What Moses knew, what we must know

We talked last week about Moses’ leadership, and if we really want people to see God move, we have to lead with transparency and courage, embracing ambiguity and learning to live by faith. In short, Moses had to answer a lot of questions with a simple and humble, “I don’t know.”

But in the midst of all the “I don’t know” responses, there were a number of things he did  know. There were some thing God spelled out for him loud and clear:

Moses knew the kind of people God wanted the Israelites to be. 

God didn’t spell out the map, the gameplan, the agenda, the schedule. Again, no coordinates or timetable are indicated at all. But God spent a whole lot of time communicating to Moses how He wanted His children to be a people set apart, glorifying Him with everything they did. He spelled out how He wanted them to live, to live as a shining example of God’s provision. He made it clear they were to live on manna, trust Him for their daily needs, absolutely refuse to mingle their beliefs with the idolatrous nations around them.

Though they had no idea where they were going or how long it would take, they knew plain well what God expected of them along the way. 

In other words, we as leaders (of 3 small children or 3 million adults) cannot spell out exactly what the journey will be like or how long it will take or exactly what the destination will be. But we can lead people to live as Christ-centered, God-glorifying sojourners, glorifying God in every step we take along the way.

(I didn’t say it’d be easy.)

God made clear to Moses how He wanted His children to be distinct. They were to stand out, to be different, to be marked by a radical departure from the ways of the world. This included both behavioral standards and dietary laws. We are no longer “under” these dietary laws and behavioral standards that were specific to that time and culture, but God is continuing to lead His children to live different, to stand out (and not because we’re obnoxious!), to be marked by a radical departure from the ways of the world. So you, as a leader, are responsible for leading your 3 children or 3 million people in how God wants you to live out His mission in this world. All of us have the same mission: To love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, and all our strength. And we’re to love our neighbors as ourselves.  That’s my mission. That’s your mission.

How will you do that? 

That’s what we need to know.

The most common question Jeff and I are asked these days is this: “What makes this new church-plant any different from all the other churches all over the place?”  This is usually asked by people who are fed up with church or frustrated, or who have been hurt or who are searching (aren’t we all?). Most recently someone asked me to answer that question in 4 sentences.  Here is what I said:

1. We exist to spread the gospel, making disciples, furthering God’s Kingdom, rather than spreading our church name, making followers of us, furthering our own empire. 

2. We equip people to go live for God where they already are, in their workplaces, communities, families, and current spheres of influence, rather than programming frequent events and asking people to come to us and support our activities.

3. We let resources flow through our church, keeping our operating expenses as ridiculously low as possible so that funds can be used to bless and serve a world in need of hope, rather than on creating a comfortable environment for ourselves.

4. We encourage multi-generational family-modelled ministry, where all ages and life-stages are learning and serving together, rather than dividing people into homogeneous and unnatural groups. 

Now here’s the thing–while God’s word clearly spells out how He wants us to live, exactly what that will look like is going to vary with each person, church, family, situation.

But we must think long and pray even longer to ask God Who He wants us to be. 

We won’t know the exact length of the journey, or even where we’re going, but we can know who God wants us to become along the way.

He wants us to become more and more like His Son. 

Would you spend some time today thinking and praying about who God wants you to be along the way? What are your distinctives? How will you seek to glorify Him in your family, church, workplace, sphere of influence? Think, pray, and jot down ideas.  Yours will be different from mine, but we can each glorify God along the journey. Have a blessed Monday; Thanks so much for reading.