Small Groups

Exodus 18 records some great insights into leadership. Moses was acting as the judge over all of the Israelites. He was handling all the disputes of the people and teaching them the laws of God. Moses was dealing with hundreds of thousands of people at this point, and was the only go-to guy for them when they had conflicts. His father-in-law noticed that Moses was surrounded by people from dawn til dusk, and pointed out that what Moses was doing was “not good.” In fact, he warned Moses that he’d wear himself and those around him out trying to keep a pace like that. He suggested that Moses appoint others to lead under him, freeing himself to handle only the major disputes. This is a great story, and a terrific lesson in the need for delegation and a chain of command in leadership.

But I think there’s a deeper lesson here that we must be careful not to miss. To lighten the load Moses wasn’t supposed to just shirk responsibility or put any average Joe in charge of some of the duties. No, the Scriptures say that he was still to appoint able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, to be leaders. Moses was still to teach the way of truth and guide the people in following God, but he was to surround himself with men of deep character who could help him carry out his tasks. There is an obvious identification of character traits in this passage concerning the people Moses was to trust with leadership. They must be men who acknowledge God as the only God and who have a reverence for Who God is. They must be men who are able to do the task, not just good guys, but the right guys for this particular leadership task. They must be people who can be trusted, who aren’t easily swayed – people of upstanding character in their community.

Leadership qualities like this are timeless. They don’t go out of fashion. They don’t get surpassed with new ideas and more relevant leadership strategies. Depth of character and an attitude of the heart can’t be faked and will always make a huge difference to those we lead. Take a few minutes today and read through Exodus 18. As you consider your leadership role in your small group, ask yourself if you are working on staying sharp with your leadership ability. Are you continually working on honing the skills of generating conversation and asking good questions and appropriately probing into people’s lives to help them connect? Are you continually striving to learn more about God and so continually finding yourself in deeper reverence of the Almighty? Are you a person in good standing with those in your group? Are you respected because of your character? And, like Moses, are you leading people in the way of truth, the way of righteousness, and the way of life? Lastly, like Moses are representing the people before God with prayer?