Build Strong Ministry Using Passionate
People
Read Nehemiah 1:1 – 6: 16
If you were to ask me what
my greatest passion in life was, I would probably answer, “my family”. My partner and son are the family I never had
as a child. We communicate with one another,
we trust one another, we respect one another and we love one another
unconditionally. They hold a place in my
heart that no one else can hold.
Scripture says that where
your treasure is, there will be your heart (Matthew
If I came to your church,
and was not the pastor, you would want to put me in a ministry that positively
affected my family. Why? Because our best work lies within
our greatest passion.
Let’s take a look at
Nehemiah:
He was in the citadel of
Nehemiah had a passion for
After mourning, fasting and
praying he had a course of action. He
went to the king whom he served and talked about what was happening in
Nehemiah went to
What Nehemiah did next was
brilliant! He wanted the walls to be
built strong in order to provide the best possible defense and protection. He therefore stationed people to work on the
wall in front of their own homes (3:1-32) or the places they were passionate
about.
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If you heard that there
would be a battle on the street you lived on, and that the best course of
action would be to build a strong solid wall for protection, where would you be
the most motivated to build? Likely you
would want to be sure that the area in front of your own home was very
secure. You would want to work on that
area yourself with a heart-felt passion.
In the same way, we want to
position people in a ministry for which they hold a heart-felt passion. Putting a person in a position for the
purpose of filling the position can be harmful not only to that person, but
also harmful to the church.
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I was pastoring a small church
some years back that had begun to attract new people. There was a suggestion that we start up a
social hour after church. The church
didn’t have much of a kitchen so there were limitations. About that time a woman who had been a member
of the church for several years, but not active in any sort of ministry
approached me. She said, “I recently
retired from my job and I have some extra time and energy. I’d like to get involved.” I asked her if she had any special interests
and watched as she hesitated for a moment.
Then she replied, “No, I just want to fill a need; is there anything you
need done right now that no one has volunteered to do?” I told her about the need for someone to pick
up pastries and start the newly purchased coffee pot each week. She smiled and said, “Consider the position
filled.”
The first week she provided
coffee and croissants after church. The
next week we had coffee and doughnuts after church. The third week she called to say that she
wasn’t going to make it to church that week and that I should find someone else
to do her job. The fourth week she
simply didn’t show up, and didn’t bother to call. The next week she didn’t show up again and
didn’t call. I contacted her and left a
message on her phone machine saying that I was concerned about her and that we
were missing her at church; I didn’t mention the social hour. She didn’t call me back. I called her again the next week and
specifically asked her to call me back because I was concerned about her. I received no response. I then sent her a card through the mail
saying that I hoped everything was okay with her and that she was missed at
church. Almost three months after she
began her social hour ministry, having only showed up for two Sundays, I ran
into her at the local mall. She looked
like she wanted to run in the other direction, but allowed me to come up to her
and say, “Hello”. I didn’t push the
issue of her disappearance, but simply said that it was very nice to see
her.
The next week she called and
asked if she could set up a time to talk with me. As we sat down together, several days later,
I asked if could get her a cup of coffee.
She replied, “No thanks. I don’t drink coffee.” There were some cookies left over from a
youth activity the night before so I asked if she’d like a cookie. She replied, “No, I’m diabetic. I don’t eat
sugar.”
A light was beginning to
dawn on me. I sat quietly and waited for
her to speak. She looked down nervously
at her fumbling hands and then blurted out, “The first week someone said the
coffee looked like tea and tasted horrible.
One guy went to spit it out in the bathroom while others laughed and
cheered him on.” Her face a deep shade
of red, she continued, “Then someone asked why anyone would buy boring old
croissants when there’s a delicious doughnut shop right down the street; of
course they didn’t realize that I’d made the coffee and brought the
croissants.” She continued, “The next week I made the coffee stronger and
brought doughnuts. Some woman called the
coffee ‘the worst tasting sludge she’d ever tasted. Another complained about the sugary doughnuts
hyping up her kids and said that no one in their right mind would bring
doughnuts to a social hour.” With tears
streaming down her face she stated emphatically, “I don’t drink coffee and I
had never made it before that day. I
haven’t had sugar for years so I didn’t know what was right or wrong to
bring. I don’t even have kids!” With that she began to sob to a point where
she could no longer speak.
I felt horrible. I had seen a ministry need and simply placed
a warm body into that need. The results
had been disastrous. The woman was too
ashamed to come back to church and no one wanted to take over the social hour
ministry.
Had I used Nehemiah’s
methodology in setting up this ministry I would have done things differently.
As you remember, Nehemiah:
Nehemiah successfully
brought new life to the Jewish community in
In contrast I:
I was unsuccessful in
setting up a social hour. It cost the
church a member and it cost that member her dignity.
We can be just as positive,
determined and creative as Nehemiah was in building within our own churches,
but we have to put a plan into action that places the right people in the right
positions.
In retrospect I wish I had:
·
Heard about the
problem (the need for a social hour)
·
Prayed for God’s
wisdom, guidance and direction in this matter
·
Talked with
other churches about how they set up their social hour
·
Brought the idea
and information to the leadership of the church
·
Cast the vision
to the church
·
Looked at
filling the position with a team rather than an individual, using ministry
identifying tools like spiritual gifts inventories, surveys and interviews
(Had I pastored a larger church I might have likely set up and empowered a team to put the entire social hour into ministry. With smaller churches we are limited in volunteers to do all of the footwork.)
It is also important to note
that while Nehemiah had the vision he didn’t show up and start building the
wall himself. In fact, we don’t read
anywhere in this story that Nehemiah was hoisting stone to rebuild the wall. It
was not his wall it was
They became so passionate
about building the wall that when their enemies threatened to kill them and put
an end to their work they set a new plan into place where half of them worked
to build the wall while the other half stood guard.
They completed the wall
fifty-two days after they had begun to rebuild it. When their enemies heard this they lost all
self-confidence because they realized that this was accomplished only with the
help of God.
“For which one of you, when you want to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if you have enough to complete it? Otherwise, when you have laid down a foundation, and are not able to finish, all who observe it will begin to ridicule you, saying, “This person began to build and was not able to finish.”
Luke 14:28-30
What do you want to build in
your church? It might be something that
requires physical manual labor, or perhaps it is an area of ministry that is
needed within the community. Here are some steps, based on Nehemiah, which will
help you calculate the cost:
If you want to successfully
bring new life and ministry to your church don’t settle for simply filling
positions. Instead, place people in
positions who have a passion and heart for that area of ministry, and don’t
settle for anything less.
What are the ministry areas
in your church? How were they built?
Why might it have been
important for Nehemiah to mourn before he took any action?
Why might it have been
important for him to fast and pray before he took any action?
How does your church make
decisions about the life of the congregation?
Consider a current project
going on in your church right now. What
have you learned from Nehemiah that could help you better implement it ?
God helped the people build
the entire city wall in only fifty-two days.
What could God help your church build, and how?
Does your church strive to
put people in the right places? If so,
what tools do you use in order to do this?
What questions does this
study raise for you?