(pic credit: foggy times ©2024 by crisbaj. Used with permission)
W C Y D F M T
It can be slow poison in our churches and church relationships.
W C Y D F M T
It quickly becomes the ‘way to do business’ in ministries and missions.
W C Y D F M T
It has an entire set of strategies and coded language that find its’ way into our pleas, appeals, ‘asks’ and guilt-bombing of individuals, leaders, congregations and ‘supporters’.
W C Y D F M T
It has become THE key leadership tool used in religious organizations.
W C Y D F M T
It uses ‘love-bombing’ to draw you in, make you feel a warm-n-fuzzy part of a special group or community who are ‘doing something about’ xyz whatever.
W C Y D F M T
It becomes the way that ‘Christian leaders’ map out their people or support structures – the doer’s and the do-not-er’s.
W C Y D F M T
In a very short time, it becomes the ethos of so much of our interactions and activities, both within our Churches and Ministries and to the Outsiders… it’s sometimes the lurking idea that IF we could get more people from the community in the door or transferred from other churches, we’ll grow and benefit…
W C Y D F M T
It’s famous in the business, retail, sports and entertainment world.
W C Y D F M T
What is it?
What Can You Do For Me Today
Sometimes a statement, sometimes a question.
W C Y D F M T ?
What Can You Do For Me Today?
It’s a way that two actors can inter-act. The first actor – leader, owner, pastor, consumer, coach, congregation – looks at the second actor and asks “What Can You Do For Me Today?”. The first actor is looking for some return on investment (either time, talent or treasure/$), looking for the second actor to provide a service, a participation, a healthy donation, a skill or ability. It’s a transactional relationship with something attached to value or need.
WCYDFMT sometimes has valid parameters. I just paid $$$ to see a MLB Baseball game at a MLB-level stadium. I expected that the two teams would play a regulation-length baseball game… that’s completely valid.
Unfortunately, What Can You Do For Me Today becomes THE basis of many of our relationships, organizations and churches. What ‘offerings’ can the congregation put into the project? What gaggle of volunteers can be conscribed to work for free at this event/concert/pot-luck/worship night/grounds-cleaning/paint-the-garage kind of thing?
Even worse, we (sometimes) frame the What Can You Do For Me Today as some service to the Lord, when really it’s about what we want or need to be done.
Truth be told, ‘What Can You Do For Me Today’, when abused will quickly leave ‘second actor’ to feel used, taken-advantage-of, burned out, stolen from, manipulated, robbed… or even worse.
Yes, there are valid needs and activities. Yes, if we all agree to hold some event together, then we should all pitch in. IF we all agree to have a Sunday pot-luck at the Church, then we should all pitch in and serve tables and do dishes, and…
However, on an increasing scale there are actual ‘for-profit’ activities like huge concert tours and seminars and resource-gatherings that call for an army of volunteers… ‘all for a good cause’, of course!… and hundreds or thousands of people pony up, spend personal $$$ to be there, work for free, get a T-shirt for their efforts, and the Promoters/Artists/Talent/Speakers walk away six-figure $$$ take-aways.
Down the scale, small churches and fellowships have royally burned out entire families, congregations and ‘volunteer staff’ running after things that don’t have any ‘return on investment’ FOR the people who bled, sweat and cried thru the hard work… while the core and un-spoken leadership ethos was ‘What Can You Do For Me Today’
What Can You Do For Me Today works hard to kill authentic community.
Increasingly, people are beginning to ‘smell out’ that What Can You Do For Me Today is in play, and it’s that ‘spirit’ that they are repelled from… not the beautiful and FREE Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, but the attached ‘grab’ many Churches put on it that ‘You are welcome! Come as you are! Be a part here, but we’ll start evaluating you for ‘What Can You Do For Me Today’…
TAKE-AWAY:
I think the key here is to find those places in my own heart that keeps muttering ‘What Can You Do For Me Today?’ in my relationships and leadership, and replace that ugly free-market grab-ya attitude with a Christ-like “What is the Father saying and leading here?’ (John 6) coupled with “How can I serve you in a Kingdom-of-God way that leads to Kingdom-of-God investment and results in you and your family?” (Matthew 13).
I’m still trying to figure out how ‘What Can You Do For Me Today’ works with the whole ‘if they ask, give them your coat’ that Jesus calls us to… how W C Y D F M T angles into living as a servant of King Jesus who is literally pouring out generously on us all the time, and how we are supposed to be ‘generous like our King’… upcoming blog post, I hope!
written by crisbaj
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