A Model for Discipleship Today
“What you are doing is not good" Jethro (Moses father-in-law)
In Genesis 18 we read the story of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses. Once the Israelites were clear of Egypt, Jethro made a trip from Midian to see Moses in the desert. Along with him he took Moses' wife Zipporah and his grandsons, Gershom and Eliezer. I am sure it was a happy day when Moses was reunited with his wife and children.
During the visit Jethro observed Moses' daily routine. Each day from morning until night Moses sat and adjudicated disputes that the Israelites brought to him. Each day the line of people waiting to see Moses was long and it was impossible for Moses to hear and make judgements fast enough so the line was growing longer each day.
Fortunately, Jethro spoke up and suggested a solution so that Moses did not have to handle all the work on his own. Jethro advised Moses to choose some capable people and train them in the "laws and decrees, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform."
Moses did as Jethro suggested and chose capable people and according to their ability he appointed them to became the judges over groups of a thousand, or a hundred, or fifty, or ten. Only when the most serious conflicts made it through the "court system" did Moses have to be the final judge.
Some of you may be wondering what does this story have to do with discipleship? I am glad you asked because Jethro proposed a model for Moses that every church pastor needs to adopt in relationship to discipleship and all other ministries of the church as well.
Unfortunately, in many churches we have taught the people that the work of ministry is done by pastors. In larger churches it has become the norm to hire a pastor to oversee every department in the church. Then volunteers are recruited to work under the direction of a pastor. When the church becomes inward focused and pastor centric the impact on the community outside the church is diminished.
A more ideal model is for pastors to train lay leaders to be evangelists and disciple-makers and commission them to go out and recruit disciples for Jesus from among their friends, co-workers and the community at large. If we are ever going to transform our communities for Christ we will need all Jesus followers everywhere to be trained in how to engage with people and disciple them so they in turn become disciple-makers.