Sabbath School Improvement

At a Midwestern Fair, spectators gathered for an old fashioned horse pull. The Grand-
champion horse pulled a sled with 4,500 pounds on it. The runner up was close, with a
4,400 pound pull. Some of the men wondered what the two horses would pull if hitched
together. Separately they totaled nearly 9,000 pounds, but when hitched and working
together as a team, they pulled a total weight of over 12,000 pounds.
Herein lies the value of team work. There is some kind of energy that is exchanged
when someone feels that there is someone working with them.
I read somewhere a while back of a ward in a particular hospital for premature babies. In
one case there was an infant who was several months premature. The mother and father
had abandoned the baby at the hospital and it looked as though the child would die. The
doctors and nurses did everything they could to care for it, but in all that they did, it grew
weaker. In a last ditch effort, one nurse had the idea to place another healthier infant in the
same bed as the weak infant. She made sure that the two children were close and
touching at all times. Immediately upon feeling the touch of the stronger infant, the
weaker one's heart rate began to get stronger and stronger. After several days of
touching and being touched by the stronger infant, the preemie became stronger and soon
was able to eat on it's own and became healthy.
As leaders, I believe it is paramount that we understand the value of the existent and
potential leaders around us. Moses was a man who tried to do everything by himself. He
was someone who felt that if God called him to a task, then God would give him the
supernatural strength to complete the task. Moses also found out that he was wrong in
his assumption.
Moses' father in-law on the other hand, was someone who saw untapped leadership
resources everywhere he looked. So, he suggested that Moses find, recruit and train
other leaders to assist him in his leadership responsibilities. Once Moses did this, he was
not only able to sleep at night, but the needs of Israel were met.
Jesus hardly started His ministry before he chose out 12 men to train in
leadership. He understood multiplication instead of addition. Rather than build the church
on one man's shoulders, he chose to build it on 13. His and 12 others. As a result of this,
when His own life and ministry was ending, 11 others were just beginning. The beauty of
the situation was that not one of them detracted from his own ministry, but rather added to
it.
A pastor told me once that he could leave his church for 3 months and the church
would hardly know he was missing. He wasn't telling me how little his church cared for
him. In fact his church loved him very much. However, he was telling me how the
leadership that he had around him would rally to accomplish the same things in his
absence, that he would accomplish if he was there. They would do it with such grace, that
hardly anyone would realize the Pastor's absence.
Andrew Carnegie said: "I wish to have as my epitaph: "Here lies a man who was wise
enough to bring into his service men who knew more than he." John Maxwell said it
like this: "A leader's success can be defined as the maximum utilization of the abilities of
those under him."
I will leave you with this thought. I believe Jesus understood it. If he had not, there would
be no church. Here it is...There is no success without a successor.
Bring someone else up with you. You didn't get where you are at all by yourself. Had it
not been for someone who helped you along, you would not be where you are at today. So
grab hold of a few people and pull them up with you."