Enlist to a Dream, Not a Job

Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009 Posted: 8:20:44PM HKT

It is the responsibility of those in ministry to recruit those who are not yet in ministry. But how do we do this?

Jesus challenged his disciples taught us how: "Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves." Luke 10:3 It reminds you of the words of Winston Churchill, "I have nothing to offer you but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

How different this is from much of our recruiting. We by telling people that it is not so awful, that it is not that much trouble, that it will not take all that much time. Jesus told them to go because he was sending them out like lambs among wolves. Translation: you are going to be eaten alive.

What did Jesus know about motivating people that we have missed? Often we operate under the assumption that people are motivated toward that which is pleasant and away from that which is painful. If this were true, I would assume that offering people blood, tears and sweat would tend to de-motivate them. Yet, more motivating words were never spoken. Moreover, when Jesus sent the disciples out as sheep among wolves, they actually got out of their chairs and get into the work!

I conclude that people are motivated more by a great cause than by comfort. We want our lives to count for something. We want to make a difference. If it costs us, so be it. If it is painful, so be it. We want to matter. This is what caused the disciples to face the wolves. Jesus had called them to be fishers of men. In the words of Bonhoffer, Jesus bid them come and die. He called them to make a difference. He called them to a vision. We must do the same.

The starting point in recruiting people is to recruit them to a dream--not just a job, a dream. Don't recruit people on the basis that something is not all that much trouble. If you do this, what you will get is not all that much. You get what you ask for. Ask people to lay down their lives for the great and noble task of making planet earth a better place. Ask them to give up their convenience and their time and for a great cause known as the Great Commission. Ask them to go to the mat for something they believe in.

We have the medicine to humanity's illness. At the core of all of society's problems is sin. The human soul has a disease and we have the cure. Contrast the pain in the world with the glory of the Kingdom. Read newspaper articles about how life actually is without God and challenge the group to the effect that this is not God's plan and things can be better. We have the solution to the crime problem, the homeless problem, the drug problem. We have God's solution. The world is acting as expected, but we need to step up to the plate and make a difference on planet earth.

The best recruiting is done individually. It is done face to face or phone to phone. It is done heart to heart. It is not done as a mass announcement from the pulpit, "We need someone somewhere to help with something over there." This almost never works. What works is getting in someone's face and asking, "What are you doing to serve God and the kingdom? Are you offering yourself to God as a living sacrifice? Do you know the thrill of spiritual battle?" This is the way Jesus recruited: person to person; one on one.

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Josh Hunt