We all face pressures in our Christian journey that can lead to overwhelming stress.Did you know that 5% of pastors report being “extremely stressed” or “highly stressed,” while 90% work between 55 to 75 hours per week?
But it isn’t just church leaders who are feeling this stress. Christian parents, business owners, students and more are increasingly finding that we all just have too much on our plates.
Moses Needed Help Too
This concern Mission Discovery has for Christians today is the same concern that Moses’ father-in-law had for him way back then. In Exodus 18, Moses’ father-in-law Jethro took a look at Moses’ ministry and saw that he needed some serious help.
Moses’s Ministry
Jethro had been apart from Moses for a while, and when he met up with him again, Moses had some incredible stories to share. God had saved the Israelites from Egypt. He had parted the Red Sea, and He had provided food to the Israelites from the sky. After sharing this good news and more, Moses and Jethro had a big celebration. Moses’ hard work and faithfulness to the Lord had been rewarded.
Jethro Corrects Moses
After the festivities, Moses returned to his work the next day. Moses was acting as a judge for Israel. All day long, from morning until night, people would come to him asking questions.
When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What’s going on here? Why are you doing all this, and all by yourself, letting everybody line up before you from morning to night?”
Moses explained to his father-in-law that people were coming to him with questions about God. As a judge, when a problem or question arose, it was Moses’ responsibility to resolve the situation. It was his job to teach the people God’s law and instructions.
Moses’ father-in-law said, “This is no way to go about it. You’ll burn out, and the people right along with you. This is way too much for you—you can’t do this alone. Now listen to me. Let me tell you how to do this so that God will be in this with you.
Be there for the people before God, but let the matters of concern be presented to God. Your job is to teach them the rules and instructions, to show them how to live, what to do. And then you need to keep a sharp eye out for competent men—men who fear God, men of integrity, men who are incorruptible—and appoint them as leaders over groups organized by the thousand, by the hundred, by fifty, and by ten.
They’ll be responsible for the everyday work of judging among the people. They’ll bring the hard cases to you, but in the routine cases they’ll be the judges. They will share your load and that will make it easier for you. If you handle the work this way, you’ll have the strength to carry out whatever God commands you, and the people in their settings will flourish also.”
Delegating Can Help Your Community Flourish
Jethro did not think that the work Moses was doing was bad. What Moses was doing was great work actually. However, the issue was that Moses was doing too much work on his own. Moses needed to delegate.
It can be hard to let go of tasks we feel like are our responsibility. However, each person only has so much capacity. What Moses was doing was good work, but if he continued to do the work all by himself, then Jethro said he would have not only burnt himself out, but he would have also burnt the people around him.
When we find we have too much on our plate and we delegate to others, we are creating space and margin in our lives so that we can better serve in the ways we’ve committed to.
Moses listened to his father-in-law and the community was better served because of it. Jethro said they would flourish.
Delegate to Mission Discovery
A major reason why we do what we do here at Mission Discovery is for this very reason. So many Christians are burnt out and the last thing they need is another task on their plate.
We are honored to get to serve Christians in this way of coordinating short term mission trips for them.
Time and time again, we see how Christians taking the courageous step of delegating mission coordinating to us allows them to be more present with those they are serving and leading throughout their mission trip. Not only do they have more energy throughout the year to focus on other tasks because we are handling all of the logistics, but they also get to focus on spiritual ministering during their mission trips because they don’t have to focus on all of the nitty gritty details.
How Can You Delegate?
If you are feeling overwhelmed in your day-to-day, what tasks can you delegate to others? Whether it’s mission trip planning or something else entirely, just as Jethro did for Moses, we encourage you to seek ways to delegate.
