Nehemiah 3:15
“Shallun, son of Col-hozeh, ruler of the district of Beth-Zur repaired the Fountain Gate. He rebuilt it and roofed it. He installed its doors, bolts and bars. He also made repairs to the Pool of Shelah near the king’s garden, as far as the stairs that descend from the city of David”

As young leaders, we all want to change the world. We have grand visions and ideas and think that if we are just given a shot we could do something amazing like slay a giant, move a mountain or even change a system. I’m not saying you won’t do those things, but I’ve realized the process is much different than we think. You may have entered into ministry with this grandiose idea of what it looks like and get discouraged when it actually looks a lot more like multiple trips to Costco getting food for a church event or unloading a trailer of equipment.

And maybe you have had these thoughts:

“I wanted to do something important!”
“I want to make a difference.”
“This is so pointless.”

It doesn’t take much to be a splash in the pan in the world of ministry. Maybe you are incredibly gifted. Maybe you deliver the best sermons your church has ever heard. Maybe your voice can stand up against the best of the best.

But the truth is, all the best leaders have one thing in common: consistency.

Good leaders show up for the small things just as much as they show up for the big things. Good leadership means handing in reports on time. It looks like sending out scheduling requests to a ministry team. And it most certainly looks like encouraging your team and praying unceasingly for your leadership. Yes, you may have those times where you deliver a Spirit-filled message that God laid on your heart, or you may get to take part in leading stadiums in powerful anointed worship, but leadership is not always the spotlight. Leadership is grit. It’s perseverance. It’s doing the trivial, mundane tasks because the little things ARE the big things.

In Nehemiah 3, I’m sure Shallun would have preferred to do something much more ‘important’ than repair a fountain or a pool. I could easily see him throwing his arms up and saying “What’s the point? How does this build the Kingdom of God?”

Centuries later, in this same pool, Jesus would heal a blind man and demonstrate His divinity (John 9:7). What may have seemed like a menial task to Shallun, God used for His purposes and glory.
So keep going. Work hard. Be consistent. Show up on time. Don’t chase the spotlight and be faithful in the little things. God may just be using you for the biggest miracle this generation has ever seen.

Written By Rachel Ernst

After hearing about his cousin John who had just been brutally murdered, Jesus wanted to get away. Mary and Elizabeth had gone through a lot together. During their time of pregnancies they lived very close to each other and as families do there must have been a deep connection. Jesus grew up like any other young boy, playing and involved in activities other children which would include his relatives.

We can imagine that this news brought sadness and a sense of loss. So he got in a boat and tried to slip away to an out of the way place by himself. Someone saw him and began to follow. The few became a crowd. Actually thousands began walking around the lake to catch up with him.

Despite his need to mourn he looked at these poor souls as sheep without a shepherd and was overcome with compassion and healed their sick. The people of course, kept coming.

It was getting on into the evening. Here they were out in the desert. There were no supermarkets near by not even a pit stop for travelers who for some reason would use this path as a short cut to somewhere else. Jesus was still busy touching, healing and doing the work he was called to do.

The disciples became a little concerned and eventually tried to get this session ended. They began to plead with him, can you please let these people go. We understand your love and compassion for these people but we are out here, it’s dark and cold and these people are hungry and there is no place for them to buy food, let them go to the village so they can eat.

Jesus does the most astonishing thing. He takes their idea and said to them, ‘there is no need to dismiss them, you feed them.’

You’ve got to be kidding Jesus. We haven’t counted them yet but they are up in the thousands and all we have are five loaves of bread and two fish.

Jesus said bring them here. He blesses the loaves and fish and hands it back to the disciples and the disciples start giving out.

A small idea of how to care for people gets bounced back with what seems impossible.

I can’t, don’t have time, resources, ability, energy…all I have is … You had the idea, people should be fed. It may cost us, we may have to give all we have. Jesus takes what we give, blesses it and hands it back to us and we give it to one person after another without really knowing what is happening.

You hold the hands of senior and sing softly in their ear , they squeeze your hand, a smile comes on their face as they join you in, ‘and exchange it some day for a crown.’ You see a distraught young wife waiting for her husband to have treatment, you ask for their names and promise to pray for them and hear the words thank you, you have made my day. You offer what you have, inadequate though it may seem.

What happens when we hang out with Jesus. We blunder with our ideas he takes our artistic gifts, our skill with words, an eye for figures, and offers them to the Father he blesses them gives them back to us to give to those who need them. There is even enough left over to keep on giving.
Matthew 14:13-21

Take a moment to think about the world’s most powerful leaders. What words come to mind?

Ambition? Passion? Determination? Ruthlessness?

What about humility?

We don’t often equate successful leadership with humility—at least, not by the world’s standards. The world tells us that in order to lead, you need to put yourself first, show that you’re better than the rest, and strive for the top—even if that means alienating a few people along the way.

But the leadership modeled by Jesus Christ shows us a much different approach. The apostle Paul describes it this way in his letter to the Philippians:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped, but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Philippians 2:5-8

Christ chose to live and lead through a posture of humility. Let’s unpack these verses.

• Jesus “did not consider equality with God something to be grasped” (v. 6). Another translation reads that Jesus “did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage” (NIV, 2011). It’s important to note that Jesus did not set aside his divinity when he lived on earth. He was fully God and fully human. However, Jesus chose to pursue obedience to God, rather than equality with God. Jesus did not flaunt or abuse his power.
• Jesus “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant” (v. 7). Jesus did not set himself up as a king when he lived on this earth. Quite the opposite—he came to serve. In Mark 10:45, Jesus says, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Think of the many days that Jesus served people from early in the morning to late at night—healing, teaching, feeding, driving out demons. Crowds gathered around him. People clamored for his attention. It must have been exhausting! But he did not put his needs first; he served day after day after day.
• Jesus became “in human likeness” (v. 7). Becoming human was the only way that Jesus could carry out God’s plan of salvation. But what an act of humility for the Son of God to put on flesh—to experience pain, hunger, temptation, and limitation.
• Jesus “humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (v. 8). Jesus’ ultimate act of humility was shown on the cross. In humility our Saviour and our leader put God’s will above his own.*

Matthew 26:39

Far too often our human nature gets in the way of pursuing a Christ-like attitude of humility and obedience. This is especially true of leaders! We can get addicted to feelings of self-importance and the rush of receiving praise for our accomplishments. But these desires lead us away from God and away from the true leadership model of Jesus Christ.

True leadership humbly submits to the True Leader.

True leadership embraces its humanity and limitations.

True leadership takes on a posture of servanthood.

True leadership stays faithful to its mission, no matter the cost.

Have you thought about your leadership motivations lately? What’s standing in your way of pursuing Christ-like humility and obedience?

As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs: the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength each one appears before God in Zion.” Psalm 84:6-7

I love to run. Maybe it’s more accurate to write that I love how I feel when I run. I love how running clears my mind and quiets my soul. I register for races because I need motivation. Then, I question my sanity. Why did I register? Why did I join with a friend? Now, I can’t back out. Then, I remember my goal. The discomfort of training is worth the glory of finishing with a strong body and mind.

Race day dawns with excitement. The crowd cheers, the gun explodes, and thousands of feet hit the pavement. Soon that fades, and I’m left in the race just putting one foot in front of the other. I am tempted to quit, but my friend encourages me. She wants to stop, so I support her. Every stride brings us closer to the finish. Our strength and determination increase as we overcome difficulty and exhaustion. Mental fatigue lessens. Soon, cheering people line the streets again. The prize is in sight.

Note the pronouns in Psalm 84: 6-7. They go through the valley… they make it a place of springs… they go from strength to strength. THEY. Plural. In the utter exhaustion of ministry, when logic dictates we should quit, when it makes no sense to get back up and keep putting one foot in front of the other, God designed us to draw strength from one another. I stumble, and you steady my feet. The weak collapse, so the strong carry them. When despair hits hard, we collectively worship our way through the Valley of Baca. Our eyes fix on the finish: standing before the Lord.

Barnes Notes on the Bible calls Psalm 84:

…a beautiful illustration of the life of Christian pilgrims – of the bands of the redeemed – as they journey on toward the end of their course. By prayer and praise and mutual counsel, by their songs, by the fact that difficulties are surmounted, leaving fewer to be overcome, and that the journey to be traveled is diminishing constantly – by the feeling that they are ever drawing nearer to the Zion of their home, they increase in strength, they become more confirmed in their purposes, they bear trials better, they overcome difficulties more easily, they walk more firmly, they tread their way more cheerfully and triumphantly.

Barnes notes on the Bible

Community is a gift. You do not have to endure your valleys alone, yet too often ministry leaders and wives believe the lie that we do. I urge you to find your people. Find the community—online or in person—that will remind you the joy and pleasure found in God’s presence far exceeds troublesome ministry valleys. God’s presence is worth it.

• Who am I at the grocery store, on the golf course or with my family?
• Am I that same person that’s professing Gods love and truth while I’m on the platform?
• Am I honest when a cashier makes a mistake and I owe more money but conveniently forget to tell her?
• Do I return the shopping carts?
• Do I leave unwanted groceries in the wrong aisles?

Those are only some of the many questions that as leaders we need to ask ourselves.

Because as Christian leaders, our integrity is everything.

When we teach a Bible Study, speak from a platform or lead in any capacity, our lives become an open book. People are curious about leaders. I think they want to know what unique encounters and life skills they have developed to make them a leader. Numerous times I’ve had women come up to me and say: “I’ve been watching you for years.” Yes, that knocks the wind right out of me. It’s a harsh reality to recognize that as we’re leading we’re being watched. And leading means that we are representing the character and image of our Heavenly Father. That’s a high standard and calling. One that we cannot take lightly.

Representing our Heavenly Father is a high calling.

When I first became a Christian I lived a double life. One life of a mother, wife and professional who sometimes did and said things behind closed doors that I did not want the world to see. Yet on Sunday morning and Bible studies I was the one with the big pearly, white tooth smile with not a care in the world. But over the years heartache and tragedy have wiped the duplicity out of my life and I don’t have the energy to be two people. Now what you see is what you get.

I’ve also come to realize that I reflect the beauty and glory of my Heavenly Father. The Bible states it clearly:

I have given them the glory that you gave me” (John 17:22).

Wow, that can make your heart pound can’t it? It crystalizes the fact that whatever I do, and wherever I go, I represent the love, kindness, grace, mercy, peace and forgiveness of our Glorious Heavenly Father.

In the early years of my Christianity, once I recognized my duplicate life, I wore a cross on my coat lapel. For years, every time I felt the urge to be unkind, I touched that cross and it reminded me that the situation was not about me, but about representing the King of King and Lord of Lords.

So we do have to ask ourselves a lot of questions.

• How am I representing the Lord of all Creation?
• Am I honouring Him by my behaviour and actions?
• When I encounter people will they know without a doubt that I have the qualities of Jesus Christ?
• Will my behaviour make a Kingdom difference? When I leave that room or event, will I leave the fragrance of Christ?

As leaders these questions need answers. What is one thing you need to bring out from behind closed doors so that you don’t live a life of duplicity?