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

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

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LEADERSHIP TRAINING FOR LOCAL CHURCH LEADERS

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BLOGGING THE LORD'S PRAYER: Lead Us Not into------ What?

And do not lead us into temptation,

But deliver us from the evil one (Matthew 6: 13; Luke 11: 4 )

This section of the Lord’s model prayer speaks a simple message:  Trouble is bad, but sin is worse.

If you get into trouble, if you fall into tribulation, if you are afflicted by the evil one then Jesus says, “It’s O.K.   Ask God for deliverance.”

Bad things will happen to you, but don’t panic.   God will bring you through.

That’s why John 16:33 ends with Jesus’ reassurance that In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.(John 16: 33)

So, even though you know that evil times are inevitable, you can “Keep calm and carry on.”

That’s why John 16: 33 begins with Jesus explaining that These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.

 Evil situations are bad, but what should you most isn’t evil; it’s TEMPTATION. 

Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. (James 1: 14, 15)

So pray: Lord, do not lead us into temptation .

Jesus basically said, “You don’t even want to go there---- at all,” and Jesus knew a thing or two about how being led into temptation.

After He was baptized by John, then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  (Matthew 4:1)

God Himself didn’t personally do the tempting.  Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God” (James 1: 13); but God did lead Jesus into the place where He would be tempted.  Tempted to sin.

For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4: 15)

Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.(James 1: 12)

Jesus did not fall to the temptation.  But He felt it.

Jesus experienced temptation, and He experienced suffering at the hands of evil one(s).

Every day of His life down here on Earth, Jesus  suffered with the deprivation of Heaven.  Jesus was hated, misunderstood, and targeted for attack essentially from the day of His conception.  Every day Jesus lived with the heart-wrenching knowledge that He would be betrayed and denied by the men He trusted most and abandoned by all of  His best friends.  Jesus knew that His Earthly life would be ended by injustice, torture, and execution in the most painful manner devised by the collective intelligence of the most advanced civilization in the Western world.

Of course Jesus didn’t enjoy or want any of that suffering.   In the Garden of Gethsemane, He sweated blood from the stress (Luke 22: 44) and  fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.” (Matthew 26: 39)

Yet, despite His suffering, Jesus did not teach His disciples to pray for God to let them avoid evil/ the evil one.  In comparison, Jesus regarded temptation, the enticement to disobey God, as so bad that His disciples we should ask God to keep them away from it all together.

Being tempted hurt Jesus more than being mistreated.

The whip hurt.  The punches, the nail, the spear to His side, they pained Him and/ or left scars.   But it was only when the weight of all sin fell on Him that Jesus spoke with despair---- and gave up.

 “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” … And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.  (Matthew 27: 46, 50)

For Jesus, sin was worse than suffering.

And so Jesus taught His disciples (then and now) to ask God to deliver us from the evil one; but please, please whatever you do, Lord, do not lead us into temptation.

Which is exactly the opposite of how we actually pray.

Except when we recite the Lord’s Prayer, most Christian prayers sound more like:  Deliver us from temptation and do not lead us into evil.

We excuse our continual sin and we relish our temptations.

"Don’t judge me." 

"Everyone has a right to..."

"I should be able to choose for myself."

"Blah blah blah blah---- grace."

(Romans 6:15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly NOT!)

I’ve actually heard people pray, “And if I should do anything that displeases you this week, then, Lord forgive me.”  (They said this out loud, and they weren’t on any heavy medication at the time.)

We want to yield to every temptation and then get God to deliver us.

But we don’t want to even touch tribulation.  We don’t want to endure any suffering.  We don’t want to experience any pain.  In fact, popular Christianity claims ease and exemption from all unpleasantries as the birthright of every true child of the King.

We want God to keep us away from pain and get us out of sin.

Generally, we Christians are more worried about suffering than about sinning.  And that is the opposite of what Jesus taught.

Jesus said: In the world you WILL have tribulation. 

In the midst of trouble, Jesus tells us that we can still have peace.  We can claim victory and deliverance even while we are being afflicted. 

We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—

Surrounded and affected by a world of suffering we can be of good cheer, because Jesus has already overcome the world and we are always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. (2 Corinthians 4: 8-10)

So, though we wish that this cup could pass from us, nevertheless we trust that God will deliver us from evil.  

Popular Christianity portrays suffering as avoidable (with enough faith) and sin as inevitable.  But that’s not what the Bible says.

Though our flesh longs to yield to temptation, we who have received grace should not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin (Romans 6: 13).

Though there’s a part of us that wants to go there and ask for forgiveness later, we are taught to flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.  (2 Timothy 2:22)

I know what everyone says.  I know how everyone thinks.  As Christians, our goal is to transcend our thinking and come to think like Jesus.

Well, Jesus thought that sin was worse than suffering.

And so, we deliberately and obediently pray: 

And do not lead us into temptation,

But deliver us from the evil one. 

---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 Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church

541 Seibles Road

Montgomery, AL 36116

AGE OLD EXCUSES

Often in our very traditional churches where leadership is held for long periods by a small core of older members, a common reason/ excuse is given for excluding younger adults from leadership. 

That excuse is, "They're not ready."

Other versions of that excuse include:

They haven't gotten far enough in their careers.
They're too caught up in their careers.
They aren't even married.
They haven't been married that long.
They don't have children.
They have young children.
He's/ she's got all them tattoos.
I heard he's been to jail.

That's what they say.

Here's what He says:  

Ecclesiastes 4: 13     Better a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who will be admonished no more.  14     For he comes out of prison to be king, although he was born poor in his kingdom.

When you get to the point that you know it all backwards and forwards and “They can’t tell me how to do this job.  I”ve been doing this for ___ years,”  at that point you know so much that you can no longer be admonished.

At that point, you know too much to stay in that position. 

If you prefer, look at it like this:  It’s time for a new challenge.

In the Methodist tradition, bishops admonish preachers “Not to stay in one place longer than you ought.” 

That’s fine advice for lay leadership, too. 

And, no.  The new up-and-comers don’t know all that you know.  But that’s your fault.  You should have already shared your knowledge.   If you haven't trained them so far, then let them learn as they go.   The wise youth will ask when they need help.  They will recognize your value as a human resource.  But, in truth they will need you a whole lot less than you may want to be needed. 

At this point in the church, it’s time to let the poor and wise youth lead.   At this point in the church, it is time to let the poor and wise ex-con lead.  At this point in the church it is time to stop saying that young adults are the leaders of tomorrow.

They are supposed to be the leaders of TODAY.

---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 Hall Memorial CME Church in Montgomery, Alabama, executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO) and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme.blogspot.com .

You can read more on Pastor Graves's personal blog at www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com  .

If this message helps or touches you, please help support this ministry. Send a donation of any amount by check or money order.
Mail all contributions to :
Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116

A WORD TO THE WISE: MORE THAN WORDS

Proverbs 29: 19     A servant will not be corrected by mere words; for though he understands, he will not respond.

Proverbs 29: 19.  Accountability is an often used but too-seldom applied term in organizational leadership.  What we call accountability is often just reporting. 

At best, reporting shows that your people know what they were supposed to do, but it doesn’t ensure that they did/ will do it.

Reports are the summary and spin that one party gives to his leaders and supervisors.  Reports can clarify questions with numbers and narratives, or reports can cloud results with excuses and empty oration.  Either way, reports are mere words.  REPORTING IS NOT ACCOUNTABILITY.

Accountability begins when the leaders peer into and through the reports and see the actual results.  ACCOUNTABILITY OCCURS WITH LEADERS RESPOND TO RESULTS WITH CONSEQUENCES. 

If a leader never drills down through the ritual of reporting to the spirit and truth of the actual results, then the leader doesn’t have an accurate basis for holding people accountable.    Once they get down to the actual results, leaders have to take the next difficult, painful, courageous, unpopular, and messy step.  They have to apply real results-based consequences.

A cashier who gives back too much change won’t stop giving back too much change because the manager asks him to.  But f the manager retrains the cashier AND docks his pay, the over-changing will stop, or the cashier will quit---- which will stop the over-changing.

A child who screams in the grocery store will not stop screaming because a parent tells her to stop one time. She’ll stop screaming when she has been taught proper behavior and shown that painful consequences follow her parent telling her to stop more than one time.

Many of our families, our schools, our communities, and our churches are corrupt, powerless, and declining because we don’t hold people accountable.  We take reports at face value and never look for the real results.  They say, “Everything fine,” so we ignore the smoke pouring out of the building.  No accountability.

We see the destruction and the decline, but we don’t want to hurt feelings, challenge political strongholds, or risk retaliation; so we leave people the way we found them in the positions where they can do the most harm and accept the empty report that, “God is good.”  No accountability.

From Congress to the county to the local church, we call for committees to write and deliver reports.  But reports are mere words, and mere words are not enough to alter the inertia of failure.  Accountability is the most difficult way, but it’s the only way.

Jesus modeled the practice of accountability.

Luke chapters 9 & 10 begin with Jesus ordaining and appointing 82 leaders.  The 12 apostles and the 70 others were given specific evangelistic appointments and assignments. 

They reported back to Jesus on their work (Luke 9: 10; 10: 17), and Jesus drilled down for spiritual, ministerial, and personal results. 

• How well did they handle the resources/ lack of resources?  (Luke 9: 3-5)

 

• When put on the spot could they organize and execute a feeding ministry in the field?  (Luke 9: 12-13)

• Had they grown in their understanding of Jesus despite the views of the prevailing culture? (Luke 9: 18-20)

• Could they show actual spiritual results? (Luke 10: 9, 17

When an appointed or potential leader some showed less understanding or less commitment than Jesus required, He applied the consequence of direct Divine rebuke. (Luke 9: 54-55; 9: 62; 10: 17-20)

Reports + Results + Consequences =  ACCOUNTABILITY.

It’s difficult way, but it’s Jesus’ way---- the necessary path of accountability.

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

Call me at 334-288-0577

Email me at atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

To hear sermons, read devotions, and learn more about the ministry at Hall Memorial CME Church, visit www.hallmemorialcme@blogspotcom.

A WORD TO THE WISE. Proverbs 29: 14 "A Promise to Leaders"

Proverbs 29: 14     The king who judges the poor with truth, his throne will be established forever.

Proverbs 29: 14. The promise is so, so very, very important.  If you lead well and you lead right, if you deal with the powerless based on the Truth not based on assumptions or opportunities for exploitation----- then God will take care of you.  God will secure your reward and your legacy---- forever.

This promise is crucial because leading right is so hard sometimes.  People misstate your motives, misapply your directions, misbehave in your presence, and mishandle your heart.  And, it SEEMS like the corrupt and callous leaders who don’t invest nearly what you do are consistently applauded and elevated.    Proverbs 29: 14 is critical so that when the enemies without, or the enemy within invite you to misuse your authority because “that’s the only way you’re going to get anywhere in this world,” then you can remind yourself of this promise:

God says that He will personally and permanently reward you for being the right kind of leader, His kind of leader, a Christ-kind of leader.

For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name, in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister (Hebrews 6:10).

It IS possible to tell the truth and prosper in your career. With God, it’s possible.

It IS possible to live and work and manage your money without ever cheating anybody and still prosper financially.  With Jesus, it’s possible.

It IS possible to make a difference in your church, community, company, and kin without playing treating people like pawns and property.  In the power of the Holy Spirit, it is possible.

It IS possible to leave a legacy of improved lives on Earth while simultaneously laying up a treasure of saved souls in Heaven.  According to the eternal Word of God it’s possible.

None of these thing are easy, but they are possible.

None of these thing are easy, but they are PROMISED.

Now, the promises of God don’t just happen.  Claiming God’s promises requires more than just saying the words, “I’m claiming God’s promises.” 

…Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue,

to virtue knowledge, 
to knowledge self-control,
to self-control perseverance,
to perseverance godliness, 
to godliness brotherly kindness,
and to brotherly kindness love. 
For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  (2 Peter 1: 5-8).

Sometimes it is so very, very hard to do lead well and to lead right; but it is always and eternally worth it.

And that is a promise---- from God Himself.

---Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Road
Montgomery, AL 36116