Managing the Church
For council chairs, trustees, and others with
gifts of administration
Nehemiah and prophetic administration
By Jeff Wright
Prophetic administration means moving beyond the maintenance of the system, and pushing beyond comfort zones. Church council leaders, trustees, and committee chairpersons who are prophetic seek solutions that work toward God’s great purpose, empowering the church to be what God created it to be.
The first chapter of the book of Nehemiah can help set the tone for such leadership. This Jewish cupbearer to the Persian King Artaxerxes receives news that the ruined city of Jerusalem is in a chronic state of crisis. The first three steps he takes establish him as a great manager of the affairs of God’s people.
Nehemiah begins by building relationships. Nehemiah asks questions of his brother and other people from Judah (v. 2). They tell him how tragic the situation really is. But rather than rushing to the rescue with his ideas, one gets the impression that Nehemiah holds an extended conversation. Nehemiah keeps asking questions, seeking information, and, most importantly, building relationships.
In the Southern California city of Pomona, a tiny remnant of members at First Presbyterian Church noticed that people in the neighborhood would not come to the church for evening programs. A year of trying to plan an evangelistic Bible study seemed doomed to failure.
Then John Whitney, a lay leader in the church, and a few other members began to ask neighbors why they didn’t come out at night. John and his friends discovered that people wanted to attend the Bible study, but the street lighting was so poor that they were afraid to be outside after dark. The church began to organize the neighborhood, and persuaded the city and the utility company to place 10,000 more streetlights in South Pomona. The Bible study is also going very well.
Nehemiah internalizes the pain. Nehemiah “sat down and wept” (v. 4). It is not enough for prophetic administrators just to listen and learn from the people. In order to move from a passionless management of the system as it is, toward a passionate leadership in the direction of what can be, they must allow space in their own lives for the pain of the people.
At Our Lady Queen of Angeles, the oldest Catholic church in Los Angeles, many members are without proper residency documentation. Under California law, these people cannot acquire driver’s licenses. Regardless of what one might think about “illegal” immigration, it harms everyone who operates a motor vehicle in California when some are denied access to the legal system on the basis of their immigration status. Father Arnold Abelardo works with leaders in his parish and across Los Angeles County to encourage a change in the state law. Abelardo has moved beyond the flash of anger at the injustices the members of his parish endure. Instead, he has allowed that anger to cool off and ferment into a reflective and prophetic way of working.
Nehemiah prays for the people. Nehemiah understands that prophetic administration is a profoundly spiritual process. He fasts and prays (v. 4), asking God to hear the plight of the people (vv. 5-6a), confessing the sin of the people (vv. 6b-7), identifying with the people (vv. 8-9), and seeking clarity about what they needed to do to remedy the situation in Jerusalem (vv. 10-11).
At Los Angeles Faith Chapel, a Mennonite congregation of West African immigrants who minister among the 84,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County, prayer is a way of life. For the leaders, prayer is not reserved for the beginning and end of meetings. At a recent elders’ meeting, half of the time was spent in prayer—for one another, for the needs of the church, for continued vision for ministry, and for the resources needed to accomplish what God was calling them to do. For Pastor Chuwang Pam and the leaders of Faith Chapel, prophetic administrators pray.
Nehemiah begins restoring the walls of Jerusalem by building relationships, internalizing the pain of the people, and praying as if there were no tomorrow. The remaining chapters of the book show us how prophetic administrators move on to bold and creative action.Jeff Wright is Director of Strategic Projects for the Center for Anabaptist Leadership, based in Pasadena, California. He is also a conference minister for the Pacific Southwest Mennonite Conference.