BAD TEAM BUILDING ADVICE (A Lesson from Moses and Aaron)

Blogging Exodus 4:14 - 16, 27- 31

¹⁴ So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said: “Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. ¹⁵ Now you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth. And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do. ¹⁶ So he shall be your spokesman to the people. And he himself shall be as a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.  

. . .  ²⁷ And the Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” So he went and met him on the mountain of God, and kissed him. ²⁸ So Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded him. ²⁹ Then Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. ³⁰ And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken to Moses. Then he did the signs in the sight of the people. ³¹ So the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel and that He had looked on their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped. 

Moses & Aaron

Moses and Aaron were brother-believers.   They both cared about the plight of their enslaved brethren in Goshen.  They’d both accurately discerned the voice of the Lord leading them in His will.  In every other way, they disagreed. 

In Exodus chapter 4, Moses was leaving a peaceful and contented life of shepherding which had been preceded by privileged and pampered life in Pharaoh’s family.  Aaron was basically a slave sneaking off the plantation. 

They had opposing ideas about cultural diversity and ethnic inclusion. 

Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman (Numbers 12:1).

Moses was pursuing a grand vision to free all of Israel from centuries of genocide and oppression.  Aaron was just going to check on his brother ‘cause the Lord had put him on his heart (Exodus 4:27).

Moses believed that a leader should set the standard for righteousness and use his power to enforce a high moral ethic.   Aaron thought that you had to give the people what they want (Exodus 32). 

The common advice about leadership, excellence, and team building is that you should make sure that the people around you agree with you, have the same vision as you, and prefer the same approach to leadership that you employ.  Basically, we’re told to build a team of people who are going in the same direction.

  

When the brothers met on the road at Mt. Horeb Moses was going from Midian to Egypt.  Aaron was going from Egypt to Midian.  They were, figuratively and literally, coming from different places and moving in different directions. 

Combine the prevailing advice on leadership and unity with the age-old caution against working with family, and it's obvious that the partnering Moses with Aaron was bad team-building advice.

Of course, that is exactly the advice that God gave.  

In team-building as in many things, we often confuses easy with good.  God's "bad" advice reminds us that a team-leader needs truth more than he/she needs encouragement.  

God wanted Moses to have a team that included people who did NOT think like him, who did NOT come from the same socio-political place as him.  God wanted Moses to put people in his innermost circle who heard God for themselves.  Sometimes that meant they would (accurately) hear God telling them something different from what Moses had (accurately) heard God say.  

The deepest spiritual truths are found in the uncomfortable void between apparent contradictions.

When the team collectively hears and shares all the different ways that God speaks on their mission, then the leader of the team has all the truth he/she needs to direct the work.

When you only include the people who always agree with you, when you squash dissenting ideas and approaches you block key channels by which God can send you direction and correction.  

And sometimes the opposing voices will be wrong ---- really wrong, like Aaron was about the golden calf and about Moses’ interracial relationship.  But, you don’t have to automatically believe every criticism.  And, you shouldn’t automatically believe every compliment, either. 

Jesus intentionally gathered a team of men who didn’t always agree with each other or with Him.  Sometimes directing them was frustrating, but it was ultimately fruitful.  Jesus’ team was so well-chosen that He told them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father” (John 14: 12).

That is why we build teams, isn’t it?  

To get the work(s) done.   To do greater than we could have done on our own. 

To achieve greatness and greaterness, you need people who don’t just receive their leader’s vision, they amplify it.   Like Moses the prophet needed Aaron the priest, you need teammates with perspectives and observations you would not have and could not have arrived at alone. 

You can build a team that always agrees with you, or you can build the team that God wants you to lead.   But don’t get it twisted.  Those are 2 different teams.

 --Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama. He writes a blog called A Word to the Wise at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com

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