Page 37 - Principles of Leadership - Nehemiah

5. In what two ways does opposition come to a leader, specifically a pastor?

6. When Nehemiah declared that the opposition had no share, right, or historic claim in Jerusalem, what
major problem was Nehemiah trying to avoid?

Let’s get Personal…

Activity: We find that churches and once godly institutions change their doctrines over the years so that finally,
the organization totally departs from its original intent. They let errant ideas creep into their philosophies and
eventually into their dogma. Colleges that were bastions of Christianity in America 100 years ago are now
among the most liberal, anti-Christian institutions in the country. Why do you suppose this happens?

Chapter 5: The Servant’s Partners

Connect…

Robert Lupton is the president of Focused Community Strategies (FCS) Urban Ministries based in Atlanta,
Georgia. In his book Renewing the City, he retells the story of how “a layman organizes the largest volunteer
community service project in biblical history." 118 Robert Lupton asked, “What good was a house of God when
there was no city of God to implement its beliefs? Indeed, it was little more than a broken symbol of some
scattered tribal people who once believed themselves to be Yahweh's chosen race." 119 Nehemiah had
presented the documents from King Artaxerxes showing that he had officially established Nehemiah as the
governor of Judah in our last chapter. Now, Nehemiah had the responsibility of uniting the various factions of
Jerusalem and beyond. We will discover how Nehemiah brought unity to an extremely divided group of people
throughout the next few chapters. “This difficult task would be drawing a contentious people of varied classes,
cultures, and dialects into a unified kinship. Unless this fractured group of Abraham’s children could be pulled
35