Leadership Lessons: Nehemiah, The Game Changer

Brad Powell, the senior pastor of NorthRidge Church in Plymouth, Mich., was asked this question by Outreach Magazine: It seems that a lot of people who once chose to give their lives to vocational ministry are now choosing to leave it. What do you see as the problem?

From my experience, there’s one consistent element: We enter ministry with distorted expectations.

Jesus had so changed my life that I couldn’t think of anything grander than helping other people experience the same thing. So I devoted my life to ministry. But my expectations were idealized.

I believed:

* When I talked to people who were as lost and skeptical as I once was, the scales would immediately fall from their eyes and they’d believe.

* When I was called to pastor a church, people would immediately want to follow me and embrace my ideas.

* Because I was willing to serve the Lord with my life, he would somehow grant me calm seas and smooth sailing. (Obviously, I hadn’t read the Bible with my eyes open. This was never the case for anyone who genuinely gave their lives to following and serving God.)

Powell struggled with the idea of seriously quitting ministry altogether. The way he ultimately overcame this bout was by getting into God’s Word more. In that process, God gave him a leader to pattern his life after: Nehemiah.

What did he learn? God’s best can be best experienced in and through life’s worst. Nehemiah simply lived Romans 8:28, generations before it was written. When we know, understand and live this truth, it becomes possible to remain faithful and effective for the long haul.

Nehemiah experienced desperation (Neh. 2:2); opposition (2:10); weariness (2:11-12); loneliness (2:12, 16); and disappointment (2:13-15, 17). Yet he experienced God’s best. Here’s how he expressed it: “I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me” (2:18).

In the past, I had to accept and embrace this truth based entirely on faith in what God did for Nehemiah and other leaders. Not anymore. I have since experienced it for myself. But I almost missed it. Here’s what saved me: I chose to believe God would do the same for me as he did for Nehemiah. I never would have discovered that if I had quit. Nor will you.

It’s true that many are leaving ministry. No doubt some of those were never called. But many were. They’re now missing God’s best. I don’t write this in judgment, but sadness. I came very close to making the same tragic mistake. Because I didn’t, I’ve experienced God and his grace in ways that far exceed any expectation I had. I don’t want you to miss God’s best. If God never called you, please get out of vocational ministry. But if God did call you, please don’t quit.