Leadership Lessons
Eric A. Snyder, Minister, Farwell Church of Christ
Exodus 18: 13-26
July 15, 2001
A small boy was asked by his teacher, "What is the size of the Democratic Party?"
"About 5 feet 2 inches," he replied promptly.
"NO!" exploded the teacher" I mean, how MANY members does it have? How did you get 5 feet 2 inches?"
"Well," replied the boy, "my father is 6 feet tall and every night he puts his hands to his chin and says..
"I’ve had it up to HERE with the Democratic Party!"
One Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Johnny standing in the foyer of the church, looking at a large plaque that hung there. After the young man of seven had stood there for some time, the pastor walked up beside him and said quietly, "Good morning, son." "Good morning, Pastor," replied the youngster, not taking his eyes off the plaque. "Can I ask you, Sir -- What is this for? Why are all these names listed on here?" "Well, son, these are all the people who have died in the service," replied the pastor. Soberly, they stood together, staring up at the large plaque. Little Johnny’s voice barely broke the silence when he asked quietly, "Which one, Sir, the 8:30 or the 10:30?"
Have you ever thought Service and responsibility would wear you out?
Moses did
Background: Moses’ father in law came to see him
Exodus 18:13-26 13 The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. 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?" 15 Moses answered him, "Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. 16 Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and laws." 17 Moses’ father-in-law replied, "What you are doing is not good. 18 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. 19 Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to him. 20 Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform. 21 But select capable men from all the people--men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain--and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. 22 Have them serve as judges for the people at all times, but have them bring every difficult case to you; the simple cases they can decide themselves. That will make your load lighter, because they will share it with you. 23 If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied." 24 Moses listened to his father-in-law and did everything he said. 25 He chose capable men from all Israel and made them leaders of the people, officials over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. 26 They served as judges for the people at all times. The difficult cases they brought to Moses, but the simple ones they decided themselves.
1. Divine Right Leadership
A. Believed to be, God Granted or God Given
Bloodlines from God Monarchs.
Rose to power because they claimed to be divine lineage
Stated that their power came from God and therefore was infallible. They could not be wrong.
riddle What can be right, but never wrong?
An angle.
The longer I live the more I see I am never wrong about anything, and that all the pains I have so humbly taken to verify my notions have only wasted my time. -- George Bernard Shaw
Moses was a good example of Divine right leadership
He was a great leader, but up until now he was not letting anyone else get close to responsibility because God had given him authority.
Last Sunday night we talked about how Aaron messed up with the golden calf. It’s real easy for us to become critical of Aaron. But the truth is he was never given responsibility because Moses was not letting him have any.
When someone messed up there is a tendency to revert back to a total dominance of leadership
B. It stems from the philosophy that If you want something done right you just have to do it yourself.
One physician has stated “Several patients tell me, "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." They do not delegate well and tend to get overloaded.” As a result they have a higher stress level not to mention that they miss the Joy of seeing other competent people become part of the team.
My greatest Joy in Ministry has been to watch leaders develop to a point of shared responsibility.
The Acrostic is True: In a Team, Together Everyone Accomplishes More
It’s hard to let someone else lead but it’s right
The American industrialist, Henry Ford, was once asked to donate money for the construction of a new medical facility. The billionaire pledged to donate $5,000. The next day in the newspaper, the headline read, "Henry Ford contributes $50,000 to the local hospital." The irate Ford was on the phone immediately to complain to the fund-raiser that he had been misunderstood. The fund-raiser replied that they would print a retraction in the paper the following day to read, "Henry Ford reduces his donation by $45,000." Realizing the poor publicity that would result, the industrialist agreed to the $50,000 contribution in return for the following: That above the entrance to the hospital was to be carved the biblical inscription: "I came among you and you took me in."
How do you do when it comes to releasing responsibility?
A strong work ethic is at the center of this
Perfectionist
There is a difference between a Job Done and a Job done right. If you struggle with releasing authority it doesn’t mean you are bad. Probably the exact opposite is true. You just want the best because you understand that God wants the best from us.
All of this adds up to a desire to be right in the presence of the one who is Divine
2. The influence of an outsider
A mother took her young son shopping. After a day in the stores, a clerk handed the little boy a lollipop. "What do you say?" the mother said to the boy, to which he replied, "Charge it!"
Parents have an influence on their children. Moses knew his father in law very well this was man that he was going to listen to.
A. The Insight of objectivity
The class of noisy boys in a German primary school was being punished by their teacher. They were assigned the problem of adding together all the numbers from 1 to 100.
The boys settled down, scribbling busily on their slates -- all but one. This boy looked off into space for a few moments, then wrote something on his slate and turned it in. His was the only right answer.
When the amazed teacher asked how he did it, the boy replied, "I thought there might be some short cut, and I found one: 100 plus 1 is 101; 99 plus 2 is 101; 98 plus 3 is 101, and, if I continued the series all the way to 51 plus 50, I have 101 50 times, which is 5,050."
After this episode, the young scholar received special tutoring from his teacher. The boy was Karl Friedrich Gauss, the great mathematician of the 19th century. Who was Einstein’s contemporary
A major problem in the development of the first sewing machine was the location of the eye of the needle. Inventor Elias Howe was rapidly running out of money and ideas when one night he had a peculiar dream. He was being led to his execution for failing to design a sewing machine for the king of a strange country. He was surrounded by guards, all of whom carried spears that were pierced near the head. Realizing instantly that this was the solution to his problem, Howe woke up and rushed straight to his workshop. By nine o’clock that morning the design of the first sewing machine was well on the way to completion.
If we can sit back for a moment a solution may come to us
But Moses was so busy that he did not have time to step back and come up with a solution. He needed a fresh view of someone he trusted.
The evaluation “what you’re doing is not good”
You’re wearing yourself out, you’re neglecting your family and you are micromanaging these people.
It was Flight 401 bound for Miami from New York City with a load of holiday passengers. As the huge aircraft approached the Miami Airport for its landing, a light that indicates proper deployment of the landing gear failed to come on. The plane flew in a large, looping circle over the swamps of the Everglades while the cockpit crew checked out the light failure. Their question was this, had the landing gear actually not deployed or was it just the light bulb that was defective?
To begin with, the flight engineer fiddled with the bulb. He tried to remove it, but it wouldn’t budge. Another member of the crew tried to help out...and then another. By and by, if you can believe it, all eyes were on the little light bulb that refused to be dislodged from its socket. No one noticed that the plane was losing altitude. Finally, it dropped right into a swamp. Many were killed in that plane crash. While an experienced crew of high-priced and seasoned pilots messed around with a seventy-five-cent light bulb, an entire airplane and many of its passengers were lost. The crew momentarily forgot the most basic of all rules of the air -- "Don’t forget to fly the airplane!"
Moses was so busy looking at the light bulb that he forgot about the pillar of fire.
Jethro said find some good leaders
B. Character traits of good leaders
a. Knows his limitations
Moses still judged the hard cases
b. Takes advice well
c. Realizes the value of each person
d. Plays to his strength
3. Divine Right Leadership
A. A accurate picture of Godly leadership
If you want something done right, delegate it." As a leader you can advance your Church by delegating some of your responsibilities. Assigning tasks to others not only increases your productivity and provides you more time for strategic planning, it also aids church members in acquiring new skills and expertise.
Unfortunately, delegating duties can pose a significant challenge, especially for new managers. Giving instruction to others can test your communication skills as well as your ability to trust workers to make the right decisions.
a. Trust people to finish the expected job
b. Teach people basic principals to ensure a right result
c. Empower others with meaningful ministry (Give Real authority)
d. Encourage leaders to do their best
Andrew Carnegie, the famous philanthropist said, "I owe whatever success I have attained, by and large, to my ability to surround myself with people who are smarter than I am."
Theodore Roosevelt said, "The best leader is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it."
That’s what God does with the church, He puts the Right Competent people in a position where they can be Educated, Empowered, Encouraged and Enriched by their leadership experience.
B. As a Church we need to learn to
a. Determine incidental from essential
b. Trust God to use other people
c. Don’t worry about who gets the Credit
Shilvey Christian Vs. Shivley Baptist
C. How to spot a capable leader
The golfer was new to the game. When his ball landed on an ant hill, he took careful aim, swung hard, and missed the ball completely. Instead of hitting the ball, he destroyed half of the ant hill.
Enraged at the miss, the golfer swung even harder a second time. He destroyed the other half of the ant hill as the golf ball went straight up in the air several feet and came down in the same spot.
Two ants crawled dizzily from the remains and looked around. One of them saw the novice golfer preparing to swing again and said, "Uh oh! If we want to survive, we’d better get on the ball!"
We need to make sure that out leaders are on the ball
I believe that we do have competent leaders here
a. They are time tested
b. They are full of the Spirit
c. They have a track record of wise decisions
Our goal should be Qualified people for Meaningful Tasks.
Jimmy Durante was asked to be a part of a show for WW II veterans. He told them his schedule would only permit a few minutes. When he got on stage and did his short monologue something happened. The applause grew louder and louder and he kept staying. Soon, he had been on 15, 20, then 30 minutes. Later someone asked, "I thought you had to go after a few minutes. What happened?" Jimmy answered, "I did have to go, but I can show you the reason I stayed. Look on the front row." There say two men, each had lost an arm in the war. One had lost his right arm and the other had lost his left. Together, they were able to clap, and that’s exactly what they were doing, loudly and cheerfully (Holy Sweat, Tim Hansel, 1987).
When God looks at the church he wants to see us clapping and giving praise to him.
Because leadership that is divine comes from Jesus and is because of Jesus
Jesus was divine
Jesus was right
Jesus is our ultimate leader
