees led a Bible study in a distant village. Every night he walked two miles each way to minister—after a twelve-hour day in the mines. One night he came home in the middle of a downpour, completely soaked. “I wouldn’t have walked across there tonight for twenty pounds,” his father said when he saw him.
“Nor would I for twenty pounds,” answered Rees.
People motivated like that don’t need a salary, a thank-you plaque, fear, or pressure—and they don’t burn out either. Their motivation flows from a deep well of vision within. The responsibility of leadership is to uncap that well.
Inner-Vision Cultivation
Having explored all the options to their bitter end, we still don’t have an answer to our question. How do you excite someone about dying on a cross?
You don’t.
There’s nothing exciting about it. Crosses are endured, not cherished. They are faced not out of rabid excitement but out of personal Gethsemanes where obedience to the Father takes precedence over personal expedience. That’s the vision that burns in the heart—to please God and participate in his work regardless of cost.
Paul tapped that inner well. He was not a promoter, selling out the means to whatever noble end he or God had in mind. He avoided “persuasive words” so that faith might not rest on mere “wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5). We need more people motivated by God’s vision growing within, not the stirring appeal of a great orator. The former endures cost; the latter flashes for a moment and then vanishes in a wake of worn-out people.
Motivating with inner vision is an art and is accomplished as much by what we don’t do as by what we do.
1. To inspire without bribing.
“We have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Corinthians 4:2-3).
Here Paul is more specific about his method of motivating people. He denies himself the tools we considered earlier and gives us three simple steps.
First, set forth the truth plainly. Ministry goes astray whenever its goal becomes motivation instead of clarity. How often are we tempted to be ambiguous with God’s Word for fear it might offend someone? We go to great pains to make Scripture palatable, when our efforts would be better spent making it clear. The Gospel will offend people; that’s God’s responsibility. Making it clear is ours.
Having made the truth plain, Paul then commends it to people’s consciences. Let them wrestle with the facts—not guilt, fear, or possible reward by the minister. Don’t make the decision for them. What good is it for someone to do for the pastor what that same person wouldn’t do for Jesus? He’d be better off if we didn’t stir up a flurry of activity to mask that reality.
That’s exactly how our congregation handles finances. We’ve decided not to pass offering plates. A box sits in the back; people leave their gifts there or else mail them to the church office. We do teach God’s call to be givers, but we don’t want people giving because others are watching or because their guilt mushrooms the nearer the plate comes to their seat.
I’m not saying it’s wrong to pass an offering plate or that we never will. But we won’t do it simply to get more money. We intend to function on guilt-free dollars. The amount may be less, but it will be what people have chosen to give freely, and we don’t have to engage in constant pre-offering hype. Meanwhile, the mere mention of needs outside our fellowship unleashes a spring of generosity.
Finally, Paul says this process goes on under God’s watchful eye. The application is twofold. For Paul, that fact kept him dependent on the Lord for his ministry, not people’s response. For the Corinthians, they were not to gaze at God’s will like a smorgasbord, choosing only what they wanted. Our lives must seek God’s pleasure, not our own. For that we are accountable.
Building God-motivated people begins when we stop trying to motivate them and clearly set God’s plan before them instead. We must help free them from the bondages of expedience, not use them for our own ends.
2. To direct without manipulating.
Even Paul’s guidelines to ministry can become heavy-handed if we’re the ones directing people’s responses. That’s not what Paul meant. His ministry directed people to God, but it didn’t direct their ministries. The Holy Spirit is responsible to place members in the body as he sees fit.
He will if we’ll equip them. We do that by building in every believer a meaningful relationship with the Father expressed by daily reading and prayer, measured by a growing sensitivity and obedience to his will.
We also equip them by creating an environment of responsibility. Church structures often fail here. People resist responsibility. They simply want to come, enjoy the service, and go home. But if a body is a family and there are duties to be done, they must be shared openly.
At our church, parents don’t come regularly without getting involved in child discipleship. We assume they’ll share that responsibility unless they tell us otherwise. Every parent who hasn’t volunteered to teach or help with crafts in one of our children’s classes is rotated into our nursery schedule. Child discipleship is not a service provided by our church; it’s a cooperative effort of our whole body. Leadership, then, focuses on equipping people instead of recruiting them.
This environment is the medium that cultivates inner vision. If the foundation is well laid, there is never a problem in meeting the genuine needs of this fellowship. People understand what God wants of them and move without pastoral intervention.
Recently we had a unique wedding. This couple had earlier been dismissed from our church for persistent sin. They had since repented and been welcomed back into the body. Now they wanted to get married, with two weeks’ notice, following one of our Sunday morning services. They didn’t have much money, nor did they want to take time to add frills.
Without any encouragement from the pastoral staff, the body went to work. Some people planned a reception—cake, nuts, and everything—to follow the brief ceremony. Someone made wedding rings, which the couple couldn’t have afforded. Another secured two nights’ use of a company condominium and collected enough money to get them there. Others showed up early with flowers and greenery to decorate our rented facility, and someone else loaned the bride a dress.
How could anyone have organized such an affair in so short a time? How inappropriate it would have been for me to ask people to donate rings or a condominium. When I asked people why they pitched in, I kept hearing the same answer: “It’s what I felt God wanted me to do.”
God-motivated people are God-directed people. How much more powerful when ministry is orchestrated by the Holy Spirit, not the pastor!
3. To release without hyping.
If we had a wedding committee in our fellowship to handle situations like the above, we’d regularly have to recruit people to staff it. Programs need hype because they become jobs, not extensions of vision.
Programs are not the basis of ministry—personal relationships are. We put people in high-touch situations so that ministry is not serving a program but loving a person. Any of us will give more to a friend who can’t feed her baby than we’ll give in an offering for starving children overseas. The first is sacrifice, the second is a donation.
Personal relationships spawn effective ministry. Not a week goes by that I don’t hear of someone sharing money, time, transportation, or housing with someone in need, and I’m sure I hear only a fraction of what is really happening. We’ve taken the same approach to missions. We began to pursue ties with Ethiopia two years before the famine became well known. We’ve had Ethiopian nationals speak here, we’ve given offerings for the current crisis, and we’re helping resettle four refugees from that country. Eventually we want to found a sister congregation in that or another country.
So when we read about Ethiopia in Time, our hearts are on the line. It’s personal with us. We’re involved. Building relationships with people across the safety lines of cultural barriers transforms ministry into a daily reality.
God-motivated individuals get excited about people, not programs. Helping people build relationships primes the well of inner vision.
Uncontrolled Motivation
Does this kind of visionary motivation work? Truthfully, it does, but not always the way a pastor wants it to. It doesn’t make for a streamlined organization where everyone conforms to the latest institutional objective. But it does produce people ready and willing to serve at a moment’s notice without regard to personal convenience.
Through a major miscommunication, we found out a ministry team would be coming to our city on only ten days’ notice. Could we house thirty young men overnight and have a Friday night service? We agreed to sponsor it jointly with another church five times larger than we are. We’d each house half the ex-drug addicts.
When all was said and done, the other church couldn’t find one home. Our people volunteered for all thirty, even though for many families it meant a major change in plans.
“Because I felt that’s what God wanted!” was what they said.
Tap that, and you’ll find a wealth of people growing in Jesus and ministering for him. You can’t always control their efforts, but whatever made us think we were supposed to?
Copyright © 1997
