There are basically three ways to motivate people to mission. Option one is to whip them. The Pharisees understood this very well. If we continually remind people of their obligations and the consequences of non-compliance, they will most likely do what we ask, especially if we have a position of power over them. Or, we can whip them up. Many a CU leader (the author included!) has been guilty of this: ‘God’s going to do great things!’ is the promise. ‘If you come to the prayer meetings, if you bring your friends to the CU events, then God will transform this university!’ God may do great things! But, the desire for success in evangelism cannot be our primary motive.
Whipping people with guilt and whipping them up with promises of immediate fruit can be successful at modifying behaviour, but only temporarily. But the gospel changes hearts! ‘If you love me, you will obey what I command’, Jesus said. ‘We love’, John explains, ‘because he first loved us’ (John 14.15; 1 John 4.19). The love of God in Christ is able truly to transform us, so that we want to make him known, so that we want to take up our cross. (Angus Moyes, Evangelicals Now, May, 2011)
Is this not relevant in our context? How do we encourage mission? How do we preach on giving for that matter? How do we exhort the church to obedience? Is the Gospel at the centre of our lives and of our churches?
What do you think?