Though Nehemiah risked his career on rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem and though the king himself had approved of the project and given him provisions to complete it, Nehemiah didn’t do anything until he had carefully and personally checked out the situation, as he records:
I went to Jerusalem, and after staying there three days I set out during the night with a few men. I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart to do for Jerusalem. There were no mounts with me except the one I was riding on.
By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King's Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through; so I went up the valley by night, examining the wall. Finally, I turned back and reentered through the Valley Gate. The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, because as yet I had said nothing to the Jews or the priests or nobles or officials or any others who would be doing the work (Nehemiah 2: 11-16).
Two key lessons and challenges from this passage:
- It is a leader’s responsibility to personally check out the reality of any challenging situation.
- In church communications, as a leader, you need to know exactly what your communications are or are not accomplishing. Do you really know?
For example, if you strongly believe in small groups and preach often from the pulpit on their importance, do you have any idea how people actually get signed up for them?
Is there a list in the bulletin? Does it have contact numbers, emails and complete location, date and time details for each one? Or does it have a totally non-productive phrase such as, “Call the church office for more information.” That phrase is sort of like all the garbage Nehemiah encountered as he surveyed the broken down walls of Jerusalem—nobody can get past it.
Or is the contact information on small groups on your website? If so, anonymously try to sign up or ask for information on small groups. Are you successful? How long does it take to get a response? Even if the website works well, how many people in your congregation have web access? Do you know? Or did you put the small group information on the website only because that is what some web expert advised you to do?
Web experts aside, no matter what the content, all church programs need more than one channel—print, web, newsletter, powerpoint, whatever, if they going to connect with all all the people who need them.
One more thing: before you make any changes or try new things, be sure you thoroughly know the condition of your current church communications—there may be a little bit or a whole lot of garbage that needs to be cleaned up.
