Nehemiah’s Leadership Playbook: Repentance

Repentance

Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dust on their heads. Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners; and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for one-fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God. – Nehemiah 9:1-3

Still in line with leading a spiritual initiative that resulted in a corporate devotion and ultimately to spiritual alignment, one of the fallouts of the people becoming aligned with God is observing a national or organizational repentance, and that is one of the lessons we can learn from the leadership style of Nehemiah.

The realization of how much they had deviated from God and His tenets rightly sparked the eagerness from the people of Israel to retrace their way, and they started this process by observing the feast of seven days that coincided with the period they reconciled with God. But the feast was only a religious ritual, they realized there was more to getting themselves in sync with God than merely observing a religious ceremony. That was what led them to the confession of their sins and the sins of their fathers.

As we have noted in one of the earlier parts of this particular series, leading a spiritual initiative is something that a leader must first do with sincerity and commitment. Sincerity because it should not be done merely to score a pollical point for whatever reason or to gain popularity. God cannot be fooled; there are also discerning people among the led who can see through the antics of a fake leader. Besides, a leader stands more to lose by using God as a subterfuge. So, there is need for caution there.

Commitment is required on the part of the leader leading a spiritual initiative because she must be willing to see through the process and finish what she has started. You cannot make much fuss about pursuing a spiritual rebirth in your domain and get the process underway only to abandon it halfway. That is why commitment is necessary. Nehemiah did not just start the process but also walked through the experiences with his compatriots, convening a sacred assembly, listening to divine precepts for days, observing the feast of seven days and all its paraphernalia with the people. And then as they kept assembling to listen to the scriptures being read to them, they realized they needed to confess their sins and they did that together as a nation, not just confessing their own sins, but the sins of their ancestors as well.

In a world where secularism is the order of the day, overseeing a spiritual initiative is not for a fainthearted leader. One must be resolute and courageous to pursue it and mobilize the people to join in as well. Thankfully for Nehemiah, he did not have much difficulty persuading the people as they had suffered enough and learnt their lessons the hard way to the point of needing little or no persuasion to be reconciled fast to their God. If you wish to toe this path as a leader, you need to borrow a leaf from the playbook of Nehemiah.

You Will Succeed in Jesus Name!

Also read:

• Nehemiah’s Leadership Playbook: Spiritual Alignment
• Understanding God: He is A Creator
• One Thousand Marbles
• God Showed Up!