The Leadership of Moses, pt6
Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 156
Numbers 10:2-4
Make yourself two trumpets of silver, of hammered work you shall make them; and you shall use them for summoning the congregation and for having the camps set out. When both are blown, all the congregation shall gather themselves to you at the doorway of the tent of meeting. Yet if only one is blown, then the leaders, the heads of the divisions of Israel, shall assemble before you.
The tribes were spread out around the tabernacle in the shape of a cross. When it was time to move or Moses had an announcement, the two trumpets would be blown to signal that they needed to get ready. The trumpets blown together were for the whole congregation to hear.
This is a good picture of pastoral ministry. There is a time when the pastor has to blow the trumpet. When he blows the trumpet, those who have ears to hear, those who know the tune of his heart will be the people who will show up.
When one trumpet was blown, a leader from each tribe was supposed to come. This tells us that Moses met with his leaders on a regular basis, because he had a special trumpet call for them. This also tells us that those leaders knew Moses’ voice.
As I travel most weekends, I normally meet with some tier of leadership. Often the pastor will tell me that a particular leader isn’t present and he doesn’t know why. What that tells me is that they don’t have ears to hear the trumpet of their pastor. That doesn’t mean that sometimes you can’t make it. Our rule was that if you are a leader, you were at the meetings, and if you couldn’t be there, then you called the pastor and had a conversation with him.
It wasn’t about getting my permission to not be there, but about communicating with me.
Low level communication: I can’t be there because my mother-in-law is in town.
Good communication: I can’t be there because my mother-in-law is in town. I promised my wife. Do you have any ideas on how I should handle this? (Sometimes I might respond that the promise needs to be upheld, and other times--depending on the meeting--I might help him rearrange his schedule so he can do both.)
If you want to have a good relationship with your leader, don’t notify them. Communicate with them. Have a relationship with them. Don’t send a quick text. Pick up the phone and have a back and forth conversation.
Just not showing up, without any communication, is an indication that something is wrong. Maybe the pastor hasn’t blown the trumpet enough for the leaders to know his voice. Maybe the leaders aren’t clear on what their role is.
Moses had two trumpets. He knew when to blow the one for the congregation and one for his leaders.
I’m a big believer in not leading the church by announcements—getting up on a Sunday morning and saying something to the church that the leaders haven’t already heard and processed. The leaders might not get it all, but they at least know where you are going and have an understanding. This is a good discipline of a leader for processing things. I call that vision sharpening. When I have what I think is a great idea, giving my leaders the opportunity to hear it first and ask questions is helpful and good. Those questions are usually a reflection on what the congregation will hear and the questions they might have. Include your leaders in the process. This is where you will get great feedback.
We need to communicate clearly, but we also need to teach our leaders to seek clarity as well. When I pastored, I would tell my leaders: “My job is to tell, and your job is to understand.” So when they didn’t understand, and I hadn’t told them enough (different people need different levels of information), I expected them to ask clarifying questions and ask for more information.
Moses grabbed this tier of leadership from Jethro. We see this repeated all throughout Moses’ ministry. Moses had Joshua, Caleb, and others. Moses was seeing God face-to-face, seeing God write in stone. He didn’t need a lot of people, and yet he developed a leadership team and knew how to blow the trumpets.
Get your trumpets out. Know how to call the big group. Know how to call the small group.
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
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