Church and the World Cup 3: Joy

Posted by DJL on Jul 3, 2014 in Church Matters | 1 comment

3. The Power of Joy

The World Cup is about competition, and it is about national pride, and it about team effort and heart, and it is about many other things as well. But when I watch carefully, I’m also struck to the degree that it is about joy.

There is a kind of rapturous abandon that you see displayed on the faces of players from time to time – especially after a player has scored a goal 🙂 – that reminds me of the delight expressed by children at play. Which leads me to think that beyond the thrill of competition or the pride of representing your country rests the pure joy of doing something you love with people you respect and enjoy.

How often, I wonder, do we forget that in our lives in the church – or, for that matter, at home or school or work – that joy is perhaps the most profound motivator of all. Dan Pink in his excellent book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, reports the relatively recent discovery that while rewards and punishments – sometimes called “carrots and sticks” – is perhaps the most widely employed motivational system, it is only effective when the task is relatively simple or rote. But when a task requires creativity, rewards and punishments not only are not terribly motivating but can actually prove counter-productive.

We don’t, that is, work primarily to make more money or avoid some loss. What we work hardest for, according to Pink’s research, is a sense of meaning and purpose and, I would add, joy.

This stands in stark contrast to the way a lot of us think about church. My experience is that we think about church primarily in terms of duty and obligation – that is, something we should do – and, when we miss, guilt. But we don’t go to church expecting joy. And yet if there was something joyful about our worship and fellowship together, I suspect we would see more people coming through the door.

So perhaps we might be well served to think about how to promote joy as a value in our churches, homes, families, schools, and places of work. While I don’t think we can simply make or mandate joy, I do think we can offer a joyful attitude to those around us and strive to create the conditions in which others can discover joy and contribute to a more joyful environment.

I suspect there are many ways to do this, and I certainly don’t know them all. But I do know that when I see such joy on the faces of some of the World Cup players, I want to watch more, play myself, and share that joy with those around me. Joy, you see, is inherently contagious. Something we in the church, I think, would do well to remember.