Ministry struggle…so many voices…
We had a great time Sunday in worship. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it was an “all smiles, God wants you to smell like daisies, and have no problems” sermon. The best sermons, to me, are challenging through the Word, force me to take an honest look at my life, and face up to God’s truth.
In Exodus 14, God is delivering His people. They had been a faceless, culture-less, enslaved people. They were at the mercy of their masters and they were considered a lower class of society. God decided to free them using Moses. God through Moses led them out and they were being chased by all of Pharaoh’s army. They stopped and were overtaken when they camped by the sea. Now…history goes on to say God delivers them by parting the sea and then crushing the Pharaoh’s army. What a great victory!
But let’s back up a step or two. The conversation the people have with Moses is enough to bring major discouragement to any leader! You hear and see three poeple groups…
Group one is the negative and complaining group. This group counted the cost to begin with and didn’t want to move then. Now that they really can’t control the outcome without trusting God, and they definitely want out!
They said, “What, Moses, you think there weren’t enough graves in Egypt? You brought us out here to be killed in the desert?”
TRANSLATION…This is hard. This is scary. I don’t know what to expect. Look at this mess you got us into. What controlling committee am I supposed to be in charge of out here? Why should we follow one man who claims to have heard from God instead of voting and following our majority?
I am not a person who believes in a dictatorial Pastor. But it is evident that as “established” churches, we fear to the point of paralysis things that we can’t put our own hands on and control or fix. So we fear following a man with a God-given vision. God’s vision for His church ALWAYS requires faith steps that we CAN’T do on our own!
Group two is full of those who like things just the way they are. We’ve gotten this far, why push farther? Let’s just eat the daily manna and stay here.
TRANSLATION…We are at a maintaining point. If we stay like we are, we know who our friends are and who does what. If we push ahead then we may have to stretch beyond what we know already.
There is comfort in status quo. But the phrase that comes to my mind is, “If you’re not moving forward, you’re being left behind.” God is always at work around us. When we settle in to doing the same things the same way even when we see attendance fall, commitments failing, marriages ending in divorce, Godly values being set aside, dissensions not dealt with, and the like, we are headed for disaster as a church. Strong leadership doesn’t want to sit back and let life happen to them. They lead into God’s unknown and the body grows through new encounters and lessons from the Lord!
Group three are already looking around for where God is moving and they are preparing for that. In verse 15, God asks Moses an interesting question. He asks, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward.” Let’s not sit back and wander. When God gives His man a vision and speaks it clearly, His man needs to speak it plain to the people and in spite of murmurings, MOVE FORWARD! God says essentially, didn’t I already tell you what to do? Stop standing there and move forward.
When God’s voice is clear, MOVE! When people speak against God’s move, listen, respond with encouragement and MOVE! When people talk of the difficulty of change and the ease of maintaining, restate God’s vision, and MOVE FORWARD!
Just as one of my blogs last week spoke of hard truths being necessary, hard leadership decisions are also necessary. We can feel ok with just getting by or we can MOVE and watch God work in tremendous ways that bring Himself much glory!
We need to be vision driven and follow through. I pray strength and wisdom for you in the ministry you are a part of. I pray the same for myself. May the world be changed by leaders who are God focused, have God-given visions, and God-strengthened efforts!