Monthly Archives: July 2025

Leading by Example

One Another Project church health, church leadership example, imitation, leadership, mobilization, planning, rabbi

Then Eliashib the high priest and the other priests started to rebuild at the Sheep Gate. They dedicated it and set up its doors, building the wall as far as the Tower of the Hundred, which they dedicated, and the Tower of Hananel. Nehemiah 3:1

We are continuing in our series about what Nehemiah has to teach the American church. You can see the previous posts here, here and here. I love that Nehemiah begins his description of the division of labor for rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem with the work which the priests performed. They were the leaders in that culture. In this particular instance, they led by example. They rolled up their sleeves and worked along side everyone else. That is just good leadership.

Don’t Tell. Show.

When I was a young lawyer, my mentor/supervising attorney had a rule which, after 40 years of reflection, I believe was some of the best counsel I ever received: “Never ask your staff to do something if you’ve never done it yourself.” At the time, it was just annoying. There were just so very many administrative tasks in a law practice! But I am so glad for that rule now. It made me better in more ways than I have the time or space to enumerate here. I cannot speak for your particular industry or career, but for this young lawyer, that rule was a game-changer.

As I now understand it, that rule was merely a corollary of a larger, more eternal leadership principle: don’t lead by telling people what to do, lead by showing them. It is the way most of us are wired to learn: by watching. It is why, when it comes to doing that home repair which you have never before attempted, you would much rather watch a YouTube video showing how to do it than read a book about how to do it. We learn by watching. In turn, then, we lead best by showing.

Jesus, Our Rabbi

I am certainly no expert on rabbinical teaching methods today. But I am pretty familiar with what it meant to follow a rabbi in the times when Jesus walked among us. An invitation to learn from a rabbi (or a request to follow a rabbi) meant much more than meeting with him from time to time and listening to his lectures. It was also more than reading the things he read and studying the things he had studied. In Jesus’ day, following a rabbi meant closely following him everywhere he went day in and day out, saying the things he said and doing the things he did. In short, the objective was not merely to learn from him; it was to become him.

Jesus, as a rabbi, is a perfect picture of this reality. He didn’t just teach his disciples. He called them to follow him and they walked with him day and night for almost three years. They watched him heal people and then they themselves healed people. His followers listened to him teach others and then they themselves taught others. They watched him love others well and then they loved others well. Jesus did not just spend his days telling them what to do. He showed them what to do. He lived his life right out in front of them and invited them to live likewise.

By the way, this is why nobody ever wore little bracelets that said: WWJS (“what would Jesus say”). It has always been and will always be about, “What would Jesus DO?”

Not Performance

But here’s the thing about Jesus’ discipleship: he did not decide what he wanted to teach the disciples and then start doing those things so they could see him. He was already doing those things, irrespective of who followed. He was going to be doing those things whether they were seeing him or not. For Jesus, ministering to people was not performative. It was very much who he was to the core. All he did with the disciples was let them follow him around and see up close who he was.

As leaders in the church today, we can learn from this. As a leader, I may have all kinds of great strategic plans and ideas for what I think my church should be doing. I may have the best strategy ever for mobilizing people into mission and ministry. Indeed, I may well be smarter than most people and have read and researched more than most. I may be able to cast vision in an exciting and compelling way. My ability to “woo” people forward may be unsurpassed. But at the end of the day, people who are really following me are just going to do what they see me doing. They are going to be who they see me being. It is a scary thing. But it is a real thing.

And people are insightful. When I am merely performing but not really acting from a genuine set of principles or values, they see that. They don’t follow performance, not very far anyway. They will not be fooled that way.

Your Best Strategic Plan

It seems to me that, as church leaders, we sometimes fool ourselves into thinking that the key to mobilizing our people is to have the right strategic plan. We believe we can best shape and spiritually form our people if we just find the right curriculum or if we just spend more time developing the right sermon series. If we just bring in the right consultant, we can strategically plan ourselves out of our current slump. In other words, we lie to ourselves.

The longer you lead a people, the clearer it is: they are becoming you. They may not think about it like that. Indeed, many of them would probably never even want it to be true. But if they are following you, it is because they are watching you and believe you are worth following. Yes, you are (hopefully) just pointing them to Jesus and asking them to follow HIM, not you. But every personal choice you make in your own life is showing them what that looks like. All of this brings us to a simple bottom line. If you are called to lead others, then you better be working on yourself first and foremost. If you want to help others know and follow Jesus, you must be striving daily to know him better yourself. You cannot just tell them to have an intimate life with Jesus, you must be showing them an intimate life with Jesus.

At the end of your leadership journey, you will see it to be true. Your best strategic plan for mobilizing others is you. And if that does not humble you, even scare you, then you’re not doing it right.

© One Another Project

Permissions: We permit and encourage you to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, we prefer a link to this document on this website. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by One Another Project. Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © One Another Project. Website: oneanotherproject.com.

Good Ideas v. God Ideas

One Another Project church health, church leadership discernment, God ideas, good ideas, power, prayer, vision

So I arrived in Jerusalem. Three days later, I slipped out during the night, taking only a few others with me. I had not told anyone about the plans God had put in my heart for Jerusalem. We took no pack animals with us except the donkey I was riding…The city officials did not know I had been out there or what I was doing, for I had not yet said anything to anyone about my plans. I had not yet spoken to the Jewish leaders—the priests, the nobles, the officials, or anyone else in the administration. Nehemiah 2:11-12, 16

We are still reading through Nehemiah as a primer for finding, casting, and implementing God’s ministry vision for a church. See the first posts here and here. Chapter 2 of Nehemiah begins to introduce us to the distinction between a good idea for ministry and a God idea for ministry.

So Many Good Ideas

In this new era of information overload, there is no shortage of good ideas for churches. We can “scout” what other churches are doing (or at least what they aspire to be doing) via their websites. We can read any of the thousands of books written and published every year by pastors all around the world. There are podcasts and blogs (like this one) galore to provide church leaders with good ideas for ministry. Moreover, every pastor I know is “blessed” to have plenty of congregants saying or writing to him/her, “you know what we should do…”, and by that they almost always mean, “you know what YOU should do.” Suffice it to say, when it comes to looking for good ideas, it has never been easier for us.

There are even lots of good ideas from the business world or the world of academia or even the sports world which could find application in the church. In my particular church, the military world is particularly relevant and provides some helpful perspectives for ministry. All of these worlds, of course, are the very worlds from which most of our lay leaders come. It should not surprise us, then, that many of the good ideas they bring to the table carry with them the “scent” of these worlds. That is not a bad thing. It is just a reality.

But Nehemiah demonstrates for us that, while all God ideas are also good ideas, not all good ideas are God ideas. It is incumbent upon church leaders to help us all discern the difference.

God Ideas follow God’s Schedule

In response to Nehemiah’s four months of prayer and fasting, God opened the doors wide for him to proceed. Nehemiah received the full power and authority of King Artaxerxes himself to make the journey to Jerusalem and to rebuild the walls around the city. Nehemiah had great clarity around this one reality: this ministry vision was a God idea. So he planned and he carefully counted the costs and when the King asked him what he needed, he answered with specificity. And then he QUIETLY made the journey to Jerusalem…well, as quietly as could with an armed escort from the King.

When he arrived in Jerusalem, he went quiet for three days. No meetings, no applying for permits, no social media campaigns, no rallies in the streets…not yet, anyway. He rested and he prayed and he continued to quietly plan. Additionally, He went out by night to survey the wall he would be rebuilding. He assessed the damage and quietly planned the work. And during all of this praying and planning, he mentioned the vision to nobody, because it was not yet time to do so.

When we are exploring a good idea, we mention it to all of our trusted confidents. We talk with all our leaders about it. We may even put it out on social media for input. The best practices for cultivating good ideas teach us that more input is always better. We may call it brainstorming or crowd-sourcing. When it comes to good ideas, two heads are always better than one.

But God ideas are different. They come with a sense of stewardship, i.e., it is an idea that doesn’t belong to me; rather, it belongs to God. And, as such, it comes with God’s ways of doing things, with God’s schedule for doing them, and with God’s list of people to bring into the project. There is a sense that we talk to whom God says, when God says, and in the way God says. We simply do not ever want to get out in front of God (fill in the blank here with your favorite story from the Bible of what happens when God’s people move ahead without God).

Casting Vision for a God Idea

In 2:17-18, Nehemiah puts on a clinic in how to cast the vision for a God idea. He did it in three sentences (at least in the English translations).

But now I said to them, “You know very well what trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire. Let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and end this disgrace!” Then I told them about how the gracious hand of God had been on me, and about my conversation with the king. Nehemiah 2:17-18

Casting vision for a God idea for ministry has three components. First, it has a clear description of the problem we are being called upon to address. Second, it has a clarion call to action, i.e., what exactly I should do in order to address this problem. Third (and this is the part that elevates a good idea to a God idea), a description of how God is already at work in this area. In other words, don’t ask the people to go and do something for God; rather, ask them to join God in what He is already doing.

That third part of the vision (that we are merely joining God in something He is already doing) will become important as soon as we hit our first road block in the work. When we are pursuing what is merely a good idea, that first significant set-back will invite us to ask whether it was really a good idea after all. But when we have a clear understanding that God is going ahead of us, no set-back will slow us down.

Be Careful with Power

At the end of chapter 2, some of Nehemiah’s enemies (external) begin to oppose his God idea. They employ worldly powers (in this case, political and social) to push against him. Specifically, they accuse him of rebelling against the king. As political appointees themselves, they had a degree of political power to bring to bear. How easy it would have been for Nehemiah to swing back at them with his own political power. After all, he had specific permission from the King to do this work. He even had the King’s material support for the cause. Had Nehemiah been pursuing merely a good idea, that might be exactly how he responded: with political power of his own.

But this was not merely a good idea. It was a God idea. And, as such, it did not require political power to proceed. Indeed, it required no powers of this world at all; because it had access to God’s power. Why would Nehemiah ever want to exchange God’s power for the lesser powers of this world? And why would we? When we have the luxury and the privilege of doing work WITH GOD, we do not have to rely upon the powers of this world in order to proceed.

We do not need to employ social powers by staging a social media campaign or a protest. Nor do we need to mobilize an army of voters in order to activate political power. We do not need to try to drown the opposition with our financial power. All we need is our prayer and the God to whom we pray. That is enough. And that may well be the biggest difference between a church pursuing a good idea and a church pursuing a God idea. It is about the world’s powers versus the power of God.

© One Another Project

Permissions: We permit and encourage you to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, we prefer a link to this document on this website. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by One Another Project. Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © One Another Project. Website: oneanotherproject.com.

The Birth of a Ministry Vision

One Another Project church health, church leadership ministry, Nehemiah, prayer, vision

broken heart They said to me, “Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.” When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven. Nehemiah 1:3-4

Where Vision Comes From

If your church is like mine, there is any manner of the world’s brokenness within a 5-10 mile radius from where you gather for worship. For my church’s community in downtown San Antonio, that includes sex trafficking, drug/alcohol addiction, food insecurity, homelessness, a growing need for elder care, a ground-swell of immigrants, not to mention the occasional natural disaster (hurricanes, flooding, fires, etc.). And this list barely scratches the surface of all the problems facing our community. So, as a group of Christ followers wanting to be salt and light in our community, the prospects of finding a coherent ministry vision can seem overwhelming. Maybe you and your church leadership feel that same tension.

As exiles in a strange land (this place is not our home), we nonetheless have a God-given mandate to “work for the prosperity of the city” where we live. And, as I covered in the previous post, we in the American church are living a privileged life (at least by the world’s standards). So, we may or may not be personally connected to any of the biggest issues of injustice in our community. As a result, we need some help knowing just how to develop a ministry vision, i.e., where and how to start ministering to our community.

Recall the story of Jesus healing one lame man at the pool of Bethesda (John 5). That man was only one of scores (perhaps hundreds) of lame people at that pool. Jesus walked right past all of the others, healed that one man, and then left. He knew exactly where to go and what to do and, more importantly, what NOT to do…who NOT to heal. It is an extraordinary (and a little troubling) story.

As individual Christ followers, how do we know where to go and what to do? Equally important, as a gathered body of Christ followers, how do we find and then develop the right ministry vision? We learn all of this from Nehemiah.

What Breaks Your Heart(s)?

Born and reared in exile, Nehemiah had never been to Jerusalem. So, it was only after his brother made the journey there and back again that he learned of the heartbreaking circumstances there. The group of Jews which Ezra had mobilized just 12-15 years prior in order to continue the rebuilding of the Jewish culture was not doing very well at all. The city of Jerusalem was still in shambles and the people were suffering greatly at the hands of neighboring groups. Nehemiah’s heart was broken.

His was an uncommon level of sadness, one which drove him to his knees in prayer and fasting over a prolonged period of time. The pain haunted him. He could not shake it. No matter how many times he “laid it at the feet” of God, it just stayed with him. For Nehemiah, this was the birth of a calling on his life. This was no ordinary passion, nor a routine “God-please-help-all-the-sick-people-in-the-world” type of praying. The pain and suffering was specific and profound. And it only grew and deepened in Nehemiah’s heart and mind. Doesn’t it work the same way for us? And for our churches?

I think churches sometimes make the mistake of entrusting the entire vision/discernment process to their pastor(s) and/or leader(s). Frankly, it is an easier process. That way, none of the rest of us have to do anything but wait for them to tell us the vision. The problem, of course, with finding ministry vision that way is that those pastors/leaders sometimes fail (morally, spiritually or otherwise). And if they had the vision, then the vision fails along with them. On the other hand, when the ministry vision is coming from the hearts of the entire body of believers, then no amount of obstacles or struggles will stop us from pursuing it. Our leaders can be human beings and can fail us (as every human being is want to do), and the vision remains.

So, in our running metaphor for this series of posts, Nehemiah is not representative of our church leaders; he is representative of the entire church. God gave him his ministry vision through a broken heart. And God gives churches our ministry vision through our collective broken hearts. To be clear, not every broken heart is necessarily the birth of a ministry. But every calling from God on a person’s (or a church’s) life manifests itself through a broken heart.

Why Prayer is Foundational to this Discernment Process

Nine times throughout his story in scripture Nehemiah shows himself to be a man of extraordinary prayer. This is never more foundational than at the very beginning of this ministry calling on his life. After hearing of the horrendous circumstances in Jerusalem, Nehemiah fasts and prays for four months before God finally opens a door to begin. Let that sink in: four months of prayer and fasting.

Here is why that matters. Nehemiah was blessed to have plenty of worldly power with which to accomplish the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. As cupbearer to the king, he had more than enough political sway to proceed. Moreover, he had financial power as well as social power. But Nehemiah knew better than to take on God’s work using the world’s powers. If he was going to answer God’s call to this task, he would do so relying on God’s power. And God’s power comes from prayer.

Similarly, the American church is blessed with powers of this world. We have economic power and we have political power. Depending on the locale, we enjoy a good degree of social power as well. We can accomplish much (by the world’s standards) with these powers. Look around our culture today and you will see many, many instances of the American church choosing to operate with the world’s powers. But if we want to accomplish things of eternal significance, we cannot (and should not) rely upon the powers of this world. We should rely upon God’s power. Why would we even want to use any other power?

Back to John 5 and Jesus’ healing at the pool of Bethesda. Jesus had extraordinary focus (to heal one man and then leave) because Jesus had an extraordinary prayer life. Likewise, Nehemiah would demonstrate extraordinary focus in the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem because he had an extraordinary prayer life. If our churches want the kind of spiritual focus and power needed to understand with clarity God’s calling on us, we need an extraordinary prayer life. In short, our ability to receive ministry vision from God requires prayer. And the power with which we are to fulfill those callings likewise requires prayer. Nehemiah teaches us that prayer is central to everything we are called upon to join God in doing.

But Nehemiah teaches us so much more. Stay tuned.

Permissions: We permit and encourage you to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, we prefer a link to this document on this website. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by One Another Project. Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © One Another Project. Website: oneanotherproject.com.

Nehemiah as the American Church

One Another Project church health, church leadership American, exiles, Nehemiah, Privilege, Rebuilding, Refocus, Revival, sojourners, vision

This is the first in a series of posts from my current study of Nehemiah as a symbol of what the American church could be in these difficult and troubling times. I am hoping and praying the Lord will incline your heart to make this journey with me over the next several weeks, wherever it takes us.

In those days I was the king’s cup-bearer. Nehemiah 1:11

Exiles in a Land Not Our Home

As Christ followers, we are all “sojourners, exiles, strangers in a foreign land” (1 Peter 2:11, Hebrews 11:13, Philippians 2:20). You probably know the metaphor. Because our citizenship, as followers of Jesus, is in Heaven, our first and foremost identity is with Christ. But we are called to live, for now, in this physical world. We are to be “salt and light” in this world which is not our own (Matthew 5:13-14). Like the Hebrew exiles in Babylon, we are to “work for the peace and prosperity of the city” where we are (Jeremiah 29:7). In short, as the church in America, this is not our home. But we are to minister and meet its needs nonetheless. Nehemiah was one of those exiles. He was actually the third, fourth or even fifth generation born in exile. Like all of us in the church today, he knew no other circumstance but to be an exile. Just as was true for his parents, grandparents and great grandparents, this foreign land was the only home he had ever known. It was not his culture and these were not his people. He did not choose this life. It was thrust upon him. Oh, and by the way, he was the cupbearer to the king.

Exiles Living Comfortable Lives

That very last line of Nehemiah 1 is a bit of a twist in the story. You see, as the king’s cupbearer, he would have been one of the most trusted people in the entire palace. He lived with the king, he dined with the king. Like Joseph and Daniel and Esther before him, the “exile” he inherited came with a twist of fate which actually made his life very, very bearable. He wanted for nothing and lived and worked among the wealthiest leaders in the known world. In today’s parlance: he was unbelievably privileged. And so it is with the American church. We live in perhaps the most prosperous country in the world. That is not, of course, to say that every church in America is materially prosperous. The truth is, a pretty small percentage of the churches in our country are what we have come to call “mega-churches”. But, by the world’s standards of wealth and privilege, the majority of our churches live so far above the poverty line we can barely look back and even see that line. In short, by the world’s standards, we (like Nehemiah) are wealthy and powerful and influential and we are living relatively comfortable lives.

Revival, Refocus, Rebuilding

Nehemiah experienced what we might call a life-changing refocus. He received a new vision, a new assignment from God. It changed his life (and the nation of Israel). This calling on his life caused him to leave his life of luxury and dive headfirst into a life of hardship and conflict. This new assignment would require rolling up his sleeves and doing a kind of work (and exhibiting a level of leadership) he had never before done. He had to literally stop doing what he had always done in order to get results he had never before gotten. Don’t we in the American church need a similar revival? Don’t we need a refocusing and a new vision for how we engage with this broken world? Shouldn’t we consider letting go of some of our privilege in order to pursue what God expects of us? Shouldn’t we refocus on what it means to operate under the power of God rather than under the powers of this world? Like Nehemiah, don’t we have some rebuilding to do? I’m looking forward to what Nehemiah’s story has to say to the American church. Won’t you come with me on this journey?

Permissions: We permit and encourage you to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way and do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction. For web posting, we prefer a link to this document on this website. Any exceptions to the above must be approved by One Another Project. Please include the following statement on any distributed copy: © One Another Project. Website: oneanotherproject.com.