"Developing Leaders"
Sermon Transcript for May 20, 2001By Reverend Mike Beck
Scripture Reading: Exodus 18
Two areas that I prayerfully believe are critical to the future of Grace Church at this point in our history, I had spoken on it last week and also today: 1)stewardship education, 2)leadership development. But let me take just a moment to review what we shared last week. We talked about the fact that stewardship involves far more than just our money. That we are called to be stewards of all of life. We believe that all that we have and all that we are is a gift from God. And to be a steward is to be entrusted with these gifts through God’s grace. We are called to be stewards in every area of our lives - receiving, reflecting, and proclaiming the grace of God. To be a steward is to be called to a vocation of living out God’s grace.
We talked about the relationship between stewardship and discipleship. Reminding ourselves that being called as stewards puts us often in conflict with the values of the world around us. But it also brings to us the deep joy of getting connected to the spiritual foundation for our work, for our family, for our community life. And we closed by being reminded that stewardship involves reflection on four important words. On our blessings, but also, and this relates to the message today, our limitations, our responsibilities, and our priorities.
So I urge you two weeks from today to stick around until 11:30 a.m. and join around tables in Price Hall with brothers and sisters in Christ to learn more about Christ’s call to be a steward. The group will be offered from 9:45 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. and then from 10:45 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. each week. There’s a card in your bulletin today to indicate your desire to be a part of that group.
And I want to share with you a few moments today about the second critical area--developing leaders. And I hope you will see that there is a direct relationship between stewardship and leadership. And as background for the message we read from Exodus 18, the story of Moses’ encounter with his father-in-law, Jethro. I’m going to allude to it on many occasions, so I want to invite you to take out a pew bible and turn to Exodus 18. It’s there in the Old Testament. It’s found on page 76.
The story begins with Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, coming for a visit. And we don’t want to be too hard on Moses, but if you look there at Verse 2 you discover that Moses was too busy to even have his wife and kids around. When Jethro arrives, if you look down and scan Verse 8, you discover that Moses begins to tell him all the good things that are taking place. But then in Verses 10-12 we see that Jethro is pleased to hear these things and he offers up a burnt offering of thanksgiving to God. Well, in Verse 13 we notice that bright and early the next morning Moses is up and about his work. And then, I hope you’re creating a picture in your mind, then here comes Jethro snooping about the camp. He watches what is taking place. And then if you’ll look with me at Verse 14, you’ll notice that he shares something with Moses that Moses perhaps didn’t want to hear. It says there in Verse 14, "When Jethro saw everything that Moses had to do he asked, "What is all this that you are doing for the people? Why are you doing this all alone with people standing here from morning to night to consult you?" Now Moses has an answer. Look with me at Versus 15 and 16. Moses says, "I must do this because the people come to me to learn God’s will. When two people have a dispute they come to me and I decide which one of them is right and I tell them God’s commands and laws." But Jethro comes back at Moses with some penetrating words of truth in Verses 17 and 18. And then Jethro said, "You are not doing this right. You will wear yourself out and these people as well. This is too much for you to do alone."
I want to stop here and share with you on a personal level. For I preached from this very text in January of 1990. I was about six months into my ministry at Old Capital in Corydon. We had just had a wonderful staff and lay leadership retreat. We had ambitious goals for the coming year. And unfortunately, I didn’t practice what I preached! Two years later I came to the point of almost complete emotional and physical collapse. A few months later witnessed the onset of my voice problems. And I sincerely thought my ministry was over. But with the grace of God actually it was just beginning but in a much healthier and more productive manner. For you see, I had been going about my ministry in a very unbiblical way. For I thought it was my job as the pastor to do all the ministry. Oh, I would give the laity a few menial things to do; but the important things, they were supposed to be done by the pastor.
And so I entered every day with a totally insane to-do list. And because of that approach, I had no time left to equip the laity for their ministry or to call out to help develop leaders. And then, a couple months later, with the onset of voice problems, I was backed against the wall because now there was absolutely no way to continue to try and do ministry the way I’d been doing it before. I had to discover a new approach. And that approach is found in the words of Jethro to Moses starting here in Verse 19. Jethro says, "Now let me give you some good advice and God will be with you. It is right for you to represent the people before God and to bring their disputes to them. You should teach them God’s command and explain to them how they should live and what they should do. But in addition, you should choose some capable men", and in our day I certainly want to add women to that list, "and appoint them as leaders of the people. Some leaders of thousands, others hundreds, or fifties, and ten. They must be God-fearing persons who can be trusted and not be bribed. And let them serve as judges for the people on a permanent basis. They can bring the difficult cases to you, but they themselves can decide on the smaller disputes. This will make it easier for you as they will share your burden. And if you do this as God commands, you will not wear yourself out. And all these people can go home with their disputes settled." Or in the NIV as Dan read from, "...they can go home satisfied."
These words echo the words of the New Testament where we are given this important Biblical principle in Ephesians 4:11-12. I don’t know why I spent years in ministry and missed it. "It was God who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets and evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers." I ended the verse there. I forgot to see what the role of the pastor was. The role of the pastor is primarily "to prepare God’s people", that’s you, "for works of service," and here’s the payoff, "so that the body of Christ may be built up." And when I learned this principle, the wonderful thing I discovered was that far more ministry got done than when I was trying to do it myself. And the body of Christ and I as the pastor all became a lot healthier!
Now those of you who know me well know that I work hard at my calling as your Senior Pastor. But I no longer try to do it all. I no longer believe that I can please everybody. I no longer believe that I can be everything to everybody or, in a church that claims over a thousand persons on our roster, that I can be a personal chaplain to every single individual. I no longer believe that everything in the church is my personal responsibility. I try to operate on Reverend John Ed Matheson’s philosophy that if the preacher knows everything that’s going on in the church, there’s not enough going on! I take my vacation time faithfully as a gift to myself, to my family, and as a gift to you for I come back a better pastor. I don’t feel guilty when I take an afternoon to play golf with my son or to travel to a conference in Chicago as Steve and Dan and I had the opportunity to do late this week. I try to empower you to carry out your ministry. And I try to prioritize my time so that in the sixty hours that I may work in a given week that I am doing things that are most important from my part to build up the body of Grace Church. And in doing so there are many good things that I would like to do that I must choose not to do so that I have time for the things to which God is calling me as your pastor.
A good illustration of that is in our visitation of shut-ins. I started to learn this lesson of ministry my last five years there at Old Capital and when I was called here to Grace, knowing the unique nature of this church and our connection with the United Methodist Community. And those who are on the Caring Ministries Team know that what we call our special responsibility list/shut-ins is eight pages in length. And I realized right off the bat that if I took it upon myself to try to do the visitation of these people, as much as I might enjoy doing that because there’s great reward and fulfillment in doing pastoral care, but I realized it would absolutely consume me. There would be no time left for worship development. No time left for teaching or training of leadership. And so I worked to create the Caring Ministry Team; and we brought on board the Ministers of Pastoral Care. And I’m actively involved in working with those people. But there are still folks on that eight-page list that I’ve never had the opportunity to meet personally. But the good news is this, they are being visited far more regularly than they ever were before. And the persons who serve on the Caring Ministry Team, they get to share in the blessing of being the body of Christ caring for others.
When the voice problems came on I developed this analogy. It was interesting that in the mail this last week, because we are considering doing a simulcast in September with John Maxwell on equipping teams for ministry so I had ordered his orientation video and included with the video was this baton. And on it it says Ephesians 4:16. When the voice problems came on I realized I couldn’t play my instrument the same way I played it before, but I discovered I can still conduct the orchestra. And you know what? The entire orchestra, when everyone plays their instrument in harmony with others, sounds a whole lot better then when one person alone is trying to play their violin. And so I want you to know one of my priorities for the remaining months of this year is to spend significant time with our current leaders in raising up additional leaders and in helping myself and all of these folks to learn how to be a better, more effective leader.
At the conference that we attended at Willow Creek we heard a speaker make this quote. He said, "The future of your church lies primarily in your leaders. For those leaders will help you identify, clarify, and carry out your vision." And I would invite you to reflect on the ministry of our Lord. That’s exactly what He did. He spent time with the masses. He taught. He healed. He listened. But if you listen to the Gospels carefully, the vast majority of time was spent with twelve men equipping them to carry out the Gospel He proclaimed. I heard years ago a really good illustration which says, "You can give hungry persons a fish, or you can teach them to fish." Which has the most long-lasting results?
And so starting the week of June 18th and running through November, on a weekly basis, one time or even a couple times a week if the group is large enough that that is warranted, if you are a current leader or if you may be relatively new to Grace but you’d like to be a part of what God is doing here, or if you’d simply like to learn not only for your sake here at church but also for your family life and for your job, "How can I be a more effective leader?", I invite you to check that card. We’ll determine when we meet based upon the persons who are in that group. But I believe with all of my heart that is one of the keys for the future God has for us.
Let’s pray, "Lord, thank you for the leading and guidance through your Holy Spirit that you give to me and to Reverend Dan and to other staff persons. Oh, we’re off base many times. When we are, you call us back. But you just revealed to me so strongly that if we understand stewardship in an increased way, if we raise up and equip leaders, that you’ll use that foundation to lead us into whatever future it is that you have for us. Speak to your servants; help them to be obedient and anoint us Lord as a church that we might be faithful servants of all that you have entrusted to us. Hear our prayer, Oh Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ our wonderful Lord and Savior. Amen."
E-mail Comments to: Reverend Dan Sinkhorn
Copyright Grace United Methodist Church.
E-Mail: AdministratorCopyright Grace United Methodist Church.
E-Mail: Administrator