Jethro

 Exodus 18

            The visit of Jethro is a relatively straightforward account. There are one or two questions that may bother us. For example, in Exodus 2, Moses’ father-in-law is named Reuel and here he is Jethro. But that’s not a huge problem. Even today many people go by two names. For example, both my wife and I have uncles who have nicknames that have nothing to do with their given names. Jethro’s names are interesting because Jethro may mean “His Excellency” and Reuel seems to mean “friend of God.” This tells us that Jethro was a man of some standing. We may also wonder when Moses sent Zipporah away and why. In chapter 4, she was with him on the way to Egypt. But on this we can only speculate. Perhaps he sent her away when things were dicey with Pharaoh. Perhaps he had sent her as a messenger to her father to tell him that his mission to Pharaoh had worked out.

            On a whole other topic, in 1991, church consultant Carl George used Jethro’s advice to Moses to talk about what he called “span of care.” He observed that in an average congregation, the pastor is often seen as the caregiver and often the only formal caregiver. In the congregation I serve that means one pastor is responsible for the care of 700 people. We have a second pastor, so that reduces the span of care to 350 people to one pastor. George argues the span of care should only be ten to one and that span can only be reached through a ministry of small groups. I find that very interesting, not least because of the proportion of a congregation that would need to be involved in some kind of care and/or leadership. If we do that math on Jethro’s recommendation a congregation would need 13% of its members involved in leadership (understand less as decision-making and more as spiritual care!) I don’t know if George is applying Exodus 18 particularly well, but I do find that it highlights something important about how a congregation takes care of its members.