Sharing my faith was the last thing I felt equipped to do.
As a first year student in university, I knew that there was something called the Great Commission, but I didn’t know what to do with it. So after looking through all the Christian clubs listed online, I decided to join Campus Crusade for Christ, since they were all about evangelism (it’s now called Power to Change in Canada, or Cru in the U.S.).
That first year was incredible and I owe so much of my spiritual formation to that ministry. I learnt how to share my faith, I was filled with the Holy Spirit, I saw multiple people give their lives to Christ, and I went on a mission trip where I met my wife, Christina.
Everything was perfect, except for the fact that I was doing it all out of guilt.
At some point that I don’t remember, things shifted and I realized that I began sharing my faith with others because I felt like I had to, not out of a joy that I got to.
I wasn’t introducing people to Jesus because God loved them, I was doing it because I wanted God to love me more. And I was afraid that if I missed an opportunity to share Jesus with a stranger, that somehow it would be my fault if they went to hell. After all, what if they never met another Jesus loving, Jesus believing person again?
Honestly, I can’t pinpoint the moment I started to believe these lies, but I know that I didn’t get it from this ministry.
In fact, the scary thing was that I began looking down on others who weren’t actively sharing their faith on a weekly basis. I started thinking things like, “How can you live with yourself?! What if these people got hit with a bus and died tonight!”
And thoughts like this would run through my mind, “You don’t want to go on a mission trip in the summer?!” “Ugh, how could you be so self centred!”
I was suffering with the classic older brother syndrome from the Prodigal Son story. I thought that by DOING more for God, I would BE more loved by Him. That by DOING more evangelism, I would BE more accepted. And that by DOING more, I would BE more.
Have you ever been there? Have you ever thought this?
Unfortunately, motivation doesn’t translate as naturally as action.
Let me explain. Have you ever caught yourself yelling at your kids to stop yelling? I know I have.
My motivation for yelling at them was good. I wanted to parent them well and raise them up to talk through their problems, rather than bulldozing and yelling to get their way.
But my actions didn’t communicate that. My actions basically said that yelling was okay if you really wanted to get your way, and if you were older and bigger than someone else.
And unfortunately, this is what happens in the church.
Our motivation for wanting others to share their faith, give their lives away, and serve is good, isn’t it? We know that following Christ is not just about knowing the life he lived, it’s about living the life he lived.
So, with the right motivation, we do whatever we can to get others to live this way because if they do, they’ll experience the abundant life that Christ promised…right?!
So, we guilt people into sharing their faith and serving by saying things like:
- “If Jesus did it, shouldn’t you?”
- “What kind of follower are you, if you don’t follow the person you said you were going to?”
- “Yeah obviously you get to do it, but honestly you really have to do it.”
- “Uhh….don’t you realize how much Jesus talked about it?”
- “Tsk tsk tsk…”
- “It’s too bad…you really are missing out.”
- “Look at all the ways I’m sharing my faith and serving others…wait, you’re not??”
Just like in marriage, the right thing done the wrong way is the wrong thing no matter how right it is.
In other words, guilting people to share their faith, serve, and follow Christ is wrong—no matter what the outcome might be. It’s cheap. It’s trite. And it’s ineffective.
Guilt is a cheap motivator.
The alternative—or the better way to motivate—is outlined in Ephesians 3:16-21.
I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us— to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Do you see what’s happening here?
Who is the one that’s strengthening you? Jesus.
What is he strengthening you with? The riches of his glory.
Where is he strengthening you? In your inner being through his Spirit.
And what’s the result of him strengthening you?
Is it so that you would serve more effectively? So that you would 100x your output? So that you would break whatever barrier you’re wanting to break? So that you can get on some top 100 list?
Nope.
It’s so that Christ may dwell in your hearts. So that you would be rooted and firmly established in love. So that you would comprehend the length, width, height, and depth of God’s love. And so that you would know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fulness of God.
In other words, we don’t share our faith, serve, and follow Christ because we have to. We do it because we get to.
We do it because of Christ’s incredible love poured out upon us.
We share our faith and serve not to do, but because Christ has done.
We share our faith and serve not to become, but because Christ says be still, I love you.
Now that’s a different—and far superior—motivator than guilt.