great Advice

exodus 18

Moses has the Israelites humming

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Sure, people gonna people, there was plenty of grumbling, complaining and quarreling in the in-between times, but hey, this train is rolling

With success, comes problems. Same with growth

Today’s problems were yesterdays solutions. Full Stop, as the kids like to say

Jethro, father or Zipporah and father-in-law of Moses, comes to town comes to the wilderness for a visit

Moses relays all that God has done

They worship, offer sacrifices, celebrate and feast, to the Glory of God

All good

The next day, Jethro goes to work with Moses, watches him work while snacking on manna

Moses is absolutely slammed with responsibility

He is meeting with people all day, daylight to dusk, everyone standing around Moses, waiting their turn

Meeting with people all day is tough, knowing people are waiting, living under that pressure, brutal

Every time you meet with one, you disappoint 100

Settling disputes, teaching Theology, answering those inquiring about God

Moses the one man band

Jethro’s diagnosis? 

“This is not good” “What you are doing is not good”

Moses, you will certainly wear yourself out

This leadership responsibility is too heavy for you, or for anyone (Moses, humanized)

You are not able to do this alone (Alone sucks, unless you are a tyrant)

Jethro’s solution?

Find able men, from all the people

Men who fear God, (do not pass over this)

are trustworthy (ah, trust, a precious commodity)

and hate a bribe (fair, no fingers on the scale, no pet projects, or pet people)

Delegate to these men

Empower them to lead and let them lead

Divide the people into manageable group and entrust leadership to these men

Jethro describes a beautifully vision of team leadership

Leadership at its best, most powerful, most effective, most scalable and most sustainable is a symphony, not a one man band

Grindforth!…with other leaders, pain is divided, celebration is multiplied

“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra.”