Preaching: Psychological Manipulation or Spirit-Driven

One main goal of preachers, evangelists, or all biblical expositors for that matter is to be divinely driven by the Holy Spirit of God, not by psychological manipulation. The difficulty of this discussion is the apparent subjectivity in the evaluation of any given preacher's intention. No one but God and the preacher knows the preacher’s intention during the preaching event. The expositor must realize when emotionally manipulative tactics are being used in order to demand an audience response.

It may even be possible that Psycological manipulation can be mistaken for Spirit-driven preaching even in the eyes of the expositor. May the expositor always pray the Spirit convicts, not man's charisma. This type of preaching is defeatist. It may reap large numbers of false decisions; Yet, false they are. A decision stemming from emotions will only last as long as the emotions.

Guilt coercion through articulately deceptive tactics that formulate into many observers “Praying a Prayer” for Christ have been observed in all denominations. Perfectly rehearsed invitational songs and softly played music is not necessarily the Spirit moving. The Spirit needs no facilitator or complementary instrument to move.

I feel offended as a preacher when “evangelists” play on the emotions of the audience. The sad part about this extreme danger is that a charismatic communicator can pull the emotional strings of their audience and get the same emotional response based off the emotion they invested.

Here is a scary formula that I have heard evangelists use before and admit to me. Producing laughter creates instant credibility. Once credibility is established in the audience, crying from stage will be contagious throughout; consequently, perfectly setting up an invitational moment. Sadly, Cult leaders use this same method; they have charismatic leaders who have a coercive formula to get an emotional response from their followers. The followers are so oblivious, they don’t even realized it has happened. No one questions the leader's method because the God-card can easily be played in any religion. Nowhere in scripture did Jesus come close to emotionally coercing his followers.

Have we really deduced the gospel into “walking the aisle” and “praying a prayer?” We can’t market the gospel. How many times have your heard someone say “Every head bowed and every eye closed” Or “Just slip your hand up...I see you in the back” Did Jesus use this Method? No.. In fact, many of the crowds weren’t willing to follow Jesus because he required them to give up everything. I’m not convinced Jesus would be the most “successful evangelist” today... Well, using our quantitative measurements of success that is.

People make spur of the moment emotional decisions and slip up their hand at the end of services all the time. Consequently, many people who were coerced into “praying the prayer” don’t experience life change at all because of the manipulation of the physical environment around them. There is not enough emotional inertia during the invitation to produce a life-long pursuit of God. Only the Spirit of God can produce life change. We are deceiving ourselves if we think God depends on our evangelistic strategies.

Did Justification take place after the “magic prayer”? I’m still trying to find the verse that says justification happens in the context of prayer. Please don’t mistake me. I believe prayer is one of the best strategies of justification; it’s vitally important we talk commune with God during this decision. However, Is ‘praying the sinner’s prayer’ the strategy of scripture? Regardless of your exegesis, I’m not convinced it’s the only strategy for people to repent, believe in the Gospel, and submit to the Lordship of Christ.

Emotional coercion is the lowest view of the gospel I can imagine. Nowhere in scripture do we ever see Emotionalism in order to demand a response from the crowds. Paul was a pretty good evangelist, but I never read where he used emotions to demand a gospel response.

Now allow me to go full circle in this discussion; it may appear to be a contradiction to what I have already spoken. It is not. Emotions are the natural response to an authentic decision. A natural response is not to be confused with an automatic or inevitable response.

Bill Bright rightly concluded that emotions are a response to a truthful regenerative experience. Using a train illustration, the Spirit is the engine that pulls the caboose of emotions. Emotions can never be the engine of our faith. The evidence of a decision is repentance through the transformational power of the Spirit, not the tears of our eyes.

This discussion is not ammunition for us to be cynics of the emotional preacher; there are many emotional preachers who are authentically “Spirit-Driven” and I believe Spirit-Driven preachers will consequently be emotional. However, this information should fuel our desire to focus on the follow-up process with people who do “pray the prayer”. Our goal as preachers is to “make disciples” not coerce listeners to “pray the prayer”.

Christianity is not a "label" it's a lifestyle! The Book of Acts said “they were first called Christians in Antioch.” Note they didn’t give themselves the Christian label; they were labeled by others because their lifestyle was that of Christ.

Fear-based evangelism lasts as long as the fear lasts. We need Jesus not because we will die tonite but because we must live tomorrow.