gather the elders

Last night was our first meeting for a brand new Youth Ministry committee. Our theme was from Numbers 11, or more specifically from The Godbearing Life, the BEST book about ministry ever... it's a story of Moses on the verge of burnout during his trek across the desert with his grumbling charges.
In the scripture, the Jews are complaining because the manna that is being dropped from heaven for them is not cutting it. They want MEAT and are whining about how much meat they used to have in Egypt, back in the good old days. Moses turns to God and complains,
"Why do you treat your servant so badly?" Moses asked the LORD. "Why are you so displeased with me that you burden me with all this people? Was it I who conceived all this people? or was it I who gave them birth, that you tell me to carry them at my bosom, like a foster father carrying an infant, to the land you have promised under oath to their fathers? Where can I get meat to give to all this people? For they are crying to me, 'Give us meat for our food.' I cannot carry all this people by myself, for they are too heavy for me. If this is the way you will deal with me, then please do me the favor of killing me at once, so that I need no longer face this distress."
(How many of us have reached this point in ministry? 'Send me help, or kill me now!')
Anyhoo, God answers him:
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Assemble for me seventy of the elders of Israel, men you know for true elders and authorities among the people, and bring them to the meeting tent. When they are in place beside you, I will come down and speak with you there. I will also take some of the spirit that is on you and will bestow it on them, that they may share the burden of the people with you. You will then not have to bear it by yourself.
He doesn't tell Moses to run out and find the first 50 or so people he can, whatever warm bodies show up, but rather to gather the elders- those respected in his community, the people others already turn to for wisdom, and God will spread the mantle of responsibility onto them, to share it with Moses. Good plan!
So, taking a cue from the Godbearing Life lesson, I started the first committee meeting with a meal under a tent.

My hostessing style: beg/borrow/steal/smoke/mirrors... razzle dazzle!