Effective Leadership, Part 1: Seeing Needs & Problems / Praying & Planning

This is the first part of a series on leadership gleaned from a study of the book of Nehemiah from the Bible, with special emphasis as to how these concepts apply to our lives as Christians, as well as athletes and coaches. It has been said that the book of Nehemiah was the first book written about leadership, and when one reads the book he comes away with example after example of how to be an effective leader. Aside from Jesus Christ Himself, there is probably no one in the Bible who more models being an effective leader than this man named Nehemiah. The task that Nehemiah completes for the Lord in rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem in just 52 days, a marvel even by today’s standards, should cause us to pay close attention to how he operated as a leader in getting a group of people to accomplish this task. It has been said that an effective leader is one who gets people to do things they wouldn’t normally do and enjoy doing it in the process. In case you think that this article might not apply to you because you aren’t a leader, just remember that all it takes to be a leader is to have one follower. We all are leaders of others at times and in some ways.

The historical setting: Babylon had taken the Judeans captive in 587 BC, after burning down the temple in Jerusalem, tearing down the wall around the city, and burning down most of the houses. Now, both the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel were removed from their land. A number of years after the Judean’s captivity, in 549 BC the Persians conquered the Babylonian empire. King Cyrus of Persia immediately began allowing the peoples taken captive by Babylon to return to their homeland and re-establish their religions, including the Israelites in 538 BC. Amazingly, about a hundred years before Babylon even conquered Judea, Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 44:28 about King Cyrus of Persia, calling him out by name, and stating that after the future captivity of Judea that would occur that this man who would be named, Cyrus, would declare that Jerusalem and the Jewish temple would be rebuilt. See also the Lord speaking directly to Cyrus in Isaiah 45:1-7.

A man named Zerubbabel had been sent to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple in 538 BC, and after much struggle with opposition both without and within, the temple was finally completed twenty years later. However, the rebuilding of the city wall and the houses in Jerusalem had stalled and never got completed. In 458 BC, a Jewish priest named Ezra (who also wrote the book of Ezra) was allowed by the ruling King Artaxerxes I to go to Jerusalem and help complete that work, while also going to teach and enforce the Mosaic Law to the people in Judea. Ezra had been used to bring revival to the people in the land. However, that work of rebuilding had again stalled.

Nehemiah was a Jewish cupbearer to King Artaxerxes I, the king of the Persian Empire. In that position, he was sort of the king’s right hand man and his most trusted confidant, drinking every cup before the king drank from it. In 445 BC he hears a report that his people in Jerusalem are in great distress and reproach, and that the city wall is still broken down. This news is very disturbing to him, and he wept and mourned for days: Nehemiah 1:1-4, "...Now it happened in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, while I was in Susa the capitol, that Hanani, one of my brothers, and some men from Judah came; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and had survived the captivity, and about Jerusalem. They said to me, "The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire." When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven."

Nehemiah ended up fasting and praying for four months straight for his people in Jerusalem and the work of God to be rebuilt there.

The first principle of effective leadership I want to bring out is that an effective leader recognizes needs and sees problems for what they are. This is such a key for those who lead. Leaders need to understand those whom they are leading and recognize their short-comings and real needs. A pastor should look over his flock and recognize general needs that the congregation has, and he should also evaluate the individuals he tends and recognize their needs as well. A pastor may recognize that his congregation needs a building more than anything else, or maybe an individual to lead their middle school kids, or whatever it may be. These are over-arching needs. Within those whom he is shepherding he may recognize, for instance, that there are some men that have great potential to become leaders, but they need some training. Or, there may be individuals that need to be taught the basic principles of the Christian life, etc., etc. There are numerous examples of needs I could mention. But, the effective pastor will recognize the needs of those in his fellowship.

But, this principle of the importance of recognizing needs extends far beyond just the realm of church. A baseball team coach may recognize that his team needs, for instance, to gain a winning mentality. Maybe, the team is good offensively but there is a tremendous need for defensive skills and drills. Maybe, the team needs conditioning or speed or strength training. Then, there are the individuals. Perhaps an individual is a great second baseman defensively, but has no clue how to hit a breaking pitch. Perhaps someone else is a great hitter but when it comes to base running they are clueless, etc., etc. The more needs and problems that are diagnosed by a coach, the better chance he/she will have of being able to make the team better able to win.

The second principle of effective leadership I see is having a proper balance between praying and planning. Nehemiah could have just prayed that somehow the Lord would put it upon someone’s heart to go and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. He could have prayed that God would just somehow miraculously do the work Himself. Many Christians react in this way to needs and problems. Those who believe strongly in God’s pulling all of the strings and bringing everything that happens on earth together can be in this group. Conversely, Nehemiah could also have not prayed at all and been like a Jacob who schemed and manipulated events to happen. I had a friend once who told me that he never prayed for God to open any doors for ministry, he just kicked doors in. But, this type of ministry is completed in the flesh and thus does not achieve what one desires, nor does it glorify God. A proper balance is needed between human responsibility and divine initiative, between praying for God to lead you and work in a great way, and planning what you may do for Him.

Nehemiah prayed and planned as he prayed. For those four months of praying and fasting he was asking God to open a door for a conversation between himself and the king and that God would move the king’s heart to allow him to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the city’s walls. But, Nehemiah was also planning the entire project. He knew that he should get officially signed permission papers from the king to give to the governors along the 900 mile route he would travel, otherwise he might not be allowed passage. He also knew he would need officially signed permission papers to purchase the timber he would need to rebuild the wall’s gates; since wood was such a valuable commodity he knew without this paper he might not be able to purchase what he needed. Further, he knew he would have to give the king an estimate as to the time he would require to rebuild the wall, and when he would return. Being the king’s trusted cupbearer he knew he could only be gone for as short a time as possible, so he would have to give the king a time estimate that was of short duration.

The day finally came when the king noticed that Nehemiah’s countenance had fallen and that he was sad in heart (Nehemiah knew that to be unhappy in the presence of a Persian king would mean death so he had tried to be happy all through these four months of fasting and praying); he asked Nehemiah why he was sad. Nehemiah told the king, “Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?” Then, the king asked Nehemiah what he would request of him; Nehemiah prayed a quick prayer and said, “Send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.”

Here is what happens next: Nehemiah 2:6-8, "Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, "How long will your journey be, and when will you return?" So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a definite time. And I said to the king, "If it please the king, let letters be given me for the governors of the provinces beyond the River, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress which is by the temple, for the wall of the city and for the house to which I will go.""

So, when asked, Nehemiah gave a definite time estimate. Nehemiah next asked for the officially signed permission papers he would need for safe travel and also for lumber to build. The result was that the king was so impressed with Nehemiah, and his plan, that he not only granted him all that he had asked, we find later that the king also gave him an armed escort of troops to accompany him on his trip. If Nehemiah hadn’t both prayed and planned, he would have failed in his mission. Nehemiah's proper balance of human responsibility and divine initiative, and praying and planning, did not keep him from being successful, nor did it show him to have a lack of faith. This is what caused him to be successful.

Many times we who are in the ministry fail simply because we fail to plan. We need to pray for God’s leading, direction, and provision, but we also need to make plans. We want to get groups to go out and canvas the neighborhood and share the gospel, perhaps, but because we don’t plan for their training we are ineffective. We want to see men develop into leaders in the church, maybe, but we don’t invest in their lives like Jesus did with the twelve, and the men do not grow up and mature into leaders. We need to prayerfully make our plan, and then we need to work our plan.

Again, this concept goes way beyond the church. A coach who has ascertained his team’s needs and problems needs to come up with a plan to address them. Perhaps, a baseball coach realizes that his teams offense is just offensive, they can’t hit. He needs to plan a program to teach them hitting, or bring in a specialist in hitting, or whatever it may take to teach them how to hit. A coach who has a first baseman who misses lots of throws from the infield when they bounce needs to come up with a means to train that player how to scoop the ball and catch the bad throws, etc., etc. The more the coach makes plans to meet the needs and problems he has determined, and then follows through with those plans, the more successful his team will be.

I watched an interview with coach Mike McCarthy, coach of the Green Bay Packers, filmed just after this football season began. He was asked if he was worried about losing Brett Favre and having to rely upon untested third year quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, for the season. Coach McCarthy's reply helped me know he understood the importance of planning. He said, "I'm not worried, we have quite a program in place here." The panel of five or six football color commentators were hooting and hollering after McCarthy said that. They began saying that you can't lose a Brett Farve without your team being decimated. The fact is though, as I am writing this article eleven weeks into the season the Packers are in first place in their division, and Aaron Rodgers is ranked number five among NFL quarterbacks for the season (one ahead of Brett Favre), and, this is thanks to McCarthy's understanding of the importance of planning and working your plan. The reaction of these color commentators also brings out how few there are in our world that truly understand the importance of planning. It seems often that all that the media sees and values is the rare superstar who possesses other worldly ability that can't be learned or taught. Yet, to put together a "team" capable of winning championships requires lots and lots of planning and working to plan.

How about you, do you ask the Lord to reveal needs and problems to you of those who are under your care and leadership? Do you keep a proper balance of praying and planning the ways that God will use you? Do you make plans, and then work your plan?

If you’re a father do you recognize that elephant in the living room when you are at home? When you ignore them, elephants don’t usually just go away on their own. Do you pray and plan for how to talk with your spouse or children about their spiritual walk and welfare. If you are a Christian and interested in seeing a friend, neighbor, or coworker come to Christ, are you doing like Nehemiah and praying for an opportunity to speak to them, and then also planning what you will say when that door opens up?

Recognize needs and problems, pray and plan as you pray, and you will have come a long way towards being an effective leader.