In our consumer culture, that’s what matters, right?
We’re taught from childhood to get a good deal. Even if I endorse the notion of win-win, the central feature of any deal is what I get out of it.
Great marketing highlights (exaggerates??) benefits. In a transaction-based world, people want to know: If I sign up, what’s in it for me?
Jesus proposed a radical, decidedly non-transactional, perspective.
For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? (Luke 9:24-25)
In the kingdom, what’s in it for me is everything, but only if I give up…everything. Jesus says we’re wired to operate best when the deal is “serve-win.”
I was lucky. I learned about Jesus from people who knew we follow because of who He is and what He did, not because of what’s in it for us. So when my injury happened I wished He would heal it (and still do) but I never felt like He’d broken some sort of non-existent deal to protect me from harm.
Because of our involvement with the FREEDOM TOUR I read a lot of marketing materials for other bike tours. First reaction is How do we compete? What benefits should we add?
Wrong question.
It’s not about competing, enticing folks by offering a deal that’s too good to turn down. I don’t want joining the FREEDOM TOUR to be a transaction.
We offer community. We offer the opportunity to become part of a story bigger than yourself. What you get when you sign up is the opportunity to serve the other members of the team and two dozen kids you’ll probably never meet. You get “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
A mission trip isn’t about What’s in it for me? It’s about believing we serve and love because we’ve been served and loved.
It’s a one-sided deal. Jesus paid the price.
We get the benefits.