In the twentieth year of his reign, King Artaxerxes, observes Nehemiah feeling melancholy. He asks, “Why are you so sad?”
Nehemiah responds, "Why should my face not look so sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruin, and its gates have been destroyed by fire." (Nehemiah 1: 3)
"What is it you want?” the king then demands. (Nehemiah 1: 4)
"Send me to the city where my fathers are buried so I can rebuild it,” Nehemiah replies. (Nehemiah 1: 5)
To all reform minded priests: Follow Nehemiah's example. Rebuild (re-enter) the City of God. First, visit the king (the bishop). State your goals. Outline the process clearly. Have a plan. Tell the bishop you need his backing and apostolic authority to succeed. Do not settle for just a blessing. Obtain a mandate to finish the job as well as a promise from the Bishop that he will personally defend the reformation process against all resistance. (Nehemiah 1: 7 - 8) Set a definite timetable with a completion date.
“The gracious hand of God is upon you." (Nehemiah 1: 8)
Assess the damage secretly. Delay notifying those
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Insist that they meet you at Christianity's primal roots. Be impartial, yet partisan for Christ. Show favoritism only to children, outcasts, and the needy. Be faithful to Christ's Spirit. Meet people where they are. Then, graciously accept the accusation that you are not meeting people where they are. Challenge the bishop to defend his own ministry. Offer friendly support. Do not nag. State your position firmly and clearly. Do not trade away right worship to keep long-time parishioners in the community. Prepare to have wealthy parishioners leave. Never ask laity embarrassing questions that reveal their ignorance. Do not use your university training to play devils advocate with, or to befuddle and confuse, your detractors' best arguments or they will write you off as
I would say to my church by being a Christian, learn to live by faith. In the Old Testament, they lived by traditions and always lived in sin, which aparted them from God
So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of Hashem , who is enthroned between the cherubim. And Eliʼs two sons, Hophni and Phinehas,
The Book of Nehemiah is narrative that continues the history of the Israelites after they return from exile. Nehemiah prays to God about Jerusalem and God’s promises. Nehemiah is sent from Babylon to Jerusalem where he inspects Jerusalem’s walls. Different sections were rebuilt by different groups of people. Through prayer, they were able to complete the rebuilding even when there was opposition. Nehemiah helped the poor by summoning the priests to make the nobles and officials take an oath to follow God’s law. A genealogical record is listed of the exiles who returned. Ezra read The Book of the Law to the Israelites. The Israelites prayed to God and confessed their sins and signed the Law of God. The Levites were brought to
Student Answer: Lamentations describes Jerusalem as an abandoned widow, that her people deserted her who once loved her. That the people were carried away and all she has are memories of past glory. That because of her sins, the Lord’s blessing had been withdrawn from her (Tullock, & McEntire, 2006, pg. 191).
Moses: The Holy Land is important to the my people because it was the land promised to us by God. The Holy Land is also where our great temple had once stood
I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” And God said, “I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.” Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.’ “This is my name forever, the name you shall call me from generation to generation. “Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to
This book seeks to encourage the declining and stagnate churches to take the example set by other churches that have had a period of decline yet have managed to pull up their socks and regained their lost growth. Stetzer and Dodson call this book the “comeback Churches’ to give the readers
Often, pastors think within the four walls of the church, and rightfully so, when they look at their ministry. However, getting involved in community events, i.e., city commission meetings, business leaders, local stores, and business, etc., are important to change the culture around the church. Trull and Carter
May 1, 2016, the Mt. Olive Baptist Church, located in Greenwood (S.C.) County will celebrate its 142nd church anniversary. Many years Mt. Olive have been a church that loved people, gave without limits and took great care of its members. The last five of those one hundred and forty-two years, I have been honored to serve as pastor of this great church. Although this is a great church, Mt. Olive and many churches like it are plagued with a disease that has slowly, but surely, causing the church to drift further away from God and fall deeper into the ways of the world. This epidemic is known as “tradition”. Churches that are bound by tradition and not led by the Holy Spirit will find themselves missing the mark of what God has called us to do. The bible is filled with instructions for the church, but as Christians and Disciples of Christ, Matthew 28 is the foundation upon which we should be operating on in the church as well as in our lives. The Great Commission challenges us to “go, teach and preach to all nations.” Traditional churches will allow church tradition to dictate biblical doctrine. It will allow the church to argue about who’s right instead of what’s right. Sadly, church success has been based on structure and finances rather than saving lost souls.
"Then Samuel got a big stone. He set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer. He said, "The Lord has helped us every step of the way.""
A sentiment common to almost any organization is that the one fact that remains constant is change. As society changes, and human understanding grows, any organization that maintains a static posture, assures its demise. Churches and Christian organizations are no exception. The gospel may remain the same, but the method for communicating it must speak to the audience to assure understanding. The Christian leader must be prepared to meet this challenge by incorporating an effective model for change into his theology of leadership in order to keep the ministry relevant and effective. Searching for such a change agent can prove to be challenging as well. To aid in this search, four
Christ is the leader of the Church, Paul in Ephesians 1:22 said “God placed everything under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the Church” however, God entrusted the authority to lead to his servant whom he set them aside to lead the community. Pastor as a public Leadership is to lead community. A person who is called by God to lead public has a responsibility to be in the community, with the community and for the community. One of best questions raised in the class during public leadership discussion was “How we can be a community pastor rather than just a church pastor?” This really a kind of question we are to consider as pastor especially as rural congregation pastor. In most cases when pastor are called to
Nehemiah the Israelite leader displays numerous traits of a Servant Leader in the biblical book, Nehemiah. Nehemiah sets out on a quest to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and the wall that surrounds his beloved home. During this time, he encounters many obstacles and will overcome all roadblocks put in front of him. This paper will provide an analysis of two significant events, building the wall around Jerusalem and organizing Jerusalem’s people to rebuild the city.
The Protestant Reformation indicated that a human can “connect to God and can do so without the aid of a priest.” The ecclesiology behind this is basically what aids me in my ministry. Peterson, in his book Essential Church, explains “the primary affirmation is not that each person is his or her own priest but that each Christian can be a priest, advocate, intercessor, and evangelist to others.” William Willimon, Pastor: the Theology and Practice of Ordained Ministry, highlights a variety of ways in which a pastor functions. In this paper, I am going to explain the ways in which my current ministry setting connects with the concept of priest as pastor in relation to worship and the connect and context of pastoral care while teaching others that they are able to accomplish the same task.
The book of Nehemiah is about the physical and spiritual restoration in Jerusalem. Nehemiah is viewed as one of the great leaders in the Old Testament. He led a group of Jews to rebuild the walls in Jerusalem. He shows his leadership through his prayers, sensitivity, boldness, and many other characteristics.