Everyone Is Leading SomeoneНамуна

The Tent of Meeting

Moses could relate to being in the hot seat at the end of the table. When God called him to lead His people out of Egypt, he accepted a position of influence, not affluence. Although he was being asked to lead a large number of people, Moses realized he also must be a follower—a follower of God. To do that, he had to spend time in the presence of God. You and I might set aside time each day to come into God’s presence with our Bible, a pen, a journal and a cup of good coffee. But Moses’ routine was a little different.

All the people of Israel trusted that Moses would emerge from the tent of meeting with a plan that translated into practical direction and literal map coordinates. I don’t think anyone reading this plan is in quite the same position as Moses or has a comparable number of dependent followers. Facebook friends or Twitter “followers” are not the equivalent. Regardless, we all lead someone, somewhere, and we need God’s leading to do our part well. The path behind us is dusty with the feet of others—so we’d better have real, reliable, burning-bush direction as our guide. Moses did not want to take a wrong turn and wind up in a cul-de-sac, saying, “Oops, wrong way,” resulting in years and miles of backtracking. Neither do those of us who lead today.

Leaders must lead, but we don’t always have the complete picture. We must do what Moses did: retreat regularly to the “tent of meeting” and plead with the Lord for the next step, and the next. 

Often, the first question asked to the leader is, “What is your vision?” That could be a good question, except when the leader lacks the big picture. By no means, you don’t need to have (or give) an unstudied answer to the vision question. Your lack of understanding may call for assessment instead of action. “Vision is understanding the past and the present in order to lead a group into the future.” I don’t know who said this, but I am grateful for those words. I’ve been told that every church with a new pastor is in “culture shock” for the first year and should not make any major changes quickly. To identify what changes to make, start by assessing where you’d been and where you presently are.

If you want to get Gregg Matte’s book, Finding God’s Will, please visit: http://www.bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/finding-god-s-will/358282