Introduction
The distance is so great between how we live and how we ought to live that he who abandons what is done for what ought to be done learns his ruin rather than his preservation; because a man who wants to make a profession of goodness in everything is bound to come to ruin among so many who are not good. Therefore, it is necessary for a prince, if he wants to preserve himself, to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge and not use it as necessity dictates.[1]
The cover of the August 13, 2012 issue of Time Magazine has a picture of the White House with a For Sale sign on the front lawn and the asking price is $2.5 Billion. The tagline reads: How to Buy the White House and the feature articles are centered on the fact that money is what really wins elections, not issues. The focus of the articles is not about the rich buying the White House in order to promote their agendas, although that would seem to be the motivation behind such large donations, but about financing the election process through the formation of “Super PACs.” According to OpenSecrets.org, “As of August 12, 2012, 727 groups organized as Super PACs have reported total receipts of $319,011,891 and total independent expenditures of $185,120,004 in the 2012 cycle.”[2] OpenSecrets adds that “Super PACs are a new kind of political action committee created in July 2010 following the outcome of a federal court case known as SpeechNow.org v. Federal Election Commission”[3] and that “Political Action Committee[s] have been around since 1944, when the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) formed the first one to raise money for the re-election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt”[4] but there were limits to the amounts that could be donated.
A fair assessment of Niccolo Machiavelli’s political treatise, The Prince, would be that it is acceptable, if not necessary, to manipulate the people in order to remain in power. The use of manipulation in politics is as old as politics itself, but these new trends seem to be proving Machiavelli’s theories on a daily basis. The use of manipulation is not limited to the political realm, but it is part of every aspect of life and sadly, it is part of the history of the church. In light of the many public scandals involving Evangelical preachers, particularly the Jim Bakker scandal in the mid 1980’s, a progressive metal band, Queensryche, created a rock opera that told the story of a young man being used as a pawn for a corrupt revolution where he served as a hit man and he was taken care of by a former prostitute nun who would feed his addiction to heroin. There are numerous lyrics that support the topic at hand but two are especially relevant. They are: “Religion and sex are powerplays, Manipulate the people for the money they pay, Selling skin, selling God, The numbers look the same on their credit cards” and “And all the shady preachers, Begging for my cash, Swiss bank accounts while giving their, Secretaries the slam, They’re all in Penthouse now, Or Playboy magazine, million dollar stories to tell, I guess Warhol wasn’t wrong, Fame fifteen minutes long, Everyone’s using everybody, making the sale.”[5]
The question now becomes, with the numerous scandals and manipulation techniques being used, how does a leader or leadership within the church change the ingrained perspective of many inside and outside the church, that the church is no different from the world, when the evidence seems to bear that out? Leaders need to learn to look to the Scriptures as the guide to their lives and ministries instead of the latest marketing strategies on how to increase the numbers in the pews, which produces the atmosphere of entertainment and excitement but say nothing of commitment and perseverance. Leaders must reject the temptation to use manipulation to motivate their people and instead focus on intrinsic value of what Christ has done for them and who they are in him because once a person truly understands that reality, the leader’s job to motivate becomes easier since their motivation comes from who they are instead of from external sources.
Definitions
Manipulation
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines manipulate as such: “(1) to treat or operate with or as if with the hands or by mechanical means esp. in a skillful manner (2a) to manage or utilize skillfully (b) to control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means esp. to one’s own advantage (3) to change by artful or unfair means so as to serve one’s purpose.”[6] It is evident for the basic meaning that to manipulate or the use of manipulation can be a positive endeavor such as the way a potter manipulates the clay to create a beautiful vase or the way a masseuse or physical therapist manipulates the muscles to bring comfort. The latter most often involves a process of pain, but the end result is relief, which would seem to justify the notion that the means justify the end. On the other hand, the manipulation of people, as the second part of the definition implies, carries with it negative connotations. Mere mention of the use of manipulation in a self-serving manner generally issues a response of righteous indignation towards the manipulator. According to Smith, “in most cases, manipulation is the prostitution of motivation. Prostitution is always easier than the real thing; it’s an attempt to get results without honest effort. Motivation is not a quick fix; manipulation can be.”[7]
Motivation
Motivation, on the other hand, is defined as “(1a) the act or process of motivating (b) the condition of being motivated (2) a motivating force, stimulus, or influence.”[8] In order to gain a fuller meaning it is necessary to trace the definition backwards two steps, first to “motivate” to provide with a motive, then to “motive,” which as it relates to persons means “something (as a need or desire) that causes a person to act.”[9] Motivation, when contrasted with manipulation, tends to have a broader range of meaning because its root word, motive is brought into question in so many different facets such as love, greed, self-preservation, and selflessness, to name a few. Motives can be questioned in every act, whether good or bad. The person who robs a bank in order to feed his starving children would have a good and self-sacrificing motive for his actions, although they are misguided, while a wealthy businessman may donate large sums of money to feed the needy under the guise of being benevolent, but all he really seeks is recognition and prestige.
Motives are difficult to determine because they reside within the individual. The process of ascertaining motives is a crucial aspect in the lives of leaders, particularly Christian leaders, where the majority of the people serving are volunteers, thereby eliminating financial gain as a motive, but greatly increasing the motive of recognition and praise. The goal for leaders would be to show the people under their care, who they really are in Christ in order to show them from where proper motivation is derived. According to Ferguson, “an appeal to the love of God as seen in Jesus Christ as the foundation for our living the life of faith as revealed in Holy Scripture”[10] is what constitutes proper motivation.
Is Manipulation Biblical?
One would be hard pressed in an attempt to find an instance in the Scriptures where manipulation produced a positive result. One only has to consider Genesis 3 where the Serpent’s manipulation of Eve produces the fall of mankind and the story of Balaam in Numbers 22-24 which placed “a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality” (Rev. 2:14).[11] Often opponents of Calvinism misrepresent the teachings of Calvin to imply that Calvinism teaches that God is the master manipulator, controlling all the events of the universe much like a micro manager, causing some to go to hell against their will and possibly others to go to heaven against their will. This view is not presented in the pages of the Bible, nor is it the view espoused by Calvin; it may be the view of Theodore Beza, his successor, but not John Calvin according to his many literary works.
How Does One End Up Using Manipulation?
According to Ferguson, “manipulation is much in style because manipulation gets immediate results. Most people carry enough residual guilt within them that they are susceptible to sermons which prey upon that guilt.”[12] The most visible place for the use of manipulation will be the pulpit. The pulpit is the one place where the preacher has the ear of the majority of the congregation so it is the place where the chance of impacting the most people occurs. When discussing manipulation in the pulpit it becomes necessary for the idea of motives to be examined. What is the motive of the preacher in his use of manipulation? Is he aware that he is using manipulative words and themes? If so, why does he feel the need to do so? Ferguson adds that manipulation can occur whenever the preacher uses language and/or stories designed to evoke an emotive response.”[13] Based on this description, the use of an altar call would be the first place to look for evidence of the use of manipulation. The desire to see people come to the Lord is a good desire, but to what lengths is that desire carried out? Does the preacher lessen the problem of sin or not deal with it at all? Does the preacher offer cheap grace? According to Sider, “We need to rethink our theology. We need to ask, “Are we really biblical?” Cheap grace is right at the core of the problem. Cheap grace results when we reduce the gospel to forgiveness of sins only; when we limit salvation to personal fire insurance against hell; when we misunderstand persons as primarily souls; when we at best grasp only half of what the Bible says about sin; when we embrace the individualism and materialism and relativism of our current culture. We also lack a biblical understanding and practice of the church.”[14] According to Ferguson, “This type of preaching tends to produce sorrow for the moment but not godly repentance. We need to educate our people that this type of preaching is counterproductive, unbiblical, and not worthy of our Lord.”[15]
Does Manipulation Have Any Place in the Church?
This section deals primarily with the use of manipulation in selecting leaders and volunteers for various jobs within the church. What effect does it have on people when they are defined by what they do as a profession when they are approached for similar jobs within the church? According to Reid, “In today’s society, the worth of an individual is closely tied to his or her vocation. Ask anyone on the street, ‘What are you?’ People aren’t likely to say ‘a mother,’ ‘a husband,’ ‘a Christian,’ ‘a concerned citizen,’ or ‘an American,’ they will name their trade or profession.”[16] If an accountant comes into the church, the temptation of those in leadership is to ask him to join the finance committee, often before finding out whether he is a believer or not. The volunteer staff is not the only ones susceptible to manipulative recruitment. Smith relates a time when he saw an ad for a secretarial job on a seminary bulletin board which stated, “Pay is low because it’s a ministry” his response was to want to tear the sign down. He calls this a misuse of “ministry” because there is no reason a secretary working in a Christian setting should make less than one in any other setting or why the job would be considered a ministry.[17] Enlisting volunteers or paid personal ultimately stems from how the leadership see them, Are they slaves building the leader’s kingdom or are they family members working alongside the leadership to build God’s kingdom.[18]
Manipulation vs. Persuasion
Manipulation has been defined as the control or play upon by artful, unfair, or insidious means esp. to one’s own advantage or to change by artful or unfair means so as to serve one’s purpose. Persuade means “to move by argument, entreaty, or expostulation to a belief, position, or course of action or to plead with.”[19] Both of these words have the same goal, to change a person’s position from where they are currently to the position that the manipulator or persuader wants them to be. The only difference is that the persuasion is open in its intent. The Apostle Paul making his gospel appeal before Festus, King Agrippa and Bernice in Acts 26 seeks to persuade them with the truth of the gospel not manipulate them into believing something that would be of an advantage to Paul, namely his release from the chains if the authorities shared his beliefs. Agrippa even makes the statement that Paul is trying to persuade him to become a Christian in such a short time, to which Paul replies yes with the exception of these chains (Acts 26:27-29). Williams, in his article “In Praise of Manipulation,” expresses a process of manipulation to help Clinical Pastoral Education students to learn at a different level then they are used to or even expected to. The process he describes is more similar to powerful persuasion than manipulation because the students understand “in detail what [he] is planning to do and [are] willing to cooperate in the process…they also have the power to stop the process at any time.”[20] Persuasion seems to be the link between manipulation and motivation.
Is Motivation Biblical?
If we can but teach Christ to our people, we shall teach them all. Get them well to heaven, and they will have knowledge enough. The great and commonly acknowledged truths of religion are those that men must live upon, and which are the great instruments of destroying men’s sins, and raising the heart to God.[21]
A pastor friend once said to Ferguson, “If the love of God and what Christ has done for them on Calvary cannot motivate them, then how in the world do they expect me to do it?”[22] Based on the last statement, all one needs to be properly motivated is have a true faith in the hero of the Bible, which will lead to a clear understanding of who God is and what he has done. To be encouraged, all one has to do is read all the “one another’s” in the Scriptures to realize that each and every believer has the responsibility to love one another, bear one another’s burdens, pray for one another, build one another up, encourage one another, and many more. Hebrews 10:24 would have to be the biblical definition of motivation, it says, “let us consider how to stir one another to love and good works.” Just as there are encouraging words to motivate believers to action, there are a multitude of people in the Bible to emulate and model the believer’s lives after. Nehemiah was able to motivate his workers to complete the work in record time in the face of threats from the enemy. Three others will be considered because of their faith and enduring vision to see God glorified. Those three are: David, Paul, and Jesus.
David
In 1 Samuel 17, the reader learns about the bravery and courage of David as he confronts and kills the giant, Goliath. David does not fight the giant because he desires fame, honor, or wealth, he does it solely because Goliath has defied the army of the living God (1 Sam. 17:26, 45). David is only concerned about honoring God. A study of David’s life will reveal that God’s glory is the overarching theme of his life, despite his many failures. God had gifted David as a man of war, yet he would not raise his hand against Saul even though David was anointed as Israel’s true king. In 1 Samuel 30, David’s wives along with those in Ziklag were taken captive by the Amelekites, but verse six says “that strengthened himself in the Lord his God,” the King James Version says that “he encouraged himself in the Lord.” There are other instances where David was able to find encouragement from others as well.
Paul
Paul’s story is probably the most well known in the Scriptures, with the exception of Jesus’ life. Paul thought he was doing the work of God by persecuting the followers of Jesus until he became one himself on the road to Damascus. As a result of that meeting with the glorified Christ, Paul became the primary writer of the New Testament as well as the church’s greatest theologian and apostle. Paul, in his writings encouraged believers to imitate him as he imitated Christ (1 Cor. 4:16; 11:1). According to Carson, “In the context of these chapters, what Paul wants them to imitate is his passion to live life in the light of the cross.”[23] He “appealed to young Timothy to ‘fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you’ (2 Tim. 1:6 NIV). Paul was encouraging Timothy or using external motivation to help stir up the internal motivation of Timothy’s own response to the Holy Spirit, who communicates with our spirit to produce powerful inner motivation,”[24] according to Robinson. Paul main objective was to point others to Jesus Christ.
Jesus
Zemek states that “God’s people should emulate not only other mature disciples but also the men whom God has given to them as spiritual leaders (Eph. 4:11-13). They in turn, in accord with testimonies of the apostolic circles, should strive to model Christ, who alone displays the perfect moral image of God.”[25] The focus of what true motivation is has been centered on the person and work of Jesus Christ. He is the only true model the believer has and therefore all true motivation for the work that the believer does should be rooted in their identity in Christ. Jesus always found the motivation to continue his work because his eyes were constantly fixed on his mission. In John 4:34, Jesus states that his food is to do the will of him who sent me and accomplish his work and in John 14:15-21, he states that if the believers love him they will keep his commandments and he will not leave them a orphans, but will give them the Holy Spirit to help them to live. Paul gives the believer the encouragement that they need to have the same mind in them that was in Christ Jesus, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:5-8). Just a Jesus had a clear vision of his purpose and mission; believer must also have a clear vision of their purpose and mission.
How Does One Motivate Biblically?
Clear Understanding of Mission
An individual believer, as well as a Christian organization such as a church or a para-church ministry needs to have a clear understanding of what their mission is. The mission that is clearly laid out in Scripture is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and love your neighbor as yourself, which brings about the proclamation of the gospel to the lost world, ultimately bringing glory to God. Sharing the gospel with the lost is only thing that believers are able to do now to bring glory to God that they will not be able to do in eternity. In terms of the conflict between manipulation and motivation, far too often when there is not a clear understanding of what the mission is there tends to be strong leaning towards “putting out fires” and “focusing on the unimportant.” Additionally, the problem believer or the weaker believers tend to monopolize the majority of the leader’s time and strength. To draw a comparison to the business world, “managers who claim that their employees seem to be lacking motivation should review their reward systems to consider the possibility that they’re paying off for behavior other than what they’re seeking,”[26] according to Robbins. The same can be said about the leader rewarding that which is not focused on the mission by allowing it to consume his time and neglecting the training of those who can further the mission.
Casting Vision
Casting vision is probably one of the most important things that a leader can do to keep people motivated. People will follow leaders that are proactive, if the leader is just reacting to the different events that happen around him, people will quickly lose interest and become focused on other things that may not be in the best interest or agree with the mission of the ministry. According to Toler, “If you want a high-performance heart, focus on the future,”[27] and in order to have a future, a leader must cast a vision that is biblical as well as attainable.
Setting Goals
Once the mission is established and the vision has been cast, it is necessary to set measurable and attainable goals. Far too often the believer is left with the attitude to just simply try to do their best, but according to Robbins that is not the best way to motivate people. Robbins further states that, “The mountain of evidence that tells us that people perform best when they have goals. More to the point, we can say that specific goals increase performance; that difficult goals, when accepted, result in higher performance than do easy goals; and that feedback leads to higher performance than does nonfeedback.”[28] In terms of setting goals, the old adage holds true, “if you aim at nothing, you will hit nothing.”
Conclusion
It is evident that the use of manipulation is rather commonplace in the world today and unfortunately it is also used within the church. What is also evident is that when leaders use manipulation in order to motivate, the motivation is short lived. True Motivation, that which is enduring and long-lasting is the motivation that is based on the person and work of Jesus Christ, since it is only through their identity in Christ that they are able to do anything with any lasting impact. The Scriptures are clear concerning what should drive the believer’s life, if they are willing to submit in obedience to the work of the Holy Spirit because motivation is mostly derived from within. The external factors of helping the believer draw out what is within is a clear understanding of what their mission here on earth is and leaders that cast vision and set measurable and attainable goals to reach the lost world for Christ in order to bring glory to God, since only he is worthy to receive honor, glory, and praise.
[1] Niccolo Machiavelli. The Prince. Translation, Introduction, and Notes by Wayne A. Rebhorn. (New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 2003), 66
[2] “Super PACs” OpenSecrets.org Center for Responsive Politics. www.opensecret.org/pacs/superpacs.php?cycle+2012 (accessed August 12, 2012)
[4] “What is a PAC” OpenSecrets.org Center for Responsive Politics. www.opensecret.org/pacs/superpacs.php?cycle+2012 (accessed August 12, 2012)
[5] Geoff Tate and Michael Wilton, Operation: Mindcrime “Spreading the Disease,” “Revolution Calling,” Queensryche, EMI Records, B000002UEB, 1988
[6] Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed., s.v. “Manipulate.”
[7] Fred Smith. “The Manipulation Game.” Leadership: A Publication of Christianity Today, Inc. Vol. 6, Issue 4 (September 01, 1985): 110-117. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials, https://liberty.illiad.oclc.org/illiad/illiad.dll?Action=10&Form=75&Value=141512 (accessed on July 19, 2012)
[8] Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed., s.v. “Motivation”
[10] Robert U. Ferguson, Jr. “Motivation or Manipulation in the Pulpit” Preaching Vol. 6, Issue 6 (May 1, 1991): 10-11. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials. http://www.preaching.com/resources/articles/11567275/ (accessed on July 19, 2012)
[11] All Scripture notations will be from the ESV unless otherwise noted.
[14] Stan Guthrie, “The Evangelical Scandal” Christianitytoday.com, April 13, 2005, Interview of Ron Sider. http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/april/32.70.html?start=2 (accessed August 8, 2012)
[18] Jonathan Falwell, Gen. ed., innovatechurch. (Nashville: B & H Publishing Group, 2008), 47
[19] Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed., s.v. “Persuade”
[20] Dean Williams, “In Praise of Manipulation.” Journal of Supervision and Training in Ministry Vol. 12 (January 1, 1990): 213-26. ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials. https://liberty.illiad.oclc.org/illiad/illiad.dll?Action=10&Form=75&Value=141515 (accessed on July 19, 2012)
[21] Richard Baxter, Reformed Pastor (1656; repr., Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1997), 113. Quoted in Timothy Z. Witmer. The Shepherd Leader: Achieving Effective Shepherding in Your Church. Philipsburg: P & R Publishing Company, 2010
[23] D. A. Carson, The Cross and Christian Ministry: Leadership Lessons from 1 Corinthians. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1993), 110
[24] Darrell W. Robinson, Total Church Life: How to be a First Century Church. (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1997), 97.
[25] John MacArthur, and The Master’s Seminary Faculty. Pastoral Ministry: How to Shepherd Biblically. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2005), 226
[26] Stephen P. Robbins, The Truth About Managing People. 2nd ed. (Upper Saddle River: FT Press, 2008), 58
[27] Stan Toler, Stan Toler’s Practical Guide for Pastoral Ministry. (Indianapolis: Wesleyan Publishing House, 2007), 233
Theology Transforming Daily Life 