MOSES OFFERS A REMEDY FOR LEADER FATIGUE | NUMBERS 11

In the closing hours of our four-day retreat with three youth pastors in Asia, the Lord led us to a devotion in the book of Numbers…

Moses was at a point of extreme fatigue in his ministry (like many youth leaders I know). Frustrated and burdened by all of the people looking to him for leadership, he realizes he is in over his head and beyond his abilities. So he cries out to God for help. At wits-end and discouraged from the pressure, God responds to Moses. But he doesn’t answer his prayer the way he was expecting.

leader fatigue

Equipping leaders

Moses just wanted some pots of meat to quell the people’s hunger. God would later provide the meat, but not without offering Moses some more important provision. Instead of meat, God provides Moses with more leaders to shepherd Israel. Seventy to be exact. Seventy spirit-filled leaders would help solve this leadership crisis:

Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Gather for me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom you know to be the elders of the people and officers over them, and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand there with you. And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone.  – Numbers 11:16-17

We see a similar event centuries later in the early church.  Overwhelmed by the needs of people, the Apostles chose seven Spirit-filled men to delegate responsibility. As God instructed them to choose “Seven” Spirit-filled leaders, they would have most certainly recognized the parallel pattern to Numbers 11, when centuries before God instructed Moses to choose 70 Spirit-filled leaders to share in leadership:

Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, ‘It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’ And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. – Acts‬ ‭6:1-7

PROGRAMS DO NOT SOLVE PROBLEMS. PEOPLE DO.

One of the greatest ailments we see from culture to culture is a dependency on programs rather than on multiplying people into broader leadership capacity. We often wait way too long to delegate and empower leadership to younger leaders. Instead the model in Scripture is to entrust leadership early, as we see signs of capacity because we can trust God to equip them further through his Spirit. Regardless of the culture, solutions for ministry challenges in evangelism and discipleship are solved by Spirit-filled people, not so much by programs.
  • People pray.
  • People put their character on the alter and make great sacrifices to glorify God.
  • People worship God by untethering themselves from lesser things and worldly pursuits.
  • People learn to desire what the Spirit desires and God blesses that posture.
I can think of dozens of examples over the years of asking 19, 20, and 21-year-olds to take the responsibility of leading a whole team of volunteer leaders toward reaching a middle school or high school with the Gospel. As long as we keep discipling them so they don’t feel alone, it is amazing the capacity and creativity that young, Spirit-filled leaders bring to your team.
I really appreciate the team of people who support and pray for our ministry with Nexus International. God is using many people on our support team as part of his plan in this generation to is raise up young leaders like Moses who are learning that the answer to their situation is people, not programs. By investing in indigenous youth leaders we will continue to see a flood of ministry multiplication because healthy leaders tend to reproduce healthy ministry season after season.

MAKING DISCIPLES IS A FORCE MULTIPLIER & A REMEDY FOR LEADER FATIGUE…

This is why we continue to focus on “making disciples”. Moses learned that discipleship was God’s program. Making disciples is a remedy for leader fatigue because it frees us from a “savior complex” and force multiplies our work by empowering others.
Disciple-making was essentially the lesson Moses learned. And this has always been the strategy of the church as we seek to model the lifestyle of Jesus. You can’t go wrong with this strategy. It takes time, but as leaders grow in biblical knowledge, character, skill, and effective use of their spiritual gifts, they are ready to start a fire in their neighborhood or city. And when God raises up a catalytic leader of leaders, like Moses, then they will need additional encouragement and counsel to resist the temptation to concentrate leadership in themselves and to continue to pray for the next “Seventy” to be empowered and sent out.
The next generation of leaders is waiting to be empowered and sent. This is where the Lord has us in Nexus, parachuting in to come alongside visionary youth ministry leaders who need regular encouragement, equipping, exhortation, and empowerment.
You are invited to join our prayer and support team to help us identify and equip indigenous youth leaders around the world. And feel free to contact me through Facebook.

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Categories: Empowerment, LEADERSHIP, Spiritual Leadership