Overworked and Underutilized

I’m feeling a bit overworked these days, and I wonder how much of it I’m bringing on myself. Just the other day I had the passage in my daily reading about how Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, convinced Moses that his style of administration was all wrong because he was trying to do everything, acting “as judge for the people, while the people stood around him from morning until evening.” (Exodus 18:13) Jethro’s words to Moses are a model of brevity: “What you are doing is not good. You will surely wear yourself out, both you and these people with you. For the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.” (Exodus 18:17-18 NRS) We pastors and CLP’s (and committee chairs, for that matter) should probably have this engraved and put someplace where we can see it every day. When we try to do everything ourselves, we not only wear ourselves out, we wear everybody else out, too.

Jethro’s advice to Moses could come out of a 21st-century administrative manual:

You should...look for able men among all the people, men who fear God, are trustworthy, and hate dishonest gain; set such men over them as officers over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. Let them sit as judges for the people at all times; let them bring every important case to you, but decide every minor case themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people will go to their home in peace. (Exodus 18:21-23 NRS)

This principle, of course, is foundational to the Presbyterian system of Ruling Elders and Teaching Elders, of the divisions of authority and responsibility between pastor and Session, but how often have we seen a kind of “responsibility creep” taking place, especially when we have served a church for several years. Some pastors, of course, covet that control and do their best to make it happen, but for many of us it sneaks up on us without our being aware of it at the time.

So from time to time I need to step back, hard as that is, and take a look at everything I’m doing. How much of this is stuff that someone else really should be doing? Recall how the apostles handled the Great Potluck Controversy, the first thing that threatened to split the Church before it really got started:

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:1-4 TNIV)

I don’t think the apostles were saying, “we’re too important to bother ourselves with trivial stuff like feeding people.” I think they recognized that they were called to do one thing, and that if they did everything, two things would happen: one is that nothing would get done very well, and the other is that other people in the fellowship would never get a chance to live out their own calls. Look what happened after the seven men were chosen: “The word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:7 TNIV)

Well, now that I’ve written that, it’s time for me to take my own advice. I’ll let you know what I find out.