Yesterday afternoon while sitting in traffic, in the rain, I was listening to a podcast from Mars Hill Church on leadership.
The scripture of the day was Exodus 18, which is such a great guideline for the way in which God wants us to organise our organisations and churches, to allow people to really be accountable and to be able to be more efficient in doing what they were called to do.
The main section of this chapter is verses 17 – 23 (The Message)
Moses’ father-in-law said, “This is no way to go about it. You’ll burn out, and the people right along with you. This is way too much for you—you can’t do this alone. Now listen to me. Let me tell you how to do this so that God will be in this with you. Be there for the people before God, but let the matters of concern be presented to God. Your job is to teach them the rules and instructions, to show them how to live, what to do. And then you need to keep a sharp eye out for competent men—men who fear God, men of integrity, men who are incorruptible—and appoint them as leaders over groups organized by the thousand, by the hundred, by fifty, and by ten. They’ll be responsible for the everyday work of judging among the people. They’ll bring the hard cases to you, but in the routine cases they’ll be the judges. They will share your load and that will make it easier for you. If you handle the work this way, you’ll have the strength to carry out whatever God commands you, and the people in their settings will flourish also.”
How many of the churches and organisations within which you work or are a part of is organised in this fashion?
It is also great to know, from this passage, that God placed delegation there for all of us to be able to function at our peak, and to know that we don’t have to do everything by ourselves.
How often do we as Christians feel we are superior to other people. That we have the answer (which we have), but we need to impose it on others around us? That we have to tell people how to live, and rebuke them for doing or not doing something?
I recently stumbled across a great find. Sanctus Real is a Christian band from Toledo – Ohio. After hearing their new single “Forgiven” and browsing around I realised I heard them before through their cover of “Beautiful Day” from U2 and other songs like “I’m not Alright” (love it), “Fight the Tide” and “Sing”.
This morning I was sitting and thinking about the question of faith. Intrinsically linked to faith however, is doubt. Many people would put forward that the only reason we as Christians or in fact any religions exists would be as a result of the doubt that exists in the world around us.
What is invisible? / What can we really see? I was confronted by this thought provoking idea this week. If we start to focus on the world around us it seems apparent that the more we dive into discovery – the more things disappear.
