"Some Assembly Required" vs. Exodus 18:14-23?

[Guest]

Steve,

I have listened to your “Some Assembly Required” series and just now listened to your teaching on Exodus 18:14-23 and I am a bit confused. It seems in your “S.A.R.” series you lean very much toward the side of disagreeing with an organized/institutional church which seems to be in stark contrast to your teaching in Exodus 18 in looking at Jethro’s suggestion to Moses on how to judge the people. There is even one part in your teaching of Exodus 18 that you say “…in every institution people recognize that. No one would ever think of running a corporation efficiently without leaders or without organization.” Yet in your S.A.R. series you use similar examples (of corporations etc.) to show what the church shouldn’t be like and you use Matt 20:25-28 to support this idea. It seems like what you have taught in regards to Matt 20:25-28 would go against the structure that Jethro suggests. Even the fact that Jethro is a “ruler of the gentiles”(Matt 20:25) and is speaking from that perspective seems again to be in conflict.
I don’t know if maybe your views have changed between the time you taught these two studies or if I’m just not understanding something but if you could possibly make some clarifications for me I would appreciate it.

Thanks,
Erich <><

[Guest]

Thanks for brining this up. I didn't see your post (for some reason) until today.

I would have to listen to my remarks on Exodus in context (I don't know when I'll have the time), but if the Exodus lectures were recorded more than twenty years ago, it is possible that some of my views were different then. I actually think the Exodus lectures were recorded in the 90s, so I would not expect them to differ widely from my present views.

Without hearing the context of my comments, my guess is that I was affirming that governments (which is what Moses was in charge of) and secular corporations do need some kind of organizational leadership. However, I don't believe that the church is supposed to be like such governments and corporations, though most are. If, in context, I was saying that churches need these hierarchical structures, I must have been very young indeed.

I have, for a long time, doubted whether Moses' following Jethro's advice was "of God," or whether it was a mistake on his part—since he did not receive these instructions from God, but from a Pagan. If the recordings were made in the 90s, I would expect that I would have mentioned this possibility. In any case, I see a great difference between the way a political/legal/governmental system is run and the way a gathering of believers should be.

Now I am curious to hear what I said in the recordings on Exodus. I'll attempt to listen to it soon. God bless you.