The Curse of Motivational Speaking
Great stuff from Conrad Mwebe:
Yesterday, a church member told me that he met the young man in the local market. He had two booklets in his hands. The first was the one I had given him and the second one was by Joel Osteen. He told our member, “Pastor Mbewe gave me this book but I don’t like it because it makes me feel guilty. I prefer this one by Joel Osteen because it lifts me up. It motivates me.” I am very concerned about this and so I decided to put some thoughts together about the curse of motivational speaking.
Sadly, motivational speaking has become the staple diet of many evangelical pulpits. The message being heard is, “God has put the potential in you and all you need to do is believe in yourself to unlock that potential. Have a grand vision and live out that vision. You must be a man or woman of destiny and the sky will be the limit for you. Don’t let your past failures get in your way of success. Look beyond them, as Jesus looked beyond the cross and thus overcame it. You are the head and not the tail. ”
In the light of the plethora of motivational speaking, it begs the question, “Is this how Old Testament and New Testament preachers preached?” If I summarise the preaching of Noah, Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Jonah, Paul, Peter, etc., in the Bible, is this the kind of message that I will find there? I do not think so. Granted, motivational speakers borrow words from these men, but borrowing someone’s words is not the same thing as saying what he is saying. “A text without a context is a pretext.”
My chief quarrel with motivational speaking is that it reduces God to a means rather than an end. Men and women are not made to see that the nature of SIN lies in the letter “I” in the middle of the word. Instead, motivational speaking feeds that same ego and points to God as the one who can spoil it to the point of intoxication. That is a lie! It is God alone who must be at the centre of our lives. Christianity demands a dying to self, a taking up of one’s cross, and a following after a suffering Saviour…more
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There was a brief exhcange on Facebook the other day. Somebody posted a motivational quote, something about each of us having total authority and control over the outcomes of situations.
In a comment, the Rev. Judy Spruhan, who retired after spending the last decade serving a distressed Reservation in South Dakota, said simply, “Doesn’t always work out like that.”
Amen!
[1] Posted by Timothy Fountain on 6-21-2012 at 08:59 AM · [top]
I think one of the key misconceptions is the definition of success. God’s definition is likely to be different than that of a motivational speaker or the world.
My definition - “Love the Lord God with all your heart, soul and mind, and love others as you love yourself”. Are you living this out? Do you have a right relationship with God? Do you confess your sins, repent and ask forgiveness of the Lord? Do you pray without ceasing? Do you recognize you have an EVIL HEART and desperately need a Saviour?
If you get some $ success while doing the above, great. If you wear animal skins, eat locusts and smell while calling folks to repentance and Baptism, great. The key is your relationship with the Lord, and being obedient to His calling.
[2] Posted by B. Hunter on 6-21-2012 at 10:38 AM · [top]
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