The Right Time for Leadership by Archie Luper

    “Lord, it’s the right time, I’m the right man, and I’m ready for the job!” Looking back on those words I realize now how wrong I was on all accounts. It was not the right time, I was not the right man, and I wasn’t ready for the job.

    It was a large church, one that my family had attended for close to eight years. My kids had grown up there and I considered the opportunity to serve on staff to be a wonderful opportunity to use my talents in the Kingdom. The decision did not come easy though, because two years earlier I had established what had grown to be a successful business consulting practice. Yes, there was satisfaction in knowing that I was helping companies achieve improvements in their bottom line profits, but I realized I wasn’t helping to make an eternal difference in any one person’s life. The call, the pull towards ministry was evident.

    Once I made the transition to ministry in this local church it seemed like each week came a new fire to put out. Most of the conflicts could have been resolved with better communication, an enhanced understanding of the roles and responsibilities of all leaders, and a greater commitment to working together as a team. I soon realized that the last thing Satan wanted to see was a growing church where every member was involved in ministry. To make a long story short, eight months later I had resigned from my ministry position, discouraged, heart-broken, and seriously questioning why God hadn’t used me in the way I had expected.

    And then I learned an important lesson from the life of Moses. You see, Moses thought his time had come. At an early age (forty years old to be exact, the same age I was when this event happened), Moses had the desire to rescue his people from their bondage in Egypt. One day he witnessed a Hebrew man being mistreated by an Egyptian. The Bible says, “Glancing this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.” (Exodus 2:12)

    Moses thought the people would recognize that he could rescue them, but they did not. (Acts 7:25) The next day Moses realized someone had not only seen him but the word of what he had done had spread all the way to Pharaoh. We pick up in verse 15: “When Pharaoh heard of this he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian.” It seemed as though Moses’ dream to save the Hebrew people had gone up in smoke.

“Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.”

    For the next 40 years Moses tended flocks belonging to his father-in-law. It would appear to the casual observer that Moses had been forgotten by God, that he had failed and had become nothing more than a “could-have-been”. But God hadn’t forgotten about Moses and he certainly hadn’t forgotten about the plight of his people in Egypt.

    During the next forty years important changes would take place in Moses’ life to better prepare him for the leadership role he would assume. The years spent in the desert proved crucial to Moses’ development and preparation as a leader. The man God spoke to in the burning bush was a less confident, but much wiser man, than the one who had run from Egypt forty years before.

    God came to Moses and said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt...So I have come down to rescue them... ...So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt.” Forty years earlier Moses was content to try to kill off the Egyptians one by one. But God had a bigger plan for Moses. A plan whereby Moses would be used by God to save all of Israel from their captivity.

    I’ve learned two very important leadership lessons from the life of Moses. First, God’s timing can much different than ours. It’s important to realize that it wasn’t God who made Moses wait forty years to be used in a great way. Moses had made God wait. And second, God’s dreams are much bigger than our own. As a young man Moses had dreamed of helping the people of Israel; a distressed Hebrew here or a maiden in distress there. (Exodus 2:16-19) But God’s plans for him were much greater. And God’s plan for my life has opened more wonderful opportunities to do ministry in His Kingdom than I could have ever dreamed.

    In Jeremiah 29:11 the writer says, “For I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” In the same way God has great plans for you as a leader. But too many times we try to live our lives according to our own terms, on our own timing, The most important lesson we learn from the life of Moses is that we will be most effective as a leader if we seek to do God’s will, in God’s way, on God’s timing.

Dear Lord, we pray that we will all come to know your timing in our lives as leaders in your church. I pray for those leaders who have experienced great discouraged and disappointment in their ministry. I pray for their encouragement, for their strength, and a new realization in their lives that you are not done with them yet. That the events in their lives, yes, even the mistakes, even the events that are beyond their control, can be used by you in a marvelous way to bring about your will, your good, pleasing, and perfect will. Amen.

HEARTLIGHT^® Magazine is a ministry of loving Christians and the Westover Hills church of Christ.
Edited by Phil Ware and Paul Lee.
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Copyright © 1999, Archie Luper, Jr. Used by permission.
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