Where is Nehemiah? - Meditations on Nehemiah 3

    Did you notice that Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah (the author) was not listed in this chapter? There is another Nehemiah mentioned, but he was Azbuk's son. Where, then was he? Hadn't God called him to return to Jerusalem in order to rebuild the wall? Yes, He did, and I am sure that Nehemiah did have a hammer in his hand at times. But he is not listed here because it was not his job to repair the wall on his own. There was no way he could. He needed to enlist, motivate, and equip others to work as a team in order to accomplish the task. You could say that Nehemiah was the coach.

    Teamwork, which we looked at yesterday, does not develop naturally. It is usually the result of a coach who consistently elevates the importance of the team and demonstrates the ethic that he teaches. But the coach is not expected to be on the field executing the plays. He is on the sideline, making sure that all the players are in the right position and running the correct plays. During practice, it is the coach who is responsible for making sure that the players are trained properly and have the equipment that they need to succeed. When the team loses, it is the coach who first catches the flack.

    Like a coach, Nehemiah had a very great responsibility. He wasn't assigned a specific portion of the wall to repair. He was assigned the entire wall. He wasn't responsible for swinging a hammer or using a trowel. He was responsible for making sure that the hammers kept swinging and the trowels kept moving. He was responsible for keeping the vision clear for those who were wiping the sweat off their brows.

    Here, again, is a lesson for us to learn. Many churches adopt a mentality that sees the pastors as the ones who do the ministry. What Paul writes, however, is very different: "And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ" (Ephesians 4:11-12). In other words, the pastors are not the ones who do ministry in the church - they are not the ones building the walls. They are merely equippers, calling, organizing, and preparing the saints (the "average" Christians) to be the ones who do the ministry.

    This means that we need to adopt a mentality that is probably quite different from what we have been accustomed to. Instead of going to church to get ministered to, believers ought to go to church in order to be equipped to do the ministering. The sermon on Sunday morning is not intended only to encourage you and help you live a better Christian life. It is intended to help you be an encouragement to your unbelieving neighbor, or your believing coworker. The Life Group is not designed only for you to get your community fix, but also for you to make yourself available to others.

    The truth is, it takes good coaches to develop good players; it takes good pastors to equip good ministers. But once you are equipped, you must take responsibility for your section of the wall. Nobody else is going to do it. They are working on their own sections.