church leadership

Leading Through the Distractions

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Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies found out that I had finished rebuilding the wall and that no gaps remained—though we had not yet set up the doors in the gates. 2 So Sanballat and Geshem sent a message asking me to meet them at one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But I realized they were plotting to harm me, 3 so I replied by sending this message to them: “I am engaged in a great work, so I can’t come. Why should I stop working to come and meet with you?” Nehemiah 6:1-3

Distractions? We’ve Got Plenty.

By pretty much any measure, these are troubling times. We have the swirling winds of politics, social/moral issues, and the breakdown of the family. We also have a faltering higher education system, massively shifting job markets, and scary new technologies like quantum computers and artificial intelligence.  Then, of course, we have larger global issues like wars, famine, climate change, and human trafficking. These are the things on the minds of Christ followers today. And in the midst of all those distractions, church leaders are somehow expected to effectively shepherd five utterly distinct and wildly varied adult generations. And then there are the children. We are to be shepherding them as well.

In terms of our ministry’s work in the area of congregational conflict, one of the common “themes” is the reality that our people are being catechized much more by social media and cable news than by the church. The ideologies of our secular culture are more prominent in our hearts and minds than the truths of scripture. In short, we’ve got distractions.

In this age when we have access to more information via our mobile phones than anyone in the world previously, it seems that we are more lacking in wisdom and discernment than ever before. Our daily struggles against the distractions of doom scrolling and anxiety are real. And, as church leaders, our calling is to effectively lead people to navigate through those distractions and to find shalom. How exactly are we to do that?

Am I Engaged in a Great Work?

Nehemiah and the people he led were able to complete the enormous task of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem in miraculous time and with miraculous results. And they did this even in the midst of formidable distractions and threats from neighboring enemies. But where did that focus come from? What gave Nehemiah the wisdom and moral inertia to say to his distractors, “I am engaged in a great work, so I can’t come. Why should I stop working to come and meet with you?”

Nehemiah had a clear sense of God’s assignment. He led the people to strive for an outcome which seemed (both to those people and to a watching world) unattainable. It was a task which could only happen if God Himself showed up. It was a city wall which had laid in ruins for 170 years. And many of these same people had spent most of their lives waking up every day to the sight of those crumbled pieces laying all around the city of Jerusalem. They had never undertaken to repair the wall because, frankly, it was an insurmountable job.

It seems to me that one of the preliminary reasons we (the church) so often struggle with the distractions of this world is that we are not really taking on genuine God-given assignments. I don’t mean the broad, universal assignments like the Great Commission. I mean the very specific tasks God has in mind for specific local churches. It seems to me that we often do not seem to even be attempting anything God-sized. How often are we casting a vision for our people that only God can fulfill? How many of our goals are achievable by the best thinking and quality efforts of people as opposed to goals which only God Himself can bring about? When our churches begin taking on God-sized tasks, we might just find a level of focus we never knew we could have.

Where Discernment Comes From

Nehemiah faced a particularly insidious group of enemies. They were shrewd and they were deceptive. They “bought” themselves a prophet to entice Nehemiah away from his work. Like Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness, this enticement was that he should save himself. It was about choosing self-preservation over his assignment. It was about cutting corners in order to pursue a safer, surer outcome. Nehemiah saw right through the deception. He was spiritually discerning.

As church leaders, our spiritual discernment comes from the same place as Nehemiah’s discernment came from: an ongoing intimacy with God. When we do God’s work in God’s ways and in constant prayer and meditation around him and His Word, we can expect discernment to follow. In our culture today, there are plenty of voices all around us purporting to be speaking for God. Many of those voices are false prophets or false teachers or, at the least, wrong voices for us. Our ability to spot the false ones does not come from studying them and their ways. It comes from spending plenty of time in the presence of the one true Voice. The more I understand God and His voice, the easier it is to recognize that which is NOT God. And we can teach those we lead this same truth.

God-sized Outcomes

“So on October 2 the wall was finished—just fifty-two days after we had begun. When our enemies and the surrounding nations heard about it, they were frightened and humiliated. They realized this work had been done with the help of our God.” Nehemiah 6:15-16. Our world is literally dying to see God. If they wanted to see the very best that man can accomplish, why would they look to the church for that? No, we should be showing them something they cannot see anywhere else. We should be showing them God. When they do look to the church, that is what they are looking for.

Don’t get me wrong. I love celebrating human achievement. I love having a pat on my back when I perform well. Who wouldn’t? But ultimately, human achievement in the church is not what will change our world. And it is not what writes God’s story across time. If we, the church, want to impact this world as God has called us to do, it will only be by God’s hand. And when we get that right, the world notices.

So, how do we help our people navigate the distractions of this world? We help them hear from God. We help them take on the assignments only He can fulfill through them. Along the way, we help them discern between truth and false voices. And, at the end of the day, we help them celebrate what God has done.

© 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.

 

God’s Work in God’s Ways

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When I heard their complaints, I was very angry. After thinking it over, I spoke out against these nobles and officials. I told them, “You are hurting your own relatives by charging interest when they borrow money!” Then I called a public meeting to deal with the problem.  At the meeting I said to them, “We are doing all we can to redeem our Jewish relatives who have had to sell themselves to pagan foreigners, but you are selling them back into slavery again. How often must we redeem them?” And they had nothing to say in their defense. Nehemiah 5:7-8

Some Forms of Injustice are Worse than Others

All injustice is bad. Let’s get that straight right here at the outset. It is always harmful and should always be pushed back against. But not all injustice is unexpected. There are some places and some circumstances where we just know there is going to be rampant injustice on a regular basis. In some scenarios, it is the norm. That doesn’t make it good; it just makes it predictable.

Some governments and communities, through their specific leaders, have proven themselves to be without any compassion, without any moral compass. From them, we have just come to expect injustice. But there are some places where the very presence of injustice is surprising. In some settings, we just expect justice to be the prevailing wind, the normal outcome. Indeed, in many of those places, injustice is by definition contrary to their “brand”, i.e., the opposite of their stated mission and purpose.

Gatherings of Christ followers (what we might call local congregations) are such places. When we run into injustice in those places it catches us off guard (at least it used to). It is especially painful, because we often did not anticipate it. It is the last thing we expected to see in those settings. At least in that particular way, injustice in the church is worse than injustice in the world.

The Heart of Injustice

Of course, situations involving abuse (spiritual, sexual, and any other form) are the easy examples to cite. If we are looking for forms of injustice that will fan the flame of outrage against the church, those are the low hanging fruit. Every decent person agrees those forms of injustice have no place in our society, let alone among God’s people. But injustice, as a concept, rarely begins with an overt need to abuse someone. It begins with the very counter-Christian attitude of “I get what I want at the expense of what you need.”

And, more times than not, it involves a power imbalance. Those with power take advantage of those without power. Again, there are easy, clear examples and then there are the more insidious, harder-to-see instances. In Nehemiah’s case, it was economic power. Those with money were loaning money to their less fortunate brethren at usurious interest rates (think, payday loan services) and then sending them into debt slavery when they could not repay the loans. Nehemiah’s outrage was on target: “after all this time and energy getting our people OUT of slavery, now you are putting them right back in!”

It happens within the church today as well, though perhaps not so overtly. Again, remember the heart of injustice: “I get what I want at the expense of what you need.” When those carrying power in the church, whether economic or social or political (or any other of the world’s forms of power), use that power to get what they want, we risk injustice. When we take from others (whether or not they know we have taken from them) solely to further our own selfish desires, we risk injustice.

Nothing Fuels our Culture Wars like a Good Tragedy

At the time I am writing this, communities around me are still recovering from devastating floods. I happen to live in a “red” state. So, many of my Christian brothers and sisters who fight the culture wars from the left have taken advantage of this tragedy to score points against the “heartless conservative government” who is surely to blame for this tragedy. Not many weeks ago, there were horrendous forest fires destroying huge swaths of communities in a “blue state”. Many of my Christian brothers and sisters who fight the culture wars from the right took advantage in order to score points against the “incompetent progressive government” who was surely to blame.

Is this not the very heart of injustice? If I choose to use YOUR tragic circumstances in order to score points in MY culture war, am I not taking from you in order to get what I want? What if, in the immediate aftermath of a natural (or even manmade) disaster, Christ followers just quietly pitched in to help in the recovery rather than participate in a social media campaign to destroy the “other side”?

The nobles and financial leaders of Nehemiah’s community surely had no sense at all that they were doing anything wrong. They were merely taking advantage of a business opportunity. Indeed, they probably convinced themselves they were actually DOING GOOD by lending money to their less fortunate neighbors. Indeed. Helping.

My Church/God’s Church

If the heart of injustice is getting what I want at the expense of what someone else needs, then perhaps a good place to start working is in my own heart. After all, why is what I want even relevant to the work of the church? If it is God’s church, then the only question that ever really matters is, “what does God want?” But we live in an age of democracy.  Did you know there are only six countries in the entire world who do not at least claim some form of democracy as government? The vast majority of people agree that democracy is a moral good and should be pursued.

And therein lies the problem for the Christian church. It is not a democracy. It never was. You see, in a democracy, the highest value (the deciding factor) is the will of the people. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address captures it best: “a government of the people, for the people, by the people.” But that is not the church. Among God’s people, the highest value is not the will of the people. God’s story is replete with horrible outcomes of that thinking. In the church, the highest value is the will of God, i.e., “what does God want?” As Christ followers, we spend our entire lives exploring that reality. Some of us take longer to learn it than others.

When it comes to doing God’s work. i.e., the work of the church, it is never about what I want. It only matters what God wants. The more I learn the difference, the less likely I am to promote injustice among us. This is because I am learning the mind/heart process of discerning between what I want and what God wants. As I learn that, I stop using my power to get what I want. As with the leaders around Nehemiah, stopping injustice among us doesn’t begin with confronting “those people”. It begins with addressing my own heart.

© 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.

 

Facing External Opposition

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Sanballat was very angry when he learned that we were rebuilding the wall. He flew into a rage and mocked the Jews, saying in front of his friends and the Samarian army officers, “What does this bunch of poor, feeble Jews think they’re doing? Do they think they can build the wall in a single day by just offering a few sacrifices? Do they actually think they can make something of stones from a rubbish heap—and charred ones at that?” Nehemiah 4:1-2

Two Distinct Categories of Opposition

As a congregational mediator, the simple reason I have always had plenty of work to do is that there is no shortage of conflict among people…even in the church. But more than that, we (as the church) are not doing a very good job of equipping our leaders to deal with conflict. Thus, plenty of work for me.

Conflict comes from a variety of places for church leaders. There are lots of ways to categorize it. But perhaps the easiest and clearest general distinction is between inner conflict (from within the church) and external conflict (from the outside). Even as I begin discussing external opposition–the topic of this post–many church leaders will want to stop me and say: “but it is the INTERNAL conflict with which I struggle the most.” I get it. I see it. And I agree. But bear with me as I take up the external first, because that is the order we find it in Nehemiah. I promise, the discussion of internal conflict will be next.

There is a significant distinction between internal opposition and external opposition. The internal hurts us way more, because it is coming from our own “family”. Likewise, in terms of how (and, indeed, WHETHER) we engage any particular opposition, we have a much higher duty and responsibility to engage opposition from within than we do external opposition. They are different, and it is important to recognize that from the outset.

Our Revolution is Counter-cultural

Any student of this revolution we call Christianity will immediately recognize that facing external opposition is pretty much baked into our DNA. Over the course of God’s story throughout human history, there has always been opposition to God’s people. Always. Surely we should start by recognizing that reality. Jesus said it himself: “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you.” John 15:18-19.

Indeed, over the course of history, in every circumstance where the church became aligned with the social and political powers of this world, it has died just a little bit more. On the other hand, where it has been persecuted and working against the mainstream culture, it has thrived. So, opposition from the outside is to be expected if we are making the impact we are called to make.

Nehemiah’s experience informs our understanding here. When he arrived on the scene of Jerusalem with plans of fortifying the city against neighboring factions by rebuilding its wall, he immediately felt the opposition of those outside forces. It would not have surprised him. Cities in those days were simply not safe without a wall. And, to those who have thrived by taking advantage of the weakness of a city,  building a wall would have been seen as an act of aggression. Nehemiah represented a threat to the existing power dynamics in the area.

Likewise, the upside down values of God’s kingdom often make no sense to this world and even present a threat to the world’s existing power dynamics. When that happens, we can expect opposition. Indeed, when it comes to being the church, if there is no tension at all as we engage our communities, if all our ways and our worldviews blend seamlessly with the world around us, then we are probably not doing it right.

Looking for a Fight

This, of course, does not mean we should go looking for fights for the sake of fighting. In some ways, church leaders are like any other leaders.  There are some who seem to thrive on conflict. If they can’t find any, they will create some, because it gives them a sense of importance. In other words, it gives them a sense of power. If these leaders can’t find a good fight in their own communities, they can always go online and join a fight against someone somewhere in the world. They become keyboard warriors, fighting fights against people they have never met in places they have never been. Not to belabor this point, but some of our pastors and leaders probably need to spend less time on social media and YouTube and more time in the homes of their own people.

Jesus did not warn us about being hated by the world so that we would make that a measure of our effectiveness. In Jesus’ case, there was only the occasional case of him intentionally engaging opposition in a premeditated way. In those cases, it was only after hours and hours of agonizing prayer. And even then, it came from a place of absolute knowledge of the hearts of those he opposed. So, for the church leader who uses Jesus’ angry outburst against the moneychangers in the temple as his/her excuse for starting fights online, maybe he/she should take a beat and refrain from claiming our Lord’s sinless righteousness for himself/herself.

So, as leaders of Christ followers, we do not go looking for fights. Rather, we go looking to love others in ways that befuddle the watching world. In that way, we make an impact that often ends up challenging the power dynamics of our communities. When that happens, we can expect to face opposition.

Pray First

When faced with external opposition, Nehemiah demonstrated how to respond: he prayed. And we have come to expect that from him. No less than nine different times in his short story in scripture, we see Nehemiah using prayer as his first and foremost response to pretty much everything. And so it should be with us as church leaders.

And, wow, what a prayer he prayed! “Hear us, our God, for we are being mocked. May their scoffing fall back on their own heads, and may they themselves become captives in a foreign land!Do not ignore their guilt. Do not blot out their sins, for they have provoked you to anger here in front of the builders.” Nehemiah 4:4-5. It is what we might call a desperate prayer for God’s justice, not unlike David’s imprecatory psalms. 

Also, Nehemiah’s choice to pray rather than engage in his enemies’ war of words show us something important. His enemies’ tactics were mockery and ridicule as a means of using social or political power against Nehemiah. Mind you, Nehemiah was not without political power himself. His tight relationship with (and blessings from) King Artaxerxes would have made it easy to destroy these enemies with his own political power. But his calling, like ours, was not one of social or political power. It was one of spiritual power. And that was the only power he was interested in engaging. As church leaders, may it be so for us as well.

Then Get Back to Work

After that prayer, Nehemiah demonstrates the second step in engaging this external opposition: At last the wall was completed to half its height around the entire city, for the people had worked with enthusiasm. Nehemiah 4:6. Nehemiah led the people to get back to work doing what God had called them to do. They did not retaliate. There were no social media campaigns. No public protests railing against the unjust power dynamics of the region. There were no press releases. No strategizing in back rooms about how to organize political forces against them. It is actually pretty instructive about how NOT to respond.

This is the point where having cast our vision correctly makes a big difference to our people. When we cast a vision that says the work is all up to us, then our people will mobilize against every opponent. But when we cast a vision that says we are merely joining God in work He is already doing, then our people feel permission to just get back to work and leave the fighting to God. Once we have prayed and led our people to do likewise, then we lead them to get back to work doing the last thing we know God called us to do.

The truth is, with most “external opposition”, the engaging of the enemies is the Lord’s work. A little later in Nehemiah’s story, he replies to the continued nagging of these enemies in this way: “I am engaged in a great work, so I can’t come. Why should I stop working to come and meet with you?” Nehemiah 6:3. What if this were our attitude as well?

In my next post, we will talk about engaging opposition from WITHIN the church. It is a lot of work. And you will see then that you really have precious little time to be fighting battles outside the church.

© 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.

 

Leading by Example

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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

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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

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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.

© 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.

Nehemiah as the American Church

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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?
© 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 Light of the World

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the light of the world

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” Matthew 5:14-16

A City on a Hill

All the way back in March, 1630, Puritan John Winthrop preached a sermon entitled “A Model of Christian Charity” to his fellow Massachusetts Bay colonists as they embarked to settle Boston. Borrowing from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, he warned them of the serious nature of the task they undertook: “as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us.” His words were not an encouragement, they were a warning. Don’t mess this up…everyone is watching! 

Since that time, his words have been borrowed by many a politician, including John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, and Mitt Romney, always referring to American exceptionalism on the world stage. Indeed, it became a running theme in several of President Reagan’s speeches, from his election eve address in November 1980 all the way to his farewell address in January, 1989. But, with all due respect to each and all of these politicians, Jesus’ words about a “city on a hilltop” were not about any particular nation-state, but about his followers. More specifically, they were about his followers’ identity…about their place in this world. They were to be the light of the world.

The Church’s Place in this World

From the very beginning of his teaching ministry, Jesus challenged his followers to usher in the Kingdom of God, i.e., to live out the upside-down ways of God’s kingdom as a contrast to the kingdom of this world. Our role (the church’s role) in this regard is to connect people with the ways of God. “In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”  We are to be the light of the world.

As I read this word, letting our light shine seems to be much less about the books we write, the videos we make, and the social media posts we create and much more about how we live our lives. It is less about our apologetics and more about the choices we make in our personal lives…less about winning the culture wars and more about being peacemakers in our day to day living. The point is, this word is not just about what we say or what we do. It is about who we are…our very identity as the Church of Jesus Christ. It is more than mission or objective. This is a word about our very place in this world. It is about our very identity as the light of the world.

Light is Indiscriminate

There are plenty of qualities and characteristics of light. Surely, Jesus intended all of them to apply to us with this metaphor. But the one that stands out in our current culture, the one that should contrast the church with the ways of this world, is the indiscriminate nature of light. You see, when you put a lamp on a table in the middle of a room, that lamp does not pick and choose who to help with its light. It does not weigh who is “worthy” of its light and who is not. It simply shines, for anyone and everyone in the room.

The light does not make marketing strategies about whom it will serve and whom it will not serve. It does not have criteria that make some people more deserving of its light than others. There are no prerequisites which would-be recipients of its benefits must first meet in order to then receive light to their path. Like an utterly impartial lighthouse shining for each and every vessel on the nearby sea, shouldn’t the church be indiscriminate as well? We are the light of the world. And that is a high calling.

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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 Church God Blesses

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the church God blesses “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

I Love My Church

I love my friends at church, and the teaching/preaching, and the music. Moreover, I love the ministry opportunities and the mission trips. And the ways it grew my kids and its relationships within our community. I believe God loves my church as well. But, if I’m honest, it is for completely different reasons than mine. Surely, God is not as impressed with our programs and our polish as we are. He doesn’t measure a church by its numbers of people nor by its budget. So, what? By God’s standards, what church is good? What church does God bless?

#blessed versus Blessed

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 is, in a word, shocking. It was disruptive to its original hearers in their own cultural context and it is disruptive to us today in our context. It presents the kingdom of God, i.e., a life “in the Spirit”, as being so very upside-down from the understandings and structures of the world as we know it. And it does so from its very first introduction, which we call “the beatitudes”.  In short, the world’s understanding of “blessed” is so very shallow, even hollow, compared to God’s understanding of “blessed”.

We have all seen the social media posts that end with #blessed. They are posts and photos about amazing vacations or other incredible experiences or children being born or new houses or terrific new jobs or any of a huge variety of happy moments in friends’ lives. And there is nothing at all wrong with those posts; indeed, they are wonderful occasions worth celebrating and yes, posting.

But that kind of #blessed and the “blessed” with which Jesus begins his sermon on the mount are very different concepts. #Blessed is about moments of undeserved happiness, comfort, ease, and fortune. But Jesus’ word which we translate as “blessed” is much deeper, much broader than that. It is about enduring joy, profound peace, and a kind of deep-seated contentment rooted in completeness and relationship. As is the theme of the entire sermon on the mount, #blessed is aimed at the tip of the iceberg, while Jesus’ “blessed” captures the entire iceberg.

Whom God Blesses

In the beatitudes, Jesus’ account of whom God blesses begins with those who are lowly and humble. The poor in spirit, the meek, and those who mourn all have an honest assessment of themselves, i.e., who they are and who they are not. They are at rock bottom and know they are nothing without some help from God. Such people do not have inflated egos and they are not wielding worldly powers (economic, social, political, etc.). This is true of individuals, and I believe it is true of churches as well. The church God blesses is fostering and growing attitudes of humility and lowliness.

From that lowly starting point, Jesus then “blesses” those whose inner thought life is pure and right with God. He blesses those who hunger for righteousness, i.e., those who desire the things God desires. Then there are those who are merciful and those who are pure in heart. Again, the focus is less on the outward and much more on what is on the inside…the heart and the mind. It is not about branding, nor impressive abilities, nor power or influence. It is about wanting the things God wants and about caring about the things He cares about. The church God blesses is growing that kind of heart in its people.

Lastly, Jesus blesses peacemakers and those who suffer persecution. Both of these deal with our relationships with others. In our engagement with the world around us, we are to be building healthy relationships and bridges rather than divisiveness. And we are to embrace the persecution and suffering that will no doubt come our way in response. The church God blesses understands this and fosters these attitudes in its people.

The Upside Down

In short, God’s priorities and values are so very inside out and upside down from those of this world. As a result, Jesus’ words throughout his ministry were always disruptive and challenging. Nowhere is that clearer than in his Sermon on the Mount. His opening beatitudes to that sermon are intentionally shocking that way. They challenge me. I do love my church. But Jesus challenges me to consider WHY I love it, and to reimagine all the ways I measure my church’s effectiveness in the light of what God blesses. And reimagining church in that way can only be good for us. Right?

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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.

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