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What’s wrong with motivational teaching?
By admin | October 6, 2008
Motivational speakers seem to surround us, whether in the church or in the secular world, there seems to be an abundance of motivational speakers. Motivational speaking is a multi-billion pound industry. Looking on the bookshelves at Christian bookstores, a lot of the books can be described as motivational. Some people are fascinated, some switch off and sometimes apart from a few scriptures, there appears to be little difference between secular motivational teachers and Christian ones.
So is there anything wrong with motivational teachings? Before we answer the question, let’s define the work motivation.
Definition?
To motivate means to give a reason or inspiration for a course of action to someone, to inspire or encourage someone to do something.
Reviewing these definitions, we realise that there is nothing wrong with the art of motivation. Indeed, most Christian teaching can be classified as motivational – as we are encouraged to be Christ like.
So perhaps the right question is: “is the mode of motivational teaching appropriate and what are we being motivated to do”?
Motivational teaching
People have different reasons for the need for motivational teaching. For some, people, they have had a life of poverty that they want to escape from. For others it might be the need to achieve success. For others, it’s to prove to themselves and people around them that they can be someone important. Others are motivated out of fear, or obligation towards their family. And there are Christians that are motivated out of a fear of judgement.
From a Christian perspective, there should be an underlying source of motivation. Motivation should be tied up with the will and purpose of God for our lives. The scriptures help us to understand that Jesus came to destroy the works of the evil one (purpose).
We should be motivated towards the will and purpose of God for our lives. Any teaching (or indeed speaking) that does not cause us to be more Godly and Christ-like must be rejected no matter how nice it sounds. What’s the point of being motivated towards a goal that’s not God’s perfect will for your life. Why be motivated, put all your energy into a life time of work, sweat and effort, only to discover that this is not what God intended for you in the first place. I guess the question is “what are you motivated towards”?
Being motivated towards God’s will is true motivation and will result in satisfaction of a life well spent as we all want to hear those wonderful words - “Well done, thy good and faithful servant”. This is the fundamental difference between Christian and secular motivation.
Let me illustrate this point with a personal example. I am an internet marketing student. Not only am I fascinated by this technology, I also spend time studying about it. A few years back, I decided to sign up for an internet marketing coaching programme. Before I could be considered for selection on the course, I had to fill out a form that lists my motivation for wanting to do the course, my seriousness and the time I was prepared to dedicate to it. Under the motivation section, I was asked questions about the type of dream holidays I wanted, the type of dream cars, the type of dream house – you get the picture.
Anyway, having successfully ‘passed’ this stage, I was now interviewed for the course. I was asked what my niche market was, to which I replied Christian Business. I was then told that they (the course organisers) would tell me whether I could go on their course or not and whether to drop this niche market in favour of one that they would choose for me and encourage me to drop the idea. Drop the idea? Drop God’s idea? I guess you can imagine the end of the story.
Perhaps if my motivation was money, that would have been a useful prospect, but my motivation is the pursuit of God’s will for my life.
So having established what you are motivated towards, the next question is “who is motivating you”? Remember that it is a good thing to be motivated. The question to ask is, “what type of foundation are you building upon”?
Christians however, live by the power of the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit ministering to our spirits. Jesus let us know that His words are words of life. Anything that touches the soul can only take us so far as we should not live after the soul but after the Spirit. It is the Spirit that gives life to us and draws out the deep things of God.
Biblical motivation should not just stir up the emotions but draw out the deep things of God. So let’s be careful to judge all that we hear and read against the word of God. If it is direct conflict, throw it out. Remember that all scriptures are motivational in nature. Yes, some of us need to be helped and motivated along the way – didn’t Paul talk about wise and persuasive words – but in the same context, he talked about a demonstration of the power of God. Whether people deliver their message with more charisma than others is not the issue, the issue is that all things must be tested or judged against the word of God. Anything that’s in direct conflict with the word of God should be rejected.
So let’s not throw out the ‘baby with the bath water’. To be motivated is good as long as we are being motivated towards God’s will for our lives.
I trust you have found this article useful, so please tell your friends and leave comments on the blog. Till I appear again in your in-box, stay blessed
Topics: Motivation |
October 6th, 2008 at 2:25 am
Dear Brother Ola,
You are so correct. Just this week I was talking this same topics with a few fellow Chaplains friends and with my wife the next day. There is this one particular well known “Chistian” Pastor and book author with a huge church here in the USA. He is extremely motivating and attracts people everywhere, but does not use Bible verses in his so call sermons. We must remember, Jesus taught that we must go through the world and preach this Gospel, not something that will inspire me to do something else. We need to be inspired to do the will of God Almighty and love Him over everything and love each other. We need to me inspired by the Bible and Jesus Christ the Son of the living God and His Holy Spirit. Amen.
May God continue to bless you and use you as He goes.
Kind blessings,
Rev. Edwin A. Mercado, Sr.
Author - Into the Future of
Your Successful Organization
management-intothefuture.org
October 13th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
i guess the problems of some motivational teaching is that they tend towards self and selfish interest than God.But motivational speaking is not totally wrong when done with God s purpose at heart.
November 15th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Thanks Ola - your words are motivational teaching.
After reading your article two simple sentences from Paul comes to mind.
“Test everything. Hold on to the good.” 1 Thess 5:21
When anything is tested, it must be tested against a standard, a base level, an answer sheet… Your words remind me: when we listen to a motivational speaker, their message or encouragement should be tested against God’s word - the answer sheet.
May 13th, 2010 at 4:07 am
As a keynote speaker /author / facilitator in the business sector, I have struggled with this same question, and come up with the same conclusion.
Core, rank-ordered values work great for this:
1. Love - if I don’t love my audience, go home.
2. Truth - if I don’t speak truth, again - I do more harm than good
3. Relate-able - if the audience can’t relate, it wasted time
4. Creativity - to capture the imagination