The New Reality In Motivation

Pastors and key leaders scratch their heads and wonder, How will I motivate my congregation? In the coming decade, the motivations of compassion and community will stir the grassroots to action and generosity.

However, pastors and leaders who continue to approach the congregation with the motivations of challenge, reasonability, and commitment will be disappointed. They will simply see an increasing motivational gap between themselves and the grassroots.

In meeting after meeting, leaders say to one another, “If people were only more committed … ” “If they would just rise to the challenge … “

The leaders are broadcasting on the frequencies of challenge and commitment, but few in the grassroots are tuned in. The appeal goes unheard, so the same few people end up receptive and responding year after year. Most people today are tuned elsewhere: to compassion and community.

You’ve lost that lovin’ feelin’

While all five motivations on my list are at work, in most people two will dominate. The key in the next decade is which two to employ.

Pastors and key leaders often operate from the same base. Their fatal mistake is assuming that because they are stirred by certain appeals, they can motivate the congregation in the same way.

In the post-war culture of the 1950s, when social conformity delivered people to the church, leaders could motivate based on challenge, reasonability, and commitment.

In our churches today, these motivators are still the most frequently employed, but they no longer work. In fact the motivation gap between leaders and grassroots is growing.

When someone says to me, “Dr. Callahan, what we need in our church is people with more commitment,” I say, “Good friend, you have just taught me you’re a long-time Christian.”

I ask the people I counsel to share what made their congregation attractive years earlier. I often hear how they felt at home and discovered “family” there. But over time, weighed down keeping the venture afloat, they’ve grown more concerned about commitment than community.

Commitment remains on my list because of its profound effect on people. It is, however, last on the list. Commitment is the motivation that most people develop later in their Christian pilgrimage.

If there were lots of long-time Christians out there to reach, we would do well to preach commitment. But what’s out there are people who do not know Christ. Their ears do not hear our exhortation to dedication.

Today, with extended family scattered, their longings for community have become desperately and profoundly urgent. They want to hear about belonging and caring. Discovering these, they will become involved and eventually committed.

Love in any language

“Our church had been dying for years,” one elderly woman told me after a second visit to one of my seminars. “We were down to 14 people, in our seventies and eighties. We knew it wouldn’t be long before our church was dead, done, and gone.”

Apparently there was much discussion after I invited them to a theology of service rather than survival.

High-compassion,
high-community
congregations will thrive
in coming years.

“We heard what you said,” the woman told me, “and we decided we’d better try to help somebody while we still had a little time.

“We went to the elementary school near our church and said to the principal, ‘We’d like to do something worthwhile to help the kids here before our church dies.’

“The principal said to us, ‘Oh, I thought your church died years ago.’

“In a way it had,” the old woman concluded, “but things have changed.”

This handful of senior citizens got busy in their community. If you go to that church today you will find 90 people in worship. Their compassion was contagiousâ€”and attractive.

We have had in recent years a focus on program-driven churches, purpose-driven churches, and vision-driven churches. They talk the language of commitment. But when you look behind the scenes, you see those churches work because somebody is delivering the compassion and community.

Increasingly, unchurched people will be drawn to churches that care. High-compassion, high-community congregations will thrive in the coming years.

Falling in love again Jesus does not say to Peter, “Will you make the commitment?” His final question is not “Will you rise to the challenge?”

Christ says, “Peter, do you love me?”

“Yes, Lord.”

“Then feed my sheep.”

Jesus appeals to compassion and community. So, too, must today’s leader.

The phrase “Mary, will you be willing to teach third grade Sunday school next year?” is an invitation to commitment. Mary may do her duty, take her turn, but she will likely never fall in love with her class.

You can say, “Mary, we invite you to fall in love with this group of kids and give them the privilege of falling in love with you.” She is more likely to rise to the opportunity.

I encourage leaders to find a one-time mission project they would enjoy and involve significant groups from the churchâ€”youth, senior adults, and such. I am amazed at how many people, in the midst of a communal effort, rediscover compassion.

In fundraising, leaders typically plan campaigns with commitment cards, loyalty Sundays, and challenge goals. That is regrettable. Research shows that appeal works well among leaders’ households, but it fizzles among the grassroots. When the campaign is built on compassion, it resonates among the membership and they give as generously as the leaders.

The commitment card can become a compassion card. After all, real stewardship is compassion. The card could say, “We are grateful for the generosity of God’s gifts in our lives.

Out of that spirit of generosity, we look forward to giving x-amount to serve God’s mission in the coming year.” Givers today want to see how their offerings will help somebody.

The pastor’s task is to connect with his leaders on the basis of compassion and community, then together to motivate the congregation with this same spirit.

Kennon L. Callahan is a consultant, author, speaker, and pastor. 305 Spring Creek Village, Dallas TX 75248