Torchbearers: The LCA Podcast

The podcast highlights leadership lessons from the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah exemplifies leadership starting with prayer, emphasizing unity in teamwork regardless of skills, and facing opposition with faith in God, not retaliation. Good leaders pray, unite willing individuals, and stay focused despite criticism. Leadership is about courage, conviction, teamwork, and faith. Welcome to Torchbearers, the LCA podcast where we highlight how God is impacting our school and our local community. This is Mrs. Williford hosting today's Monday's motivation on leadership. We are all called to serve and at times we are called to lead. Today we are going to be diving into the first three chapters of the book of Nehemiah, a powerful story of how leadership begins not with jumping into action, but with prayer. Leadership has three things. One of them, it begins with prayer. Nehemiah hears that the walls of Jerusalem are in ruins. The people are in trouble. He doesn't go right in and begin solving the problem. No, instead he pauses, he weeps, he fasts, and he prays. He makes his first move as a leader. He takes his burden to God. Nehemiah's prayer in chapter one isn't just a quick fix. Notice as you read it, it is filled with confession, filled with humility and dependence on God. He prays, Lord God, let your ear be attentive. Give your servant success. He acknowledges God's greatness. He confesses Israel's sin, his own sin, and submits his next steps to God's hands. As leaders, whether we're in schools, ministries, homes, classrooms, communities, we can learn from Nehemiah that real change doesn't start with a spreadsheet or a strategic plan or this great outline of what we're going to do next. It starts with prayer. It starts with our posture on our knees. So when things happen, when we're faced with challenges, what are we going to do as leaders? Are you going to try to create a great plan or are you going to pray? Next, leadership focuses on unity. In the next chapter, we see Nehemiah building his team. He first gets the permission from the king to go into Jerusalem. He looks at the damage. He calls his people together and he says, look, look at the mess that we're in, but we have to rebuild this wall of Jerusalem. And what did people say? They said, let us build. Here's the key takeaway here. Nehemiah doesn't bring together just the best craftsmen, the best contractors. No, he brings, he pulls together people who are willing regardless of their backgrounds. If you read closely, you will see a diverse group of people, priests, goldsmiths, perfume makers, sons, daughters, working together with one common focus. It doesn't matter what their skill set is. They're willing. A good leader calls those who are willing. A good leader focuses on people who are striving to carry out the vision and the task. More importantly, a good leader doesn't try to do it all on their own. They are asking for others to come alongside them and help. And then as we see later in Nehemiah, we face opposition. So what do leaders do when we face opposition? We fight back. We retaliate. No, of course not. That's not what we learned from Nehemiah. When Nehemiah faces opposition by Sandala and Tobias, they are constantly, it's crazy how you see, they're constantly mocking and jeering and picking on them and taunting. But what does Nehemiah do? He prays. He knows that God is going to take care of them. A good leader does not retaliate in the face of opposition. A good leader doesn't ignore the opposition. A good leader is always going to face opposition, face resistance, face criticism without doubt, without fear, but with full faith in God. So when we're criticized, when we feel like a plan isn't going to come to fruition, when we're looking at the rubble and we're thinking, how are we ever going to do this? We are not, as leaders, going to lose focus. We are going to press forward with purpose. So today, remember this, guys, great leadership, again, whether you're in your classroom, whether you're in your homes, moms and dads, grandmas, whether you are leading an organization, you need to remember what we've learned from Nehemiah. First, it starts with prayer. It is not a solo event. It creates teamwork and unity by bringing in people from all over, but people who are willing. And it does not crumble under criticism. We remain anchored and in full faith in our God. Thanks for listening today to Torchbearers, the LCA podcast. Next time, join us as we continue to walk with Nehemiah and discover what it means to lead with courage and conviction and, again, staying focused. Until next time, stay prayerful, united, and faithful.