As we return to our study of Nehemiah, we continue to learn from a great leader. Few of us probably think we have the gifts to be a great leader; yet every married man has been assigned to the leadership role in his marriage. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” (1 Cor 11:13). And of course we are assigned to lead our children as fathers.
One of the biggest challenges to all leaders is motivating our followers to move in the direction we want them to go. Former US President and the Commander of the Allied Forces in WW2, Dwight Eisenhower, once said, “Leadership is the ability to get a person to do what you want him to do, when you want it done, in a way you want it done, because he wants to do it.” What a great description of Nehemiah. This episode examines how one of the greatest leaders in history overcame the apathy of the residents of Jerusalem to rebuild the wall around the city that had remained broken down for ninety years. Incidentally, his strategy for building the walls of Jerusalem is the same strategy that God has established to build up the Body of Christ.
One of the greatest historians who ever lived, Arnold Toynbee, observed from history, “Apathy can only be overcome by enthusiasm and enthusiasm can only be aroused by two things: 1) an ideal, which takes the imagination by storm, 2) a definite, intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice. Two weeks ago, in chapter 2, when seeking to overcome the Jerusalem’s resident’s apathy, Nehemiah appealed to an ideal which takes the imagination by storm. Nehemiah’s words were,“You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” For ninety years, the residents had walked past the ruins believing there was nothing they could do to fix their city walls. But Nehemiah took their imagination by storm convincing them they could rebuild it—and appealed to several high ideals in the community—love for their city, love for their children, and love for their God and his honor. Let’s review how Nehemiah did this and apply it to awakening enthusiasm to follow Jesus in our kids and grandkids.
1. Nehemiah led them. Nehemiah was not a resident of Jerusalem. He could have easily said, “You folks have gotten yourselves into a mess. Don’t you realize it is shameful to God for you to leave that wall in such disrepair? You need to rebuild that wall. Here, I brought you the materials to build it.” But leadership is always about bringing another with us as we pursue a goal. So, motivating our kids and grandkids to follow Jesus is about inviting them into our walk with God. That requires first winning their hearts to us, by loving them, being interested in their lives, affirming them, being affectionate with them, caring for them, and serving them. As one adult Christian said, looking back at the way his father influenced him towards Jesus, “I loved my father because he loved me so much and I couldn’t separate my father from his love for God.”
2. Nehemiah appealed to his followers’ love for God and pride in Jerusalem, God’s city. In a sense, he was implying “It is, after all, the wall around Jerusalem, the pride of our people—the City of Zion—which is in disgrace.” In the end, we want our kids and grandkids to eventually follow the ways of the Lord, not because they were raised that way, but because they love Jesus. Our goal is not perfect kids; it is kids who love Jesus because they know life is in him and he is worthy of supreme allegiance. I often say to God, ‘I don’t do hearts. Only you can change hearts.’ Nevertheless, our passionate prayers must be for God to capture their hearts.
3. Nehemiah appealed to the natural motivation of his followers. In his case, it was parents, especially fathers, to protect their families. “The trouble we are in” referred to their exposure to attack without the protection of the city wall. A wise leader knows how to appeal to the inherent motivations of his followers. For example, when it comes to discipleship, David, Paul, and the Apostle John appealed to males to be strong in character (1 Kings 2:2-3, 1 Cor. 16:13, 1 Jn 2:14b). But Solomon, Peter. and Paul appealed to a female’s desire to be beautiful in character (Prov 31, 1 Pet 3:3-4, Eph 5:27).
Whey my youngest son was 11 (and playing inside linebacker on his boy’s club team) he walked into my home office and said, “Jesus was a wimp.”
I reacted so violently, I almost fell out of my chair. I said, “What?”
He answered, “He told us to turn the other cheek and all that.”
I said, “Don’t you remember Jesus making a whip and driving the bad guys out of the temple?”
He said, “Jesus never did that.”
I thought to myself, “Great. Now I’ve got two problems. My kid is skipping Sunday school, and he thinks Jesus was a wimp.” I opened Scripture and read the story to him. I wonder if he ever could have been attracted to Jesus if Jesus were not tough on the inside with a toughness that Josh respected.
4. Nehemiah showed them proof that God had a plan to rebuild the walls. Not only was he, himself, standing there, with King Artaxerxes’ permission to rebuild the wall; huge stacks of timber from the king’s own forest were stacked all over the place. Being a part of God’s plan is tremendously motivating. That is why dads and granddads need to believe and point their kids to Ephesians 2:10, words each child needs to internalize. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Every child needs to believe that he or she is perfectly designed by God for the mission he wants him or her to accomplish. That is the secret to a strong self-image. One dad shared with me, “As my twin girls stated through puberty, when I realized that one was going to be far less shapely than her sister, I begin to affirm her athleticism, never addressing this personal issue directly but saying. ‘God gave you the body of an athlete. He is going to use you as an athlete.’ BTW the dad was right.
Returning to Toynbee’s analysis, we’ve seen in the second chapter that Nehemiah succeeded at awakening enthusiasm for rebuilding the wall via an ideal which takes the imagination by storm—rebuilding the wall—with him, because of their love of God and his holy city, to protect their kids, and because God had proved he was in this project. Now, Chapter 3 reveals Toynbee’s second requirement, a definite intelligible plan for carrying that ideal into practice. This is so detailed that it is boring to read, so I will just give us a flavor.
Vs. 1-2. Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the Sheep Gate. They consecrated it and set its doors. They consecrated it as far as the Tower of the Hundred, as far as the Tower of Hananel. And next to him the men of Jericho built. And next to them Zaccur the son of Imri built.
Vs. 28-32. Above the Horse Gate the priests repaired, each one opposite his own house. After them Zadok the son of Immer repaired, opposite his own house. After him Shemaiah the son of Shecaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, repaired. After him Hananiah the son of Shelemiah and Hanun the sixth son of Zalaph repaired another section. After him Meshullam the son of Berechiah repaired opposite his chamber. After him Malchijah, one of the goldsmiths, repaired as far as the house of the temple servants and of the merchants, opposite the Muster Gate, and to the upper chamber of the corner. And between the upper chamber of the corner and the Sheep Gate the goldsmiths and the merchants repaired.
Before digging into the strategy that Nehemiah did use, let’s notice what Nehemiah did not do, again remembering that his strategy for rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem was the same as God’s is for building the church.
- As Nehemiah contemplated how to get the job done, he did not go to the people of Jerusalem, take up a special offering, and then try to hire the Jerusalem Masonry Company to rebuild the walls. He did not depend on professionals to build the wall, but amateurs--regular old lady people.
- What Nehemiah didn't do was appoint a committee. Can you imagine what would have happened if he'd done that? The committee would probably still be meeting. Have you heard the paraphrase of John 3:16, “God so loved the world that he didn't send a committee?”
- Nehemiah didn't put an announcement in the Jerusalem Gazette or the synagogue bulletin asking for volunteers. If he had, he probably would have gotten the same 20% of the population that always volunteers to help when there are needs. There's a principle of group dynamics, which is that 20% of the people do 80% of the work and 80% do the remaining 20% of the work. Nehemiah never would have succeeded that way.
Nehemiah succeeded because he based his strategy on two key principles involvement and ownership. Let's look at these two components.
Involvement. Nehemiah had a massive project to complete. He broke the huge task of rebuilding 2 1/2 miles of walls into 41 smaller, manageable sections. A huge job often intimidates you and your followers, until you can figure out a way to break it down into bite-sized pieces. When Moses stood at the edge of the promised land, he sent spies out to reconnoiter the whole land, and they were intimidated. Exaggerating the size of the giants, they rebelled against God saying, “We can't take the land.” Forty years later, Joshua, Moses’ assistant, seems to have learned a lesson, because as they got ready to move into the promised land he sent his spies out to one city at a time, the first one being Jericho. The spies returned and said, “We can take the city.”
So, Nehemiah broke down this big task into smaller sections and he assigned specific, usually family groups, to each portion of the wall, enabling everyone to be involved in this ministry project for the Lord. And I mean everyone! Priests, Levites government workers, gatekeepers, security guards, police officers, farmers, goldsmiths, chemists, retailers, homemakers, and clerks, are all mentioned in this third chapter. This was a ragtag group of amateurs; but they got involved and they got the job done.
Ownership. The inhabitants of Jerusalem were committed in mass to reconstructing the walls. But being a skilled leader, Nehemiah realized he needed a way to give away ownership of the individual parts of the project so the people would end up not saying this is Nehemiah's project, or even saying this is our project, but saying this is my project.
I discovered the significance of getting ownership as a leader when I was a church planter, when we began to plan a building campaign. We decided it was worthwhile to hire a specialist to give us advice. When he met with our session, he started to click off what seemed like 27 different committees that we needed, one for promoting the banquet, one for decorations at the banquet, one for putting notes in the bulletin, one for planning the program of the banquet. Finally, exasperated, I asked, “Why in the world do we have to have all these committees?” He looked at me, smiled and said, “Because people give to THEIR building campaign not to YOUR building campaign.”
Nehemiah’s brilliant strategy was to assign responsibility to each group of Israelites to repair the portion of the wall closest to their home or business. Of course that strengthened their sense of ownership.
- They are internally motivated because it is their immediate loved ones who will benefit.
- They don’t waste time commuting to another site.
- They are motivated to build it well knowing they would look at it every day.
- They also don’t cut corners, knowing everyone else knows that part of the wall was built by them.
Nehemiah's plan worked fabulously. He appealed to each individual’s self-interest. Self-interest is not selfishness; it is responsibility—taking care of what belongs to you. This concept of stewardship is at the care of the Bible’s view of economics. Two of the Ten Commandments are based upon private ownership of property, “You shall not steal” and “You shall not covet.” Paul based NT church policies on this stewardship principle—you are required by God to take care of what belongs to you, liked yourself. If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. (2 Thes 3:10) and But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (1 Tim 5:8).
Private ownership and personal responsibility to work to provide for one’s family are the opposite of socialism, state ownership of the means of production. Not only is socialism anti-biblical, but history also proves that it has led to failure every time it has been tried, and usually catastrophic suffering. One location where socialism was tried is in the US, which few know about.
The Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts was founded in 1620 with a system of communal property rights, not biblical property rights. The community held everything in common, including food and supplies, distributing them equally and as needed by plantation officials. Everyone received equal portions regardless of their contribution. Gov. William Bradford, looking back on these years, reported,
“This system was found to breed much confusion and discontent and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. The problem was that young men, that were most able and fit for labor, did repine (complain) that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. Because of the poor incentives, little food was produced.”
In the spring of 1623, facing potential starvation, the colony abandoned their communal system, and each family was given their own land on which they could keep everything they grew for themselves. But now they alone were responsible for feeding themselves. This return to property rights, a concept taught in Scripture, had dramatic results. Food production soared and the Pilgrims prospered. Bradford wrote, “This change had very good success, for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been. Giving people economic incentives changed their behavior.”
As spiritual leaders we need to realize that many naive Christians today mistakenly think that socialism is more just than free market capitalism. It is not. Back in Nehemiah, he successfully got the walls built in 53 days because he wisely appealed to the self-interest and God-given sense of responsibility that each citizen of Jerusalem felt for his own family and business.
Christ’s strategy to build his church follows the two principles we’ve been examining: 100% involvement and 100% ownership. In Romans 12:3-8, Paul tells us that every Christian has a spiritual gift (100% involvement), which we are to own and use (100% ownership). God's strategy for building the Body of Christ is not paid professionals doing the ministry any more than Nehemiah's strategy was hiring Jerusalem Masonry Contractors. Nor is it to appoint a committee. Nor is it to have 20% of the congregation doing 80% of the ministry and ending up burned out and exhausted.
I'm reminded of a TV interview done with an old NFL coach named Bud Wilkinson. Wilkinson was speaking in Dallas as a part of the President's physical fitness program. A rookie reporter from the local TV station fed Wilkinson what he thought was a perfect question. “Mr. Wilkinson, what would you say is the contribution of modern football to physical fitness?”
So, the kid was a bit flabbergasted when Wilkinson's responded: “Absolutely nothing.”Wilkinson went on to say, “I define football as 22 men on the field desperately needing rest and 50,000 spectators in the stands desperately needing exercise.” All too often that's an accurate picture of the church—20% desperately needing rest, 80% spectators badly needing to be involved, which would cause them to grow more in Christ.
The Genius of Nehemiah’s Plan
A. His strategy divided up the workload so no one person had to carry too heavy a load. There was no record of anyone burning out while the building was going on. In the same way, God's strategy for the church is designed to prevent any one person from caring too heavy a load and burning out. Applying this truth to men’s ministry, church leaders need men’s ministry leaders to get the rest of the men in the church out of isolation and into connection in the Body.
B. Nehemiah's strategy met one of the deepest needs of the human heart—the need to accomplish something significant. Every morning on the way to work Meshullam the son of Berechiah could look at the beams and doors and bolts and bars he'd put in place. He could take proper pride in a job well done. God's strategy for the church works the same way. There is no one more excited or more enthusiastic about life than a person who is busy using his spiritual gifts and seeing fruit from his labor. That is why one of our jobs as spiritual leaders is to help our wives and kids understand what their gifts are, including their spiritual gifts.
C. The builders of the wall built in the place that was the most familiar to them, with people they were close to. Nehemiah’s groups were organized by affinity—through families working together, or professional guilds like goldsmiths and perfume makers. Affinity with others also came through various communities that built together, having been organized by districts. They knew each other. They knew who would be better at coordinating materials, chipping away the stone, hanging the gates, etc. In the same way spiritual gifts are best used in the context of regular relationships with others. For example, the gift of encouragement can't be used if guys are not connected in the Body knowing other guys are discouraged.
D. Building the wall together brought about healthy interdependence. If my neighbor’s wall was 10 feet tall and 10 feet thick, that was good incentive to make my wall just as high, thick, and effective for his protection as well as my own. Paul said of various members of the body, “If one member suffers we all suffer.”
E. The strategy of 100% involvement and ownership of the project not only accomplished the restoration of the wall in 53 days but provided an ongoing maintenance plan for the wall. Every morning and evening to and from work Meshullam the son of Berechiah would walk right past the wall he built. And the moment he spotted some slippage of the stones or settling of the posts, you can be sure he would get it repaired. In a similar sense by giving spiritual gifts to everyone, God provides for the ongoing maintenance of the Body of Christ, if each bleiever is connected in the community of Christ and using his gifts.
This chapter of Nehemiah shows us that a leader’s power to motivate his followers to achieve their goal is the forst step. But without a wise plan to achieve the goal, the result would have been FRUSTRATION. That is not what Nehemiah’s followers experienced. Rather, it was SUCCESS because he had a great plan. God has a great plan for building the church and Christ’s kingdom. We need to follow it, by every man contributing his spiritual and natural gifts as he is connected in the Body of Christ.
For Further Prayerful Thought:
- What do you most want to remember about how Nehemiah motivated the people?
- How have you observed the principle that when people have ownership of a goal or an asset, they feel much more responsible and motivated to take action?
- As you consider the parallel between Nehemiah’s method for building the wall and God’s method for building the church, what most stood out about the church?
