Good morning. Today I want to share a message with you that deals with our congregational meeting after church today. And it deals with one of the suggestions that we were given last year at this time, and it builds upon that idea. I will be brief this morning, that way we will be able to move on and take care of some business afterwards. However, I do believe that this is an important message that we all need to hear.
In the September 19th issue of Leadership Magazine ran this article. It was from the Personal Success and Leadership Institute. The title of this first clip is “Not My Job.” It says:
“This is a story about 4 people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got upset about that, because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.”
And then there was a second article titled, “SOMEONE ELSE.” Listen to this one. It said, “I know that all of you will be saddened to learn this week of the death of one of our most valuable acquaintances—Someone Else. Someone’s passing creates a vacancy that will be difficult to fill.
Our friend had been with us for many years, and for every one of those years, Someone did more than the normal person’s share of the work. Whenever leadership was called for, this wonderful individual was looked to for inspiration as well as results. Whenever there was a job to do, a problem to tackle, a meeting to attend, one name was on everyone’s lips. “Let Someone Else do it,” everybody would say. It was common knowledge that whenever the need arose, Someone Else was one of the biggest contributors of time, spirit, self, and resources. Whatever the problem or task, everyone assumed that Someone Else would take care of it. Someone Else was an extraordinary person, almost superhuman. But a person can only do so much.
Were the truth known, everyone expected too much of Someone Else. Someone set a wonderful example for us to follow. But now, Someone is gone. Who is going to do all the things we expected Someone Else to do? We can’t depend on Someone Else anymore. So now, it’s up to you!”
Before we get started this morning, let’s open with a word of prayer. Let’s Pray!
As I think back to the older days, families were much larger than they are today. Sometimes having 7, 8, maybe even 9 children. My mother comes from a family of 8, and my dad is from a family of 7. And when I think about that, I have to stop and wonder how people manage large families? Today we get stressed out with 1 r 2 kids. How do they make it with so many?
At one point in time, Nellie had decided that she wanted 6 kids, now, after giving it some thought and dealing with kids, she has reduced that number by 6, and wants nothing to do with children at this time. But some families are huge. So how do they get things done? In talking with mom and dad I find that the only way they made in growing up was using a secret called delegation. The older kids helped with the younger ones. Everyone had a job to do, from the youngest ones to the oldest, even if it is just putting the plates on the table for dinner or taking out the trash. The secret is that everyone helped around the home, and everyone has a job to do.
It has been said that, “Poor delegation leads to ineffectiveness.” For example, in the early days of the church, the apostles learned how to delegate responsibilities so that they were not sidetracked from their major ministries that they were entrusted to carry out. In fact, they said in Acts 6:3-4 that, “We will turn this responsibility over to them and we will give our attention to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
Uppermost in the minds of the apostles was the necessity of maintaining the preaching of the word of God and prayer. So they delegated other people to help take care of some of the other important things.
You see, delegation is a wonderful thing and as we continue as a church, delegation is going to be a necessity. Delegation is important to the growth of the church because it gets more and more people involved in the ministry. That is why it is so important that as we discuss committees today, that everyone tries to get involved.
There is a saying that says, “Many hands make light work.” And that is especially true when it comes to the church. That is why we need every member involved in a ministry of some kind.
So, what I want to do this morning is take a look at a story from the life of Moses. If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn with me to Exodus 18:13-26. Here in this story, we are visiting Moses as he tries to deal with all the tasks that have been given to him. It is here in this passage, that Moses is told of a better way to handle things. Listen to what it has to say here. Exodus 18:13-26 says, “1”
Here in this passage, Moses was dealing with the idea of delegating responsibility. Now, this principle of delegation is encouraged throughout the Bible. In Acts, we already looked at the fact that the Apostles delegated work to 7 deacons so they cold focus more on the spiritual matters of the church. In Ephesians chapter 4, God appointed some to be church leaders. And in many other instances in the Bible we are told to get more people involved so that more can be accomplished.
All through the Bible we are told to delegate so they will learn to be responsible too. That’s what Moses had to learn when he led the Israelites out of Egypt. In case you are not aware of what all Moses and the Israelites went through, allow me to give you a brief overview. They were slaves to the Egyptians, treated horribaly, finally, God sent some plagues on Egypt and Pharaoh let the people go. But then he decided to chase after them. And once again, God saved them at the Red Sea.
Finally they were free and if you didn’t know the story then you would expect it to say and they went to the land of promise and lived happily ever after. But that’s not what really happened. Moses had all kinds of problems that tried his patience. He had administrative duties and judicial duties and an endless line of people who had so many problems that needed to be dealt with. The burden became intolerable and he was on the verge of burnout but God taught Moses what to do through his father-in-law Jethro. So I want us to look at Moses’ frustration, his instructions from Jethro, and then end with how are we going to do this.
Let’s begin with Moses’ frustration.
The source is found in Exodus 18:13: “The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening.” He was trying to counsel all of the Israelite people personally from dawn to dusk everyday. Remember these people were used to being slaves and being told what to do but now they had freedom but they needed Moses’ advice on everything. Moses was very busy. So busy that he was not able to do what they had elected him to do in the first place. Somebody once said, “If Satan can’t make you bad, then he’ll just keep you busy.” Moses was so busy that he was stressed out. In Numbers 11:11 Moses says, “God what have I done so bad that you have given me the burden of all these people?”
Moses was frustrated because he had to take care of every single little thing. The idea of delegating the responsibility out to others had never crossed his mind. He was being brought down because he was too busy.
He was not able to do what he was suppose to do because of all the extra things that he was having to do. And one thing is true, when you take on too many jobs; none of them get done as well as if that were your one and only focus. So Moses was just too busy, and had too many things that he had to do.
But then, Moses’ Father-in-law came to him and offered him some advice.
Look at verse 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?”” Jethro asked Moses 2 very relevant questions that people ought to ask themselves frequently. The first has to do with priorities, “What is this that you are doing?” What are you ultimately trying to accomplish? I heard about a son who told his father, “Dad, we are spending too much time on building drill bits.”
Now that raised a lot of eye brows because that’s what the company did. The son went on to say, “We need to be spending more time on making better holes.” Today they are one of the leaders in laser drilling. Moses’ primary calling was not counseling, it was not taking care of all the small things that needed done. Moses’ main responsibility was to get these people to the Promised Land. But he had become too busy and distracted by all of these other cares that he was not able to do his real job as effectively as possible.
The second question that Jethro raised had to do with personnel. “Moses why are you doing this alone?” You have lots of people who can help you. In verse 15 Moses answers: “Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will.”” Moses says, if you want a job done well, you have to do it yourself. What happened to Moses happens to people at every level. They try to do it all. In fact, there is a statistic that says that 20% of people do 80% of the work. Why, because sometimes they take on more than they can handle, and other times it is because no one else with do anything. One historian says that Jimmy Carter was so detail oriented at first that when he took office he was involved in scheduling people who would play tennis on the White House courts. A leader or group of people who do not delegate not only can bog individuals down, but they can hurt the entire group as well.
So Jethro gave Moses some suggestions that we all need to heed. Look at verse 17: “Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good.” First he said, “Moses, you need to be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him.” What Jethro is telling Moses is that he needs to realize that he has a job to do, and if he is bogged down by all of these other cares, then he will not be able to accomplish his main goal, leading the Israelites to the Promised Land.
Number 2: Look at verses 20-23 with me again. Exodus 18:20-23 says, “1”
Did you see that? The second part of verse 22 said, “That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you.”
If a church or any organization wants to grow, and they want to keep people from having to do everything and cause them to get burnt out, then the only thing that they can do is lighten the load and share in the responsibility. So Jethro tells Moses to delegate capable people to carry out what needs to be done.
Then I see a great principle here. After all of that, in verse 23 Jethro says to Moses, and now the people will go home happier. They will each be satisfied and they will get better counsel. If one person is trying to do everything, it won’t be done to the best that it can. But if many people take on the responsibility, there will be much greater results. We have so many great people here at this church, all we need to do is get you more involved. For some of you, you are more involved than you can handle, and for you, we need to get you less involved, that way you can focus on just a few things instead of many things. This is what Moses learned and I believe we can all prosper from today as well.
Now, I want to close this sermon today by sharing how we are going to do this!!
Last week in our Board Meeting we decided that we wanted to begin some new committees here at church to help share the load and get more people involved in ministry. During the week I contacted several churches to find out how they did their committees and what they have found to be the most successful ways of accomplishing tasks. The one thing that they said they all did was that they had one of their leaders of the church as the head of each committee. So, beginning this next year, our 5 men will be taking positions as the leaders of 3 new committees that we are going to begin.
But, they also informed of several other important factors. And as we wrap things up today, allow me to share what I believe were 3 of their most important points.
Number 1 – Effective Churches Acknowledge Limitations
I like the T-shirt that says, “I know 2 things for sure. 1: There is a God and 2. You are not Him.” Unless you recognize that you can’t do everything, you will soon be over extended and headed for burnout. If a church wants to be successful, they have to realize that there are limitations on what just a few people can accomplish with their time. That is why we are trying to get more people involved.
Number 2 – Effective Churches Determine Priorities
We often talk about spiritual priorities: God, family, job and so on. But a healthy church will determine its priorities based on what they want to accomplish. How can everyone’s time be spent most effectively? Now, currently, as I said, at least 80% of the work is being done by 20% of the people of maybe even less. When it comes to making priorities, we need to focus on the important things, and allow more people to get involved. Beginning this next year, we will have 3 distinct committees. A Grounds Committee, a Fundraising Committee, and an Outreach Committee. Each of these are vitally important to our church, and need special attention by more than one person. So we have determined our priorities.
And Finally, Number 3 – Effective Churches Get More People Involved
If a church wants to succeed, they will get as many people involved as possible. The more people you have involved, the more you can lighten the load of individuals and everyone can share in the responsibilities of the church. Let’s also face it, one day things are going to change, and the person that is trying to take care of everything is not going to be able to. It is at a time like that, that we will be glad that many people have shared in the work of our church. And the great thing about getting more people involved is that when you do, there is no limit to what can be done.
Do you know an example of someone who did this whole delegation thing well? It was Jesus. He took 12 men who were unlikely leaders but He saw something in each one of them. He trained them and then He released them to work. He set up a system of accountability and now its 2000 years later and we are the successors. He now has delegated the work to all of us.
Our job, our main job is to share the gospel of Christ with the world. It is our Job. Not just my job or the Sunday School teachers jobs or the Elder’s job. It is all the job of all of us. I have my role and you have yours. And by spreading out the duties and responsibilities, more can be accomplished! So I hope that you will consider joining some of the new committees that we are going to begin. You can find out more about those when we have our church vote and in the next couple of weeks. But just keep in mind the words of Jethro to Moses. When the responsibility is shared by all, “…all the people will go home satisfied!”
Let’s Pray! |
