The Good News of Our Limits by Sean McGever

Author:Sean McGever [McGever, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2021-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

MOSES’S NUMBER

God chose Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. After crossing the Red Sea, Moses led the people of Israel through the wilderness. But things did not go well for the people, and one of the challenges was that everyone—thousands and thousands of people—looked to Moses for direction and problem-solving. As Moses tried to help the people, the book of Exodus explains, “Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening” (Ex. 18:13). Moses’s father-in-law, Jethro, asked why Moses worked all alone from morning till evening, and Moses answered, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will” (Ex. 18:15). With wisdom, Jethro replied by giving Moses some advice, something each of us needs to learn. Jethro said, “What you are doing is not good” (Ex. 18:17).

Moses tried to be the leader, judge, and answer person for all the people of Israel. He tried to do it all and to be everything the people needed. Notice that Jethro observed the toll this task was taking not only on Moses but also on the people too. Jethro said, “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” (Ex. 18:18). Did you notice what he said? You will be worn out. They will be worn out. This is too heavy for all of you. Jethro advised Moses how to identify leaders who could instruct groups of ten, fifty, a hundred, and a thousand (Ex. 18:21)—sound familiar? Dunbar and the sociologists would have loved documenting this case study.

I have led a team of people who reach out to our local high school for nearly twenty years. Last year, a large group of adults joined our team. An equally impressive collection of student leaders were added to our team as well. I realized quickly that our group would have to operate differently.

For many years my wife had made homemade dinners for all the leaders before our weekly outreach event. Now, with many new leaders and the expanding size of the program, we realized we didn’t have the time, money, or space at the table for twenty-five people to eat a meal each week. In prior years, we took time every week to hear how each leader was doing and often spent time praying for each one. I discovered that with this larger group of leaders, if everyone took two or three minutes, sharing and prayer could take an hour. When we ran our weekly meeting, I was bombarded with so many questions and minicrises in the ten-minute window before our meeting that I wasn’t functioning as a nice human being. By the end of the night, I was spent emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

I had become a relational bottleneck and, unfortunately, a pain in the neck to everyone around me. What I was able to do efficiently for many years with ten to fifteen people had now exceeded a clear threshold when that group grew to twenty-five people.

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