Press the arrow to listen to Desperation Band sing “Who You Are” while reading today’s devotion about developing leaders.

Scripture
Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem, but the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in Jerusalem, the holy city, while nine-tenths remained in the other cities. And the people blessed all the men who volunteered to live in Jerusalem. Nehemiah 11:1-2

Observation
Volunteering to live in Jerusalem in Nehemiah’s day was like putting up a hand to live in New Orleans after Katrina. In years to come, homeowners would outbid each other for a chance to live inside of those same city walls. But first it would take courageous pioneers to live in the rubble to rebuild.

There is something haunting about the picture of Jerusalem as a ghost town, with a puny band of courageous men living there to keep the lights on. I can imagine the empty space between neighbors and frightened outsiders looking at their glowing campfires from a safe distance of miles away. Others would follow these courageous pioneers.  But first these leaders would have to be comfortable living in uncomfortable places of vulnerability

Application
Today I’ve been thinking about the importance of having leader producing churches. We have buildings, we have people, but at the heart of things, where the leaders live, there is so much empty space.

My passion is developing pastors, particularly the Millennial ones. The answer is not just in developing pastors who serve but in inciting their vision to become leaders of churches who produce leaders.

For me that kind of church is natural. It’s the only kind I’ve ever been part of. But for many leaders that vision is not there. I spoke yesterday with my nephew, a 36 year old, passionate, risk-taking, church planter in western Michigan. He bemoaned that in the front yard of his alma mater, an enormous Christian university, pumping out thousands of students, that his denomination had planted only one church in recent memory.

The leader vacuum exists because the risk factor is too low. Where are the Nehemiahs who rally young leaders to live in the rubble? There is too much boredom in church life to inspire young people to loose their lives in something eternal. I want to be that kind of leader. I want to be part of that kind of church.

Prayer
Father, I ask today that you would help me to inspire not just leaders in my own church, but help me to be one who produces many other leaders. Amen.