Last week I mentioned how I’ve been thinking about the book of Nehemiah. In order for churches to move forward after the difficult year that God in His providence brought their way, I believe it is helpful to study the example of others who have led during difficult times. Last week we noted how the movement to rebuild the walls of Israel began with one man–a leader who was not afraid to boldly follow Jesus even if he was the only one. I’d like to build off of the example of Nehemiah and point out another strategy that Nehemiah models for us–evaluation. Movement needs to be preceded by healthy evaluation. Nehemiah did not just wake up one day and decide that the walls of Jerusalem needed rebuilt. Rather he identified a problem–the remnant in Jerusalem was in “great distress and disgrace” because the walls had been broken and burned (Nehemiah 1:1-3). Nehemiah performed healthy evaluation. He saw that there was a problem, evaluated how best to fix the problem, and then rose up to lead the initiative to take care of this issue.
Churches today need healthy evaluation! Churches are always learning, growing, and changing as a body. Sometimes, issues come up. Sometimes problems need fixed or ministries need changed to adapt to changing times. The problem is, too many times churches are “behind the curve” so to speak. Often times churches like the familiarity of doing things the same way they have always been done. But sometimes, that does not work! Nehemiah realized that God’s people in Jerusalem could not keep going on the way things were–he evaluated the process, found the problem, and stepped in the gap to lead in a healthy direction. We need to be willing to do that as well!
