We’ve been talking about the story of Nehemiah and have been using this excerpt from the Biblical text as a model to provide some guidance for how churches move forward in ministry. I have noted that Nehemiah led the people of Israel in the monumental task of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, but that this task did not just happen overnight. It was a progression that took time and effort. Yet Nehemiah did lead the project, and it was not just he who was involved. Nehemiah led a group of other Israelites who caught on to his vision and followed him in doing what he believed God wanted him to do. What can we learn from the process Nehemiah led the people through and how he went about creating urgency in this mission?
I have noted that the process began with leadership. Someone needed to step up and recognize the problem, and that “someone” was Nehemiah. Last time I mentioned that the process moved from leadership to healthy evaluation. Nehemiah asked for a report from the remnant in Jerusalem and found that things were not going well. So, there was a leader, there was evaluation, but where did Nehemiah go from there? The next step we can learn from the example of Nehemiah is the importance of prayer—the very next thing Nehemiah did was pray. Nehemiah 1:4-11 records the entirety of Nehemiah’s prayer to God; we will take time next week to examine this prayer. But let me just point out that Nehemiah’s response to the problems and issues he saw upon healthy evaluation of the situation was to take this matter to God. Such a simple, easy step, yet one that is so often neglected and difficult to do. I have heard it said that whenever there is a great movement of God throughout history, it is always preceded by a time of focused prayer. We certainly see that happening here in this particular narrative. Upon faced with the reality that something big needed to happen, Nehemiah did the only thing he could do; he prayed!
We can learn a lot from the example Nehemiah leaves behind. There are a lot of “big things” that we want God to do—both individually and corporately. Thinking specifically of church ministry, churches need to pray! Churches need to seek God’s face for wisdom and guidance. Too often ministries have endeavored upon ministry initiatives or even routine ministry without taking the time to seek God’s face and God’s favor. When this happens, ministry is done in human strength when it ought to be empowered by God above! I hope that you will take a lesson from the example of Nehemiah. Churches need to pray! As churches seek God’s blessing on the various ministries and ministry endeavors which they believe God wants them to pursue, they need to make sure that they do not leave God out of the process. We learn from Nehemiah the priority of prayer. We also see the importance of praying leadership. Nehemiah was the leader—the “gap man”, he performed evaluation of the situation, and as a leader he was the first to get down on his knees and bring the matter before the Lord. The Scottish preacher Robert Murray M’Cheyne had this to say about prayer: What a man is on his knees before God, that he is, and nothing more. Will you follow the example of Nehemiah and be the type of leader who leads from the floor, humbling yourself before God and seeking His guidance for the work ahead?
