“Don’t plant your bad days. They grow into weeks. The weeks grow into months. Before you know it, you got yourself a bad year. Take it from me – choke those little bad days. Choke ’em down to nothing.”
Tom Waits
I recently preached on the passage from Exodus where Moses strikes the rock to give the people water in the wilderness. Actually, the passage is clear about it being God who gives the people water, but Moses is used as the tool of bringing God’s providence. Moses actually resists, and there is a whole word play between Moses saying the people will stone him, and God saying strike the rock with the staff I gave you. Moses, as happens frequently throughout the story of the Exodus, is resistant and a little emotional about what God asks of him. It is a great moment of God’s delivery within the story of deliverance for his people. Coming through in a time of need.
God delivers even through human feebleness.
Then we come to the next time of thirst for the Hebrew people, found in the book of Numbers. This is coming close to the end of the Exodus story and God asks for both the priest and the prophet of the caravan to show his power. Aaron, the spokesperson, Moses, the hand of God, will go to the rock and tell the people God provides again! Aaron speaks, Moses strikes the rock, as God once again asks him too, and the people will be refreshed. Instead, they take it as a moment to tell the people off, claim responsibility for the water to come, and Moses hits the rock twice. Not, “look what God is about to do”; instead, “look at what we are doing for you ungrateful people!”
Well, as they say in baseball, 3 strikes and you are out. God tells Moses that he will NOT be leading the people into the promised land.
No, this is not a sermon on morality or counting ways you can do the wrong thing and fall out of God’s good graces. This is more of an observation on how many churches respond to hard times and things just not going their way. Sometimes, it is the sentiment of leadership wishing things were going differently internally, sometimes it is the people gathering not feeling that things are going well for them, and sometimes it is a reaction to external circumstances to the ‘group’. Numbers not what they used to be, discomfort caused by programmed ministry, words being spoken in a way that you are not used to, etc. etc. Before you know it, the patient prayer of, “We are waiting on God”, becomes, “We need to do something about this!”
In transitional times I ask the question of the group and its leadership: What is the difference between an empire and a kingdom?
If it is just us building it so they will come, and expecting certain outcomes because we did it the right way, we start to use empire language. Strategy, cost-benefits analysis, specific outcomes. And putting the cart fully before the horse, there is often prayer and spiritual language attached to the mechanical exercise of planning and performance. 100% of the time the language surrounds attendance at a certain event or time slot. So, what is the right number of people to make it what you want?
Empire suggests what we can build with consistent and satisfactory outcome.
If it is a kingdom, as in the kingdom of God, we are representing in all that we do, then we need to use kingdom language. The kingdom as we see it, particularly in the four Gospels of the New Testament, is quite focused on deliverance, freeing, and seeking the one who needs to be found. Where a single penny outweighs the value of the bank, a treasure found is celebrated, life is given with abundance, and the one sheep is sought while the 99 continue eating. Many churches struggle with using this language as a focus because the results are difficult to gauge, and it can sound like we are throwing our hands up instead of putting in any effort.
Kingdom suggests that we are faithful but cannot control the outcomes.
The Moses passages at the beginning remind me of how many of us have approached the next steps over a year after the pandemic lockdowns. There is a grumbling and an impatience that can come from any extended tough time, but in the case of the last few years, it can also really give us clarity on what we hold as important. What was our essence and our truth in all these things? The temptation might be to pick up the staff and hit the rock again, then turning the attention on ourselves as the saviours. Aaron and Moses allowed this to happen. They really embodied whatever it feels like to feel the pressure of being your own personal Jesus to other people, rather than being the voices and actions of God at work.
Engaging only in the negative of what has not come, or will never be, may feel good in the moment, and will always draw a crowd. But it also means we have to take hold of the other side of that coin, and it is all up to us. A place of our own design.
The Good, The Bad, and the Hopeful on Church Leadership…
Be sure to check out my latest publication on leading in church circles. One part compilation of my favourite blog posts, one part resources from a variety of settings, and another part theory for you to chew on! Click on the image to download yours!
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I walk with people to help them find who they are, where they are, so they can journey to the next step in their life and work. Coaching and consulting through community, mentorship, and pursuit.
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