Welcome to our first blog post for Reconcile the City! Lord willing, we will try to regularly bring you encouragement and comments from my regular study through the Scriptures. Here we go!
“But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord‘s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!” Numbers 11:29
I’ve worked for some really good leaders in my life and I also have worked for others who were not so great. I remember years ago being involved in a meeting at a former workplace where the employees were complaining to management about a computer system that just would not work. Whatever we as the employees tried, the system was just not user-friendly and many of it’s needed features did not work. I remember to this day what a manager said to us as we laid out our concerns and clearly made the case that the system was not usable in its current state. The manager, in frustration, pounded his finger on a table and gave us some profound instruction. He said to us, ….wait for it…. “Make it work!”.
Leadership has always been a difficult and stressful endeavor. In Numbers chapter 11 we read of a time where Israel’s leader, Moses, became exceedingly frustrated with the people. The people were once again complaining about the wilderness where the Lord had led them and the way in which He had chosen to provide for them. In response, Moses cries out to the Lord in chapter 11, verses 14&15, “I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.” Now, Moses was surely not a bad leader but he was an over-worked leader. He was carrying more responsibility than he could bear, and his frustration got the best of him, as it would me.
The Lord answered Moses by raising up 70 men to assist him in his leadership task. He told Moses to gather these 70 men that He might send His Spirit to fill them for the task of assisting him in leadership. All but two of the men gathered together and received the Spirit of the Lord. The two who did not gather with the others received the Spirit anyway which caused a complaint by Joshua who questioned the validity of the leadership of these two men. Moses answered Joshua with our passage at the top of the page. Moses wasn’t interested in his own fame or glory at this point. He was desperate for help, and was willing to give leadership away to get it.
What does this story have to do with us today? First, it highlights an important leadership and ministry principle. Good leaders welcome help and are willing to see other leaders raised up to their work and are even willing to give their own leadership away for the sake of the whole community. Second, leaders and ministers were not meant to stand on their own. They are to pour into, equip, and encourage others into leadership positions. Good leaders don’t just happen, people must be equiped, developed and entrusted with leadership responsibilities to grow into effective leaders themselves.
This touches on a key part of our ministry at Reconcile the City. We would like to see Christian police officers to be raised up, equiped, and encouraged to do the work of ministry themselves in their own spheres of influence. Pastors, chaplains, and other leaders can’t do all the work on their own, they must be willing to give their leadership away that others can learn to practice and grow in their own leadership and ministry. May the Lord Himself raise up many men and women in police work, and in other professions, to do the work of ministry in their own spheres of infuence.
Is the Lord calling you to leadership or ministry? Don’t be afraid, answer His call.
Are you a leader with folks working under you? Give your leadership and ministry away. It will do you, and the Lord’s Kingdom, much good.
“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”
Ephesians 4:11
Reconcile the City 