Understanding a Variety of Motivational Controls: Power, Influence, Force, and Authority - John 20:21
The following four motivational factors; power, force, influence, and authority are to be seen from their sources in the Lord, the scriptures, the Holy Spirit, and the will of God. When the seminary students at Jos E.C.W.A. Seminary were surveyed they indicated a great emphasis on power for their motivations. However, as they grew in the spiritual, social, and intellectual maturities they tended to resort to more of an authoritative - influential basis for their own family, personal, and ministry motivations. Let me summarize the four control switches for most motivations:
1. Power - Often the leader who uses power as his chief motivator imposes it through the following four channels. Sadly, many student conform outwardly to such a leader, but inwardly resent his uses of power over them.
a. Relational - This man shows that he has relational powers to motivate others to do their best.
b. Demands rational perceptions - This man insists that rational perspective give the greatest results.
c. Conflict of values - When a disagreement occurs this man sees it as a simple conflict of values in youth against his values. His greater power affects the outcome.
d. Threat of severe sanctions - This man uses threats of boycotts to exercise his power over others.
2. Force - The leader who uses force as a motivator often inhibits youths’ true faith development. Often followers of this leader have very low moral development. They usually do what is right only because they fear punishment for contradicting his leadership. Their values are ignored because the leader threatens them with the following channels of his use of force.
a. Relational to nonrelational - This man forces his way through with those he knows in high places. Or, in many cases he disregards people shutting them off from access to his resources.
b. Noncompliance - This man refuses to go along with others using force to accomplish this.
c. Nonrational behavior - He acts irrationally with violence or angry words.
d. Conflict of values - He counters others values with demonstrations of his force.
e. Application of severe sanctions - This leader imposes monetary, personnel, or communication sanctions to show his force.
3. Influence - When a leader invisibly affects the thinking, attitudes, and actions of another he does it through influence. However, the trouble with influence as a motivator is that its effects tend to wear off unless they are periodically reinforced. Paul influenced the Thessalonians by encouraging, exhorting, and imploring them as a father would his own children. (I Thes. 2:10,11)
a. Relational - This leader motivates his followers by establishing positive relational confidence.
b. Demands rationally perceived understandings - This man motivates through shaping of others value systems through a positive demonstrations of his own values.
c. Conflict of values - This man motivates by showing the negative sides of his values through contrasting examples.
d. No severe sanctions - This man refuses to apply sanctions of love, resources, or communication because he wants to maintain his influence.
Example - Perhaps one of the greatest missionary pioneers was Count Zinzendorf. He founded the Moravians mission which sent out hundreds of missionaries and church planters around the world during the 18th century. The influence he had with his missionaries is amazing study in motivational leadership styles with youth. Since he came from an upper class noble family, he had to learn how to work across cultures in his missionary work and over sub-cultural-class borders in recruiting candidates for the mission field. Ruth Tucker writes the following about him’’
``As a missionary statesman, Zinzendorf spent thirty-three years as the overseer of a world-wide network of missionaries who looked to him for leadership. His methods were simple and practical ones that endured the test of time. All of his missionaries were lay people who were trained not as theologians but as evangelists. As self-supporting laymen, they were expected to work alongside their prospective converts, witnessing their faith by the spoken word and by their living example - always seeking to identify themselves as equals, not as superiors. Their task was solely evangelism, strictly avoiding any involvement in local political or economic affairs. Their message was the love of Christ - a very simple gospel message - with intentional disregard for doctrinal truths until after conversion, and even then, an emotional mysticism took precedence over theological teaching. Above all else, the Moravian missionaries were single-minded. Their ministry came before anything else. Wives and families were abandoned for the cause of Christ. Young men were encouraged to remain single, and when marriage was allowed, the spouse was often chosen by lot.’’ (Tucker, 1983: Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, p. 72)
Zinzendorf’s influence included all of the above elements:relationships, rational, minimization of conflict of values, and yet a subtle threat of sanctioning if the missionary did not subscribe to the norms of the group. At one point the sanctioning of the youthful missionaries became so severe that the movement was almost ruin by a fanatical emphasis on suffering like Christ. Again Tucker writes:
Example - ``Under the count’s leadership, the Moravian church had placed a great emphasis on the death of Christ. As a child he had meditated on the death and agony of the Lord, and his call to the ministry had become evident while viewing a painting depicting Christ’s agony. As time passed, what once had been an emphasis turned into a gruesome obsession, and the whole church seemed to be carried away in a radical form of mysticism. Both the Moravian brothers and the sisters began denigrating their own worth as they morbidly depicted the death of Christ. In a circular letter to the churches, Anna (years before she and Zinzendorf himself spoke of the brethren as ``little blood worms in the sea of grace’’. An ``Order of Little Fools’’ was formed, and Zinzendorf encouraged the members to behave like little children and to think of themselves as ``little fish swimming in the bed of blood’’ or ``little bees who suck the wounds of Christ. The more mystical and introspective the Moravians became in their personal identification with the Lord’s physical suffering the less they cared for the needs of others, particularly regarding world evangelism . . . ’’ (Tucker, 1983:, p. 73)
Even good influences can turn sour unless continually corrected, trained, and yielded to the word of God, Godly counsel, and the Spirit’s directing. Contextualizers can allow a good movement to turn negative by exerting too much influence over their converts, instead of turning his influence over to the source of truth and authority in Christ and His word.
4. Authority - When a leader speaks from a right or a position that entitles him to a power base, he can motivates others. His authority may also comes from experience, knowledge, education, or character. This leader shows that real authority comes from the word of God, the Holy Spirit, and the will of God.
a. Relational - This man helps others know his authority through competence, blameless, and experiential success. He counts on motivating others by relating to them in a mutual beneficial way. People want to follow this man because through their relationships they have come to see he deserves to be called an authority. He shows youths how God’s love affords him the right to be seen as the ultimate authority in their lives.
b. Demands rationally perceived understanding and considered reasonable - This man motivates others by insisting that they look at issues rationally, logically, and through his authoritative expert advise. People allow themselves to be motivated because they see it as rational, value worthy, and as exercise sound judgment. He applies the authority of the scripture and the Lord in advising youths on the best ways to decide on the basis of the will of God.
c. Possible conflict of values - This man realizes that even though there may be disagreements, his authority will eventually resolve any problems. Others are motivated by this man because they have seen how his expertise has allowed him to resolve previous conflicts successfully. His authority comes from the scriptures in explaining how conflicts can build patience, character, and strength.
d. Sanctions - This man motivates by showing the natural sanctions that are incurred on those who fail to follow the Lord’s authority. At the same time he demonstrates how people who have experienced the Lord’s discipline have benefitted from it and grown. From this article by Peter Backrach called Power and Poverty, Theory and Practice that appeared in Educational Digest in 1982, we can gain some valuable insights into motivational control mechanisms as they apply in Nigeria.
Example - Jesus gave us the perfect example of using the right kind of authority in his ministry with youth. Jesus told His disciples, ``As the Father has sent me even so, send I you.’’ (John 20:21) He understood that His disciples would be able to appropriate His authority to bring blessings, peace, reconciliation, progress, healing, forgiveness of sins, deliverance, character transformations, success, and eternal life to the world. He told them, ``All power and authority in heaven and earth has been given to me, ``Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . . ’’ (Matt. 28:19,20) We are to be as He was in the world. As we continue to abide in Him and His word abides in us we are given the authority to ask whatever we wish and He promises to supply. Going with the authority to love even our enemies, frees us from the chains of bitterness, suspicion, jealousy, hate, prejudice, and ignorance. His authority motivates us in supernatural ways that are beyond the rational realm. ``My ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’’ (Isa. 55:8,9) When we are able to reassure people of their forgiveness they will feel tons of burdens roll off their heads. Satan tries to attack believers at the point of their authority recognition. What he is really after is to try to discredit God through temptations in the areas of lust for power, position, status, sex, and money. Whenever, we try to selfishly abuse these gifts of power and authority from the Spirit and the word of God, we are jeopardizing the reputation of Christianity and ourselves. As long as the believer is able to hold firm to the power and authority he has in Christ, he is secure and in a position to be blessed. God gives us power and authority to minister to others in love and in truth.
