Why Guilting People into Missions Ultimately Fails

Josh McQuaid • Oct 26, 2017

In our Sending Church Training events, I often lead a session about “embracing spiritual conviction.” Every time I facilitate this session, I knowingly disappoint the attendees. Here’s why.

In a room full of church missions leaders , everyone thinks “embracing spiritual conviction” means they’ll learn ways to motivate their congregations toward missions. In that environment, I let everyone down by refusing to talk about behaviors and focusing instead on affections.

When it comes to mission motivators, it doesn’t really work to only think about behaviors — what people do — without also thinking about affections — why they do what they do.

If I can get someone to engage with missions (give money, go on a short-term trip, pray for missionaries, etc.) without helping them arrive at a corresponding love for God’s mission, how much good have I really done? They may give once, go a handful of times, pray sometimes, but their behavior will ultimately revert back to where they started because their heart won’t be in it.

Worse, focusing on behavior without addressing affections can lead to hard hearts that, over time, become larger obstacles to even the smallest engagement in missions.

All of this talk about behaviors and affections comes from a simple conviction: Most attempts at missions motivation fail because they rely on law instead of leaning into the Gospel.

But there’s a better way.

Today, I’m going to share two ways law-based approaches distort our attempts to motivate God’s people, along with two ways the Gospel counters these distortions and can plant an unshakable love for missions in our hearts.

Fear, Shame and “Ought”

How many of our missions motivators have a subtle undertone that disapprovingly asks people, “Don’t you care about the lost?”

How often have we used Matthew 28:19-20 as a biblical trump card, effectively telling people that whatever else they might be inspired by, God commands global mission?

When we share statistics and stories of unreached peoples, do we aim at people’s guilt centers to try to move them to our side of an argument?

These and other common missions motivators are powerful because they draw on our feelings of fear, shame and duty. They capitalize on what we feel we “ought” to be doing and what we feel bad for not doing. But they ultimately fail because God, in His wisdom, created us to be more powerfully moved by positive motivators than negative ones like fear and guilt.

In the Gospel, Christ takes all of our guilt, shame, fear and “ought” on Himself, nailing them to the cross and killing them forever. In their place He gives us His Spirit, who in turn replaces fear and guilt with “power and love and self-control” ( 2 Tim. 1:7 ), making us sons of God rather than slaves to the law ( Rom. 8:15 ).

By His Spirit, God replaces our hearts of stone with hearts of flesh ( Ezek. 36:26-27 ), empowering us to love God from the heart and to live as His children.

My Performance. My Responsibility

How often do we approach missions as if it all depended on us and our obedience?

We invite people to consider the “high calling” of missions work as if those called to be missionaries are more spiritual and more Christian than others. We parade missionary families in front of the church, hoping to draw others to follow their example.

We treat missions as something that depends on us and our excellence for its completion. All of this plays to our natural sense of pride and ambition, and it subtly encourages us to look at ourselves as the primary character in the drama of missions.

As the law always does, these appeals may inspire us to charge down the road toward mission activity, but they leave us crushed when — as will always happen — we run up against our own limitations.

Dry seasons of fruitlessness come. Visas fall through. We struggle to adjust to new cultures. If our motivation is our own excellence, those moments leave us vulnerable to the accuser’s voice telling us we’re not good enough, smart enough or spiritual enough to be missionaries.

This approach also tells us that missions is only part of the Christian calling for some who have been specially equipped, alienating whole segments of the body who have critical roles to play.

However, the Gospel invites us to think about missions in terms of what God has done, what He continues to do and what He will always be doing.

From a Gospel perspective, our activity is always preceded and superseded by God’s missional activity. He created and sustains all things. He has been in the work of redemption since Genesis 3. He calls a people to Himself, redeeming and empowering them for His work. In the end, He will bring the new heavens and new earth to fruition.

Our activity, then, should be understood to be for His pleasure and our privilege, for His glory and our own good.

Motivated by Joy

What would mission motivators look like if they reflected the joy of what God has done for us instead of the fear, shame and performance of the law? What if we focused our efforts on framing global opportunities in light of the Gospel’s beauty and the freedom that comes from living in that truth?

What if we met people in their joys and passions and helped them see how their gifts can be harnessed for global missions work? What if we let people in on the secret that God’s mission isn’t just a duty to be endured by a handful, but is the delight into which all Christians everywhere are called?

The right answers to these questions will look different in different church contexts. But starting with Gospel instead of the law makes us more likely to push people towards Christ and His mission than away from them.

In a follow-up post , we’ll look at two more ways law-based approaches exploit our natural fallenness — and how the Gospel can redeem them.

By Suzanne Pearson 08 Mar, 2024
Through God-ordained partnerships and creative connections, TEAM worker Keith Moore sees the global Church advancing in amazing ways. In the global missions landscape, a phrase that comes up often is “from everywhere, to everywhere.” God is calling His global Church in literal new directions, as He raises up cross-cultural workers to be sent from places that were once on the receiving end of missions work. We call this movement “polycentric sending.” TEAM workers Dawn and Keith Moore have seen first-hand this transition taking place. Their story involves the unlikely but beautiful intersection of Charlotte, North Carolina; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; and Memphis, Tennessee...and beyond. The Path to Honduras Keith and Dawn joined TEAM in 1991 and served as church planters for nine years in Bogota, Colombia. After safety concerns precipitated their return to the States in 1999, they knew they wanted to continue serving in Latin America. The Moores felt called to Honduras but wanted to connect with a strong missional church to help send them. The Lord orchestrated a collaboration with Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. “Some people asked, ‘Why Honduras? Missionaries have been there for 100 years. It’s already reached,’” Keith says. “But there’s a whole section of Latin America that had not been reached - the upper crust.” Keith goes on to explain that he and Dawn felt called to reach college-educated professionals in Honduras – a ministry vision that resonated with the missional goals of Bellevue Baptist. Impact and Growth With the support of this new church partnership as well as another sending church in Birmingham, Alabama, the Moores embarked on their next adventure. Keith and Dawn started Impacto Honduras Church from scratch, and in less than 20 years, the church grew into four locations with 1600 total members. The Moores and other TEAM workers also created a “Bible school” type training program to help professionals who feel a call to ministry to make that transition. Throughout this period of explosive growth, church partnerships played an integral role. “It’s such a different vision when you have a church that says, ‘OK, this is our deal, we want to make this happen,’” Keith explains. “They helped us with everything. They took away every single obstacle to growth. Every time we needed something, they were there.” In 2017, the Moores once again found themselves on the verge of another decision. Was it time to leave Honduras? “I had no desire to leave,” Keith recalls. “People were coming to Christ every week! It was just so amazing.” However, back in the U.S., Keith and Dawn’s parents were in their 80s and would soon be in need of more care. “We realized that either we would leave in a crisis, or we would leave strategically,” says Keith. The couple began to implement a careful succession plan. By the time they left, the four churches were established with strong, Honduran leadership ready to carry on the work of the Gospel.
By Suzanne Pearson 23 Feb, 2024
Justin Burkholder, pictured here with his wife Jenny and their daughters Isabella, Olivia, and Zoey, has recently been named as TEAM’s next International Director. On February 19, 2024, with much excitement and gratitude to the Lord, TEAM announced that Justin Burkholder will become our organization’s new International Director, effective July 1, 2024. Justin, who is currently TEAM’s Executive Director of Global Ministry, will assume his new role upon the retirement of the current International Director, Dave Hall. ( Read the full press release here. ) We sat down recently with Justin to learn a little more about his background, his family, and the journey that has led him to TEAM. Q: Tell us a little bit about your “origin story” - Where did you grow up? What was your family like? A: I grew up in Mexico City as a missionary kid. My parents were focused on church planting. We were very close as a family. Both of my parents are still alive, and my dad serves as a pastor in southern Florida. I have one brother who is a pastor in Wisconsin, and the most special individual in my family is my sister, Amber. She was born with a very severe case of cerebral palsy and is entirely dependent on my mother...who is extraordinary! The three most impactful forces that have shaped who I am (outside of God’s grace) are growing up in Mexico, having parents who loved and planted churches, and sharing life with someone with a severe disability. My parents belonged at the time to a church and denomination that came with quite a bit of legalism and performance-oriented Christianity. Grace was a challenging concept to grasp. While I had an awareness of my sin and need for redemption, it wasn’t until I attended Moody Bible Institute that I began to grasp the fullness of God’s grace and His delight in His children. I have continued learning and trusting in the Gospel through formal education, like completing my M.Div., and through spiritual practices in community. Learning the Gospel and believing the Gospel has been a daily exercise. The Gospel is as beautiful and multi-faceted as a diamond! At an individual level, it is simple enough for us to live convinced that “Jesus loves me, this I know.” At a corporate level, it becomes the foundation that forms and informs our life as a spiritual family. At a cosmic level, it is redemption that reaches as far as the curse is found. It is hard to even grasp the multiplicity of goodness found in the Good News. Q: Share a little bit about your family life now. What does a typical day look like in the Burkholder household? A: My wife Jenny is my high-school sweetheart! She brings joy and kindness wherever she goes. She’s the best listener I’ve ever met, and we love spending time together. We have three daughters. Isabella is ten, Olivia is seven, and Zoey is four. Each of the girls is unique and has taught us a lot in our process of following Jesus together. We like to go out on walks and go to the park together. Once a month I try to get some alone time with each of my daughters which usually includes bowling or trampolines. A typical day in the Burkholder house starts around 5:00am. Because of traffic here in Guatemala City, we have to leave early for school. After school, the girls come home to different activities - sometimes swimming class, sometimes piano lessons. Four or five nights a week we have dinner together where we usually talk about our high and low moments of the day. On weekends, we enjoy time together, playing outside, or watching sports together. Go Cubs and Go Buckeyes! Q: What are your interests and hobbies? If you have the day off, what are you likely to be up to? A: I enjoy physical activity, running, strength-training and following sports. I also love music and, truth be told, am a bit snobby about my taste in music! I also am a very curious person and love reading just about anything that passes through my hands. A day off is usually an opportunity for time with family. Jenny and I like to cook something interesting together on our days off. Often there is time for some reading and watching some type of athletic event. Q: How did God lead you to TEAM? A: My wife and I were working in the Chicago suburbs. I was a youth pastor and she was a Spanish teacher. When we got married, we had already sensed God’s direction to serve cross-culturally, but it was a matter of discerning when and where. There was a driving desire in me to see a church deeply love the Scriptures and at the same time, be deeply engaged in loving and serving their city and the most vulnerable among them. As God directed our paths, we visited a variety of places and made some friends in Guatemala who opened up the path for us to serve here. While we were exploring, we knew that the International Director of an organization called TEAM happened to go to our church, so I decided I should probably invite him out for breakfast - his name was Charlie Davis. Charlie was extremely thoughtful, passionate about disciple-making, and very gracious in creating space for us as we stepped into this endeavor. Charlie connected me with Steve Dresselhaus, a fellow TEAM global worker who was at that time serving as the Senior Director for the Americas. I cannot express the debt that I owe Steve. He walked closely with me in the transition, encouraged courageous thinking about the church and her role in society, and blasted open the doors for us to serve in Guatemala. After meeting Steve, we spent some days praying about joining TEAM. One thing I will never forget – one night during the process, I found myself wide awake in the middle of the night. A peace like I have seldom experienced passed over me confirming that we should join TEAM. There is no doubt in my mind that God tied all of these pieces together to bring us into the TEAM family and community. Q: What roles have you held in TEAM? What have been the milestones in those roles? A: The most important role I have held in TEAM is that of a global worker. God in His grace has allowed us to help plant two churches here in Guatemala, serve in leadership development, counseling, and discipleship. Our greatest joy has been found walking with those who are learning to follow Christ more deeply. I served as the Ministry Area Leader in Guatemala from 2016 to 2019. We helped to establish and lead this ministry area as it grew from just four global workers to over 15. I then served as Senior Director for Mexico and Central America from 2019 to 2021, Regional Executive Director for the Americas in 2021 and 2022, and then transitioned to the role of Executive Director of Global Ministry which I’ll continue in until the end of June. Q: What do you love most about being a part of TEAM? Why TEAM rather than other organizations or job opportunities? A: The TEAM community is full of people who have faithfully served God’s mission and have given up a lot to do so. It is a privilege to know many of our global workers and be counted among them. I am also fascinated by the fact that TEAM has existed now for more than 130 years! There is something to be said about the resilience and faithfulness of an organization that has continued to impact the world for so long. The rest of our conversation with Justin will be coming soon on blog! We’ll hear more about how God called Justin to the role of International Director, and what Justin sees for the next chapter in TEAM’s work in the global Church.
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