One of my mentors once told me that I would not live long enough on this earth to learn from my mistakes. He suggested that I start learning from the mistakes of others.
Exodus 18: 13 – 37
13 The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. 14 When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?”
15 Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. 16 Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.”
17 Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. 18 You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. 19 Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. 20 Teach them his decrees and instructions, and show them the way they are to live and how they are to behave. 21 But select capable men from all the people—men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain—and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. 22 Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. 23 If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”
24 Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. 25 He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. 26 They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.
27 Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country.
Moses, as his father in-law noted, was in a position where he was having to solve everyone’s problems.
I see many pastors who “rule” their congregations this way. The flock are not allowed to make a move without the blessing of the pastor. Consequently, the pastor gets burned out from having to oversee every committee, every project and every event.
By the way, this is NOT the way to groom up leaders. All one is doing is grooming followers – who become little more than loyal subjects unable to think for themselves. When the leader collapses from exhaustion or burn out, the followers freeze in their spot and do nothing.
Likewise, there are many businesses that operate in the same fashion. They allow the employees little room for creativity and tend to stifle the growth of the employee.
Often this is the case in a business that started as a mom and pop operation or family business. The leader is afraid to relinquish control for fear that doing so would be the death of their dream business. Ironically, by NOT allowing the business to move in other directions, carry a variety of lines of products or expand into uncharted territory will cause a business to spin into a death spiral.
Moses’ father in-law shared great wisdom by telling Moses to let the people solve their own small issues. He also told Moses to train up leaders that will help them solve their daily dilemmas – thus allowing Moses to deal with only the major issues.
Learning from this teaching in Exodus, we must ask ourselves:
· Are we grooming up leaders?
· Are we micro-managing our businesses?
· Are we stifling the creativity of our employees / congregants?
· Are we allowing them to learn from experience, rather than us telling them what to do all the time?
· Are we giving those on committees, at work, at church or even in our homes – are we giving them latitude to experience the joy of solving their own problems, dilemmas, issues and trials?
I challenge you this week to let others share the load. Let them express their creativity.
Then stand back – and be amazed!
Have a great week
Ron Orendi
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