Jethro came on the scene in Exodus 18 at a high point for the people of Israel. They had recently come out of Egypt and had just defeated the Amalekites. He wanted in on the celebration so he came from Midian to join the party. Next morning, he observes the steady stream of people lined up to talk to Moses and Moses tells him he is doing this because the people come to him. In other words, he said his people were defining his organization structure. Twice Jethro says (in Ex. 18:18 and again in 18:23) that if Moses kept doing what he was doing the party would be over. Moses would burn out and the people would be fried in the process.
Thus begins a shift in Moses’ ministry that has all of the markings of what it takes for you and me to be effective in ministry in the growing church. You know the story. Moses changes his organization chart and reduces his potential workload from 100% of the cases of the people down to .1% (a million people, leaders of thousands, do the math!) This secret Jethro shares with Moses is how to focus his efforts. This new focused way of doing ministry may appear to be just about the “org chart”. However, it actually has three elements: pay attention to your organization chart and ministry delegation, be a change leader, and manage your time in new ways.
I’ll talk about the other two elements in my next posting. Meanwhile, consider this. The same thing happens to the people of God in Acts 6 and the apostles get it right. They don’t even need a Jethro to help them. Or did they? Maybe they had read Ex. 18, do you think?!
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