Today’s Reading, Nehemiah 7
Focal Scripture: Nehemiah 7:2 “Then I put my brother Hanani in charge of Jerusalem, along with Hananiah, commander of the fortress, because he was a faithful man who feared God more than most.”
What type of leadership principles do you look for when selecting those who will lead? For many people they look for results and people who are high performing. They want charismatic and powerful people. A person who will get the job done no matter the cost. On one hand you need a person who is driven to lead any organization or church. They need skills and passion. However, true leadership must come from a person who is faithful and fears God, especially when leading Gods people.
This is what we see in our reading today. Nehemiah has finished building the wall. The gates have been installed and someone had to make decisions. Nehemiah picked people who were not only good leaders but were faithful. Not only faithful but feared the Lord. He understood that putting someone in charge who did not possess these qualities was a dangerous proposition and would lead to destroy what was just accomplished.
We have much to learn as believers from this scripture. The biggest being that those who lead should not be like everyone else, God needs to have their heart. Not just in salvation but also in how they treat others and view their leadership. I have seen many people who believe that being in leadership means you are accountable to nobody but God, especially in the church setting. Let me tell you that is not only unbiblical it is arrogant and prideful.
So what should a biblical leader look like? They must understand that they are first accountable to the Lord for all of their actions. Then they must understand they are accountable to the people they lead for how they lead and treat them. I have actually heard it said from church leaders that they are accountable to nobody but God, that they don’t work for the people they serve. This attitude is not only unbiblical it is sinful.
This belief will lead to arrogance, abuse of power, and abuse of those you lead. So what does a good leader look like. They are humble servants who fear the Lord. They don’t just lead their people, they serve their people. They understand they will give an account to God for how they lead and they will be held accountable by the people they lead. Transformational leadership invites inspection and questions. That’s because transformational leadership focuses on serving others not being in charge.
So ask yourself what type of leader are you? Are you faithful and fear the Lord? Also ask yourself what type of leader you have in your church. Are they there to serve you and make transformational change by living out scripture? Or are they arrogant and haughty believing they answer to nobody.
Choose your leaders well because bad leadership will cost you more than you know. However, good leadership will protect you from much danger.
Tomorrow, I plan on reading Nehemiah 8-9
