Leadership

First, let's keep a running count of the grumbling of Israel as we run across them:

1. Fear of Pharaoh's army, crossing the Red Sea (Exodus 14:11-12)

2. No water, Desert of Shur (Exodus 15:24)

3. No food, Desert of Sin (Exodus 16:3)

4. No water, Rephidim (Exodus 17:2)

And we're just getting started...

I promised to show some maps, but they can wait until we reach a slow day (and I strongly suspect we're going to have some of those quite soon), but instead would like to discuss the establishment of Moses as judge and ultimate arbiter of every dispute for a group that numbered in the millions. In this modern age, we know that one person is incapable of effectively handling EVERYTHING for a group this size, let alone smaller, but there's some interesting lessons in leadership we can use and incorporate into our lives today.

One of the most misunderstood concepts in the world today is what leadership is, and specifically how it differentiates from management. There is some crossover, but in general terms, leadership is defining the goal or objective to be achieved AND ensuring that the necessary resources are available to achieve these goals, and management is the day-to-day oversight and accomplishment of the tasks necessary for the goals to be achieved.

Moses had a clear goal--get the Israelites to the Promised Land. God had given him the resources necessary to get it done (food, water, directions), but Moses was getting bogged down in the management. This is the wisdom of Jethro, who wisely tells him in 18:17 that he can't do it all and needs to delegate some of the work and responsibility to others. In effect, what Moses created in 18:21-22 is classic organizational structure, where people are in charge of increasingly larger groups of people, and at the same time removed a couple of steps from the direct work. Business literature suggested in the past that the effective number of direct reports for a manager was around eight, but improvements in productivity and communications have possibly pushed that number closer to 12-14, but no matter what the number is, we are finite in our ability to manage people and work.

This becomes extremely important when we consider our called leaders in our churches and schools. If you want to undertake a true exercise in masochism, attempt to list all the things you think a pastor, principal or teacher should be doing, and then attempt to figure out how much time should be spent on each task. Be sure to include time for evaluation and planning, and also attempt to factor in how often and in what manner there should be interaction with the congregation and school. You will be overwhelmed almost immediately with the breadth and scope of the job. It really almost is impossible.

That's where we come in. It's our privilege and responsibility to ease the burdens on our called staff and assist them as we can. Our abilities differ, but we all have something to offer that will help move the church forward. This is the ultimate message--Moses NEVER stopped leading even after he delegated responsibility to others and was still in charge of moving things forward. By the same token, our called leaders are responsible for the goal of our church, the Great Commission. Part of the contract we entered into with them  when we called them was that we are willing to be led, and will help in undertaking the work that needs to be done. Our pastors, principals and teachers are our modern-day Moses', and our responsibility to them is NOT to replicate the grumbling that the Israelites will do over and over, but to answer quickly when they call us, "Here am I, send me, send me."

Scott