I was forced to ask myself that question this week as I was preparing to continue in our series on Nehemiah. This week we looked at chapter 3 and 4. Chapter 3 is an account of many of the men and women who are physically involved in the work of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem. At first glance it is an easy chapter to just blow through and pay little attention to but I think there are some great leadership principles to be found here.
First of all, we see tremendous diversity among the people involved. Men, women, nobles, common folk, even priests got busy working on this project with Nehemiah. Nehemiah knew that he needed a team of people to make his vision become reality, and he assmbled quite a team with tremendous diversity.
Secondly, one name that we do not find in chapter 3 is 'Nehemiah' (at least not the Nehemiah that this book is titled after). This is not a story of how Nehemiah actually built the wall of Jerusalem himself. He was the leader of this project, but he understood the importance of delegating. He gave other people the opportunity to be a part of his vision. It takes a compelling vision to get people to join in, but if you dont give them room to carve out their own piece of the vision, they will not see it through. Nehemiah gave them the chance to buy into the vision and the freedom to make it their own.
We also studied Chapter 4 of Nehemiah. In this chapter we see the opposition to the vision intensify. Initially it starts out as just some insults from some of the surrounding leaders as they try to incite their people against the Jews. Nehemiah does not lash back at them but goes to the Lord in prayer, with a pretty emotional and spirited prayer in verses 4&5. But the building continued and the opposition grew as the surrounding people began to actually plan an assault against the Jews. Again, Nehemiah first goes to prayer (vs9), but this time they take some actions of their own and set people on guard. As the Jews begin to be overwhelmed and cower in fear, we see Nehemiah's leadership again shine as he reminds the people of 2 things. First he reminds them of the power of their God and then he reminds them of the vision for which they are reaching. Those are two very powerful tools to help people persevere. And we see that happen. The work is slowed as they have to now protect them selves while they work, but it does not stop! This chapter finishes with a pcture of Nehemiah in the trenches with his people, working to see the vision become a reality.
We see Nehemiah continually going to God in prayer, we see him always preparing for what may come, we see him staying focused and always returning to the vision, and we see him in the threnches leading by example. Those are some great lessons for the future leader to learn.
So, I come back to that question, 'Are we raising leaders?'. How often do we look at our kids and say, "No...my Johnny...he is not a leader"? I wonder how God plans to use that same kid in the future? I believe that we do not spend time teaching our kids how to lead. Nehemiah was a cupbearer. He was a slave. A man who had to potentially take a bullet, or drink of poison in this case, for a king who was not even his own king. He had no authority. He probably would have had no obvious leadership potential or experience. Yet God intended to use him to lead an amazing movement. Maybe we would do well to view all of our young people as the next potential leader of a great movement of the Lord.
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