The Trademark of God's Leaders - Nehemiah - A Planful Leader

This is Chuck Rapp with Multiply, a podcast to provide a word of encouragement for village church

planters and leaders.

Today we continue our series on the leadership qualities of Nehemiah, the Old Testament leader who

organized the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. In this episode we focus first upon chapter 2, verses 7 and 8.

“I also said to him, “if it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe conduct until I arrive in Judah? AND [emphasis added] may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests.”

I am very much impressed with how planful Nehemiah was. Notice how he had thought through his

series of requests to King Artaxerxes.

o He asks for time off from his responsibilities as the king’s cup bearer

o He asks to go to Jerusalem

o He asks for letters of safe passage. The distance from Susa to Jerusalem was 1365

kilometers; this was not a short trek.

o He asks for the provision of timber for building the temple, the city walls, and his home.

After four months of prayer, Nehemiah knew the details of what was needed, and he had a plan. I

would suggest that we as leaders need a similar approach. Jesus illustrated this is the parable about

counting the cost. “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate

the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able

to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ (Luke 14:28-30)

In our next episode we will discuss how Nehemiah was also a visionary. I find his combination of being

both visionary and planful to be somewhat unique. We will discuss this further in our next podcast.

I also observe one additional important leadership behavior in verses 11 to 16. Upon his arrival in

Jerusalem, Nehemiah carefully assessed the situation. He inspected the condition of the walls. Once

more he sets a helpful example for us; he does not rush into the situation trying to fix it. Rather, he took

the time to gather the necessary information before taking action.

May we be like Nehemiah, leaders who hear from the Lord and develop a plan.

This has been a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters.