Guarding Your Vision

When opposition comes your way, of course you got to guard morale. You got to guard the work. You got to guard your people. But more importantly than anything else, you have to guard your vision. Find the strategy with us coming up right now on the Clear Week Today Show.

You're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm Ryan Hill. I'm John Galantis. Welcome to the Clearview Today Show.

We're so glad you're joining us right here in the studio with our host, Dr. Abadan Shah. If you're listening for the very first time, Dr. Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's show. Dr.

Shah, Leadership Lessons, Galore. We have been going through the book of Nehemiah and we've been learning what it takes to be a godly leader and how to stand up to opposition.

Well, one thing we finished on last time or yesterday's episode was that you have to guard the vision. And it's not a one-time. One and done thing, it's not a once-time once in a while you do that, it is a constant guarding of the vision because constantly, if it's a good vision, if it's a godly vision, it will be attacked, it will be challenged, it will be questioned.

So, you have to guard the vision. That's right, yeah, that's right. Vision has been the central theme in this discussion about leadership. I feel like everything with Nehemiah, from the opposition to getting the people's support to figuring out the trajectory forward, it always goes back to vision. Absolutely, and you know, you have to craft the vision prayerfully, strategically, then you have to get a buy-in, you have to get consensus, and then have the whole organization, institution, even the company buy in to the vision.

Now, I'm not saying that every person in the church has to 100% get behind the vision, right? They may not. Every person in the business may not need to be getting behind the vision, but overall, they should know: okay, this is where we're headed. And based on their Position in the company, or based on their involvement in the church, they should be, they should understand the vision much more. But then just know that vision will have opposition.

Just like Nehemiah's vision to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem, to rebuild and hang the gates, immediately opposition came from the north, from the east, from the south, from the southwest, and they tried to destroy the vision using ridicule and mockery and threats. But Nehemiah prayed to God, He rallied the people and went back to work, but he did something else the second time around. when he heard the clamor that these people were going to attack, They were going to attack Jerusalem. They were going to attack and destroy the walls. He said.

guards all over the city walls.

So it says right here in verse thirteen, this is Nehemiah chapter four, and verse thirteen, it says It says right here, Therefore, I position men behind the lower parts of the wall. At the openings. And I set the people according to their families, with their swords, with their spears, and their bows. And I looked and arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people, Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.

So he said the guards. on the lower parts of the wall where the enemy can come in. on the opening where the enemy could come in. What about where the walls were high? He did not put soldiers there.

It would be a waste. Don't just do things to say, I did it. Think about what you're doing. If it's a lower part of the wall, yes, it's vulnerable. If it's an open door, is vulnerable.

said gai uh and soldiers there.

So also in the vision, be be very careful, strategic, because your people know what you're doing. And if they don't see a reason And a purpose behind it, a strategy behind it, then they will doubt you. They will go. I have no idea why. What what is your purpose behind that?

Every little bit of the detail is important. Everything is important, isn't it? Yeah, Nehemiah thinks through everything, every possibility, every scenario. And he's just, it seems like he's making the right call consistently. It's not just like, hey, he got lucky in one instance, or hey, he made the right call here, but.

Along the way, I mean, every step of the way, he's making good decisions. How do you measure up to that, Dr. Shah? If I'm a person, if I'm in ministry and I'm a young person, I'm reading about this hero, Nehemiah, in the Bible, who constantly makes the right decision. And I'm constantly hearing on this podcast about how people are expected to think through everything, make the right decision.

How do I measure up? You know what I'm saying? How do I think about all of these different things, especially if I'm not a detail-oriented person? Right. It's small things matter.

You know, I used to hear that. Small things matter. Fix the small things.

Now, does that mean the big things don't matter? No, the big things matter. Here's the thing: everything matters. The big things. The more abstract things, like the vision, like the gospel.

Now, they didn't have the word gospel back then, but they knew that someone was coming. Right. And Jerusalem is going to be the focal point of his work, his death, his resurrection. We got to get this city back in place. It'll still be 400 years.

They don't know. But we gotta get this right. Or maybe they did from Daniel's prophecy. Maybe they knew. Yeah.

We gotta get a start on that. But the small details also matter. Where it's not just, oh, we got the big things going. I'm not a detailed person. Anytime I hear someone say that, I'm like, okay, I hear you, I get it.

But someone is, someone better be. I have tried Personally, I've tried to be both. I go more for the balance. Where yes? We need to see the big picture, the vision, the mission, the slogans, whatever, but also the little things.

Okay, so for coming up this summer splash, do we have the food trucks?

Okay, we have the food trucks. Are we going to make sure the trucks are lined up properly? Just make sure that nobody can just drive right in.

So put those vans around. I mean, those are the minor details. I think if we. Do our best to also focus on the minor details. People will know this person.

It's genuinely deserving of that leadership. I have seen people do that well And then I have seen people who don't do that well. Is there one that comes more naturally for you to see the bigger picture, vision level type stuff, or more detail-oriented? Is there one that's that's. Kind of your natural Bent.

Yeah. Be honest with you. I'm trying to be as honest as possible. That's a great question. I would say Personally, No, I mean, it it's almost I would say forty six or forty five, fifty five for me.

So so really, truly split down the middle. Yeah, forty five would be big picture, fifty five would be the little details. I probably w are I'm more detail focused. Like, make sure we get that right. Is this right?

Is this color correct? Is this font right? And what I found is. is a lot of those leaders Like like like Nida Kobain. He got the big picture.

But he also focused on the little detail. He was focused on how the landscape looks like. He was focused on how the buildings are laid out. Billboard signage. The sidewalk, how wide it needs to be.

Now, that's detail. I mean, that's very detailed.

So when I read about people like that, I ask myself, am I doing that? And Some organizations or churches, you see people. Who have people who are doing that?

So you go do those things, and I'm going to stay in my wheelhouse. I've never had that luxury. And maybe y'all don't either. And that's not negative. That means God is setting you up to do some very, very big things.

The thing, I mean, you mentioned Nido Cubain. We read a book by him recently about his time coming to and his tenure at High Point University. And the thing that struck me about all those little details, like how wide the sidewalk needs to be, and how this needs to be lit, and how the colors need to be right here, is that every minute detail fed back into the vision, like the underlying. Cause behind widening the sidewalk so that students can walk together and so they can have conversations instead of just one passing the other in a lane.

So, everything, yes, the details mattered to him, but it was always connected to a larger, a larger path. I think you're right. Speak to someone who's young and who is starting out in ministry and who's saying that, like, is that something that will come in time with maturity? Or is that something that I just need to make up my mind that I need to know all of these things and I need to care about all of these things? Yeah, you should start caring about all those things.

Okay, I'm a scholar, right? And so. As a scholar, I am I like to look at the details. I like to make sure things are right and they need to be right. There need doesn't need to be any fault.

Now, on the flip side of things. When you are more of an entrepreneur.

Okay. Entrepreneur means somebody who is not going to wait till everything is perfectly lined up. We're kind of dealing with that perfectly lined up before we launch it.

Well If you do that, If you're more scholarly bent or academic bent, you'll never launch anything because you'll never ever be right. And if you're very entrepreneurial, Then you will just, you know, you'll just be putting things out there, hoping something will stick. Yeah. And then people stop. paying attention or You find that niche, or you hit that jackpot, and next thing you know, you are the thing.

You're in. Yeah. I would like for us to be both. Where you are scholarly and yet you are entrepreneurial. Where we look at the details, and at the same time, we know that.

Yeah, I think we have worked this to death. It's time to go. Let's launch this thing, let's move forward.

So What does that mean for a young person who doesn't think in those terms? Get around people who do. Listen. To people who do, read books about people who do, and then know that you have been given a tremendous opportunity. to make a big difference and start doing those things.

You cannot shrug those things. You cannot dumping on somebody else. You have to.

Now, when it comes to our Home life. I am more of the long range person. Nicole is more short range, like what do we need today, tomorrow, this week, next month. I'm thinking more twenty years from now, what do we need to do?

So in those areas, Yes, that's great to have that compliment. Where she is now person, I am long-range person. That's fine. But in other areas, you need to find more balance. I would emphasize balance, balance, balance.

So you've got Nehemiah who knows that this attack is coming. He's seeing the details, he's putting his guard on those lower levels. And now he's prepped. Even though if push comes to shove, we may or may not win this fight. At least his people see this guy cared enough to put us here so that when the time comes, we're at least somewhat prepared.

Or at least the enemy can look and go.

So they are in formation. They're not just randomly 50 people standing over there, and this is massively open. Are we serious? Or your own people looking at this and going, Why are 50 guards here? Yeah, and that is completely wide open.

Yeah, means this person hasn't thought through this. Can I follow this person? That's how they're thinking. It's frustrating, but that's how they're thinking. And you're thinking, it's like, no, the big picture, guys, the big picture.

We're going to build the walls and we're going to have trade and commerce and it'll be wonderful. And they're going, But you put 50 guards over there. Yeah. There's an army at our door. And there is this gaping hole over here, and there's no one there.

So I would say Nehemiah is a phenomenal leader where he has the big picture, but he's also making sure that. He put men on the lower parts of the wall and then at the openings. Yeah, I think he yeah, I think he represents that balance well of seeing details and big picture. And his people see that and the enemy sees it. Yeah.

Yeah. So what happens next?

Next thing is He rested in God.

So, what does that mean? Listen to verse 19. Then I said to the nobles, The rulers and the rest of the people. The work is great and extensive, and we are separated from one another on the wall. Wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there.

Our God will fight for us.

So What is amazing to me is that he created a system of alerting each other.

So they're there. Trumpets In hand? and they are ready for the battle. The soldiers are there. And the people are working.

And it says right here in verse 17: Those who built on the wall and those who carried burdens loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked a construction. At construction, and with the other, they held a weapon.

So they are building and protecting at the same time. Wow. Every one of the builders had his sword girded at his side as he built. and the one who sounded the trumpet was beside me. I mean, to me that's Amazing that he is thinking about these details, like, okay, guys, this is how it's gonna be.

This is our signal. And then here's what happens: wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet, rally to us there. Means somebody's trying to breach. Yeah. the the wall or the gates And we need all hands on deck.

Get over here. Don't just stand there. Get over here. Maybe keep one person over there, but I need two of you to come and help. Don't stand back and they're like, Oh, well, look at that.

They're going after that gate over there. Like, these people are ready. They're made to be ready. Yeah. Yeah.

So. I think that's that's amazing uh that he Thought of all those things. I wonder what was going through the mind of the goldsmith or the perfumer or the city official who at the beginning of this project, they were not builders and yet have been building. And now they are warriors as well. They're wearing both of those hats.

And following Nehemiah as he inspires him to do both. Or if you're a pastor who's leading people and you're leading like business people, you're leading like blue-collar people, and you're saying, you know, through us, God is going to change the world. And they're thinking, like, I work at the auto shop. You know what I'm saying? Yeah.

Like, through this church, whatever your church is, God is going to touch lives, impact marriages, save people, bring the lost to Christ. And these people are thinking, like, I'm, I bake cakes. You know, what do you, what do you mean? I don't think they would probably think like that. I don't think they're going to think of I'm inadequate.

Yeah. They want to know as a leader, are you adequate? Years ago, I think I shared a concept with you about shepherding horses. It's not unique to me. It's something I learned from others.

When you're leading people who are business owners, when you're leading people who are leaders, you don't lead them the way you lead. The average people. And I'm not trying to be disparaging towards those who may not be leaders or business owners. What I'm saying here is not everybody is led the same way. The average person would say, Okay, you're the leader.

Tell us what to do. Mm-hmm. Leaders will look to see: Are you capable of leading me? You want us to do this? I do this for a living.

I do this at the hospital. I do this with my squad. I do this with my team. My sales team. I do it with my ministry leaders.

Are you capable of leading me? Are you sure? Because I'm not just going to follow you because I know what it takes. Shepherding people like that is. difficult.

You need to understand their mindset, which means they need To Know that you are thinking through things. They need to know that you're not just haphazardly making calls. Have you thought through stuff?

So I remember when I first became the principal, I was like. I'm an educator. I got a degree for education. I am doing a PhD work which is higher education. How hard could it be?

I'm a teacher at heart. I had to convince the prince the people, and I didn't convince everybody. Completely.

Some were opposition. But I had to convince certain people that I do know what I'm doing. And we do know which way we're going. And this is what, and initially, I didn't understand that the value of that, but eventually I did, and I was like.

Okay. And then you're actually grateful that people actually followed you. What was that process like? How did you do that? I had to understand.

Let's say we're going to work on the curriculum. I can't just say, hey, let's work on the curriculum, guys. I'm going to be over here doing my thing. Y'all work on the curriculum. Let's get that straight.

Curriculum is very important because curriculum helps our students study. He's like, what does that mean? Yeah, I mean, you actually said nothing. Yeah. So I have to now go and read and research and go, okay.

Curriculum here is there are different ways of curriculum management.

Okay, this is how it works. Part of that is making sure we have the right textbooks. That requires also making sure we're going to the right presses. Making sure that what we're the curriculum we're getting is not like some classical education because these students in middle school did not go through classical education. I can't just all of a sudden dump that.

Are the teachers capable of teaching this? What are our our goals here?

Okay, th this is curriculum management.

Now I have to now make sure the teachers understand what we're trying to accomplish. I cannot. Radically change the curriculum because I'll have rebellion on my hands. Right. Because they'll be like, I you want us to do this, but all my lesson plans are this.

For all these years, I've been teaching this.

So I have to make sure I don't radically change things that they have to now spend the entire summer. The entire summer creating a brand new lesson plan. Mm-hmm. For English and math and physics, and not physics, but science. Right.

We're talking about middle school, and then for high school. I cannot do that. I have to make sure that that they know that I thought through that. Uh You cannot fake, but so much. Can you map that same process onto the church experience?

Like, if there's a pastor listening that says, I'm with you, I'm with you, keep going, can you apply it to me? Absolutely.

So let's talk about. how a worship service is run. There's a procedure, there's a plan. One reason I think small churches rebel against A young seminarian, or a church planter type, or I'm here and I know how to be hip. Mm-hmm.

And I can really attract some young couples and let's try this and that. That person, or the persons in that church who have been there for years and looking at you going. Yeah. You're just gonna do whatever.

So what's the next thing coming? What is the next thing going to happen?

So they they they push back. But if you go okay, so in a worship service, we have the prayer is there.

Okay, great. Our songs are there and do songs, offering before or after service.

Now We need to have a certain pattern that we don't keep changing.

So they're looking at you going, okay, so he's thinking through that. This is something that has structured in his. There's a structure there, there's a purpose there.

Okay. I I can see that.

So you can move things. And people will even go along with it if they know what you're doing and why you're doing it. Hey, guys, here's what we're going to do: okay, we're going to do away with an offering. We're gonna have boxes in the back because the church I went through went to in Chicago, they had boxes in the back and people came and they just dropped offering and they had to and nowadays nowadays man it's a cashless society. People give offering online.

Your people are looking at you going, what is going to smoke? He's going to get us broke. By the end of the year, we're going to lose all our money because people are going to stop giving. Yeah. Don't pull those kinds of stunts.

Stop it. Stop right where you are.

Okay. You? Stop it. There you go.

So don't do stuff like that. Yeah, you can put boxes in the back. We have them in our church. And maybe we need to emphasize that more and say, hey, there are boxes in the bag. You can drop your offering there.

But make sure that's important to them. And you're saying we're going to make it so casual that this whole offering plate passing thing. Man, that's so. 80s. Yeah, what happens to the 80% of your church that doesn't agree with you?

Right. Then all of a sudden they push back. Yeah. And they think you don't know what you're talking about. Yeah.

Yeah. So there's one example. Other things that you can think of is: well, how do you plan out the church calendar? Do you sit down and strategically plan out what's coming up? Mm-hmm.

Father's Day. Yes, something is happening. Mother's Day, something's happening. Memorial Day, not a word said. Your people are looking at you going Is he going to acknowledge?

Is he going to say a word about all those who died? Yeah, my father died in the war. I'm waiting for you to say something. It's important to me. You know what I'm saying?

Tuesday's coming up, folks. And I hope. Did I do that one time? I did that on. What did I do that for?

It was a holiday that we did that on the back wall was Mother's Day. And before I could stop myself, I knew it wasn't Mother's Day. Yep. Was it Memorial Day? I think it was.

It was something like that where Mother's Day, Mother's Day had been a little bit more. Happy Mother's Day, everyone. It was a fall, though. It was somebody else put an old slide. Yeah, we attach.

So if there's something like that, we think through what we're going to say. We put it on the, we attach it to the sliding board on the back wall. Nobody else can see it except for us on the stage. But it was still up there from Mother's Day. And before I even could think through it, I was like, it was like September, wasn't it?

It was something like that. Yeah, it was like, it might have been 9-11. I can't remember, but it was like, and we just want to say happy Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day. And by the time I said it, I knew, oh, that's not right.

But I can either backpedal or I can keep going.

So I just kept going. You know, when you're doing it right, every day is Mother's Day. That's right. That's right. But yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about.

Like, there's a. Once you mess up one or two times, and your people lose that faith. Then, even when you do bring the good ideas, when you're like, hey, this is something that I have thought through, they've already got that in your mind. Like, I don't know. You've lost their trust.

Yeah. I had to learn that. I won't say for a moment that because I grew up in church or had a dad who was a pastor and a father-in-law who was a pastor, that man, it was already ingrained. No, I had to learn it. Yeah.

And I was, and initially, I was like, these things don't matter. And then I realized, no, I think it matters more than. I know.

So, okay. If I want this to grow and if I want this to be successful, if I want people to follow me, I've got to do this. There is no circumventing this. I have got to do this.

So You may be doing a lot of things right. If somebody's listening to us, you may be doing. Eight things right. But those two things still matter. You cannot say if I'm doing eight and the two don't work out, I mean, come on, give me a break.

Yeah, yeah. No. Get those two things right. At least work on them. Yeah, you don't want to be 80% of a leader.

Obviously, you can't afford to adopt the pass-fail mentality. Like 80% is still passing. That's right. Not in leadership. And the things that are, those eight that are super important to you, the 2% that you're neglecting could be super important to your people.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And usually they are. Yeah.

Because that's where their mind is. Yeah. They're thinking more about. the offering. They're thinking more about the calendar.

Homecoming.

Now, now we've done away with homecoming. Once we left the old building and we moved on, we said, now, if you left the church and went away and you're at a church across town. There's no homecoming for you.

Now, if you went away from here, you know, you moved to. Another town because of work or state or country, welcome home. But uses across town. Our homecoming were people from other churches coming to eat and Our people were like, nah, this homecoming coming up, preacher. We need to make sure everything is good to go.

And you preaching it, you want to get somebody else to come. Good to go for what? You know, homecoming. Look, you know when homecoming is whenever they decide to come visit. I'm not feeding someone else who decided to join another family.

Yeah. They're not coming to my house for dinner.

Now, you can come visit, but that's going to be your homecoming. Right. That's going to be your homecoming. We're not going to fix you a big meal just because you. I'm just joking.

I mean, if you want to do that as a church, by all means, do it. A bunch of church people just sitting in their car mad right now. My homecoming. I don't like this show no more.

Well, I mean, just have a big fellowship dinner. Yeah, you know, just do it. There you go.

And maybe even invite people to say, if you're from out of town, please come. But don't just get people who left your church angry or just moved on to another church and say, hey, come back. Yeah, you ain't got to have a big prodigal party. No. No.

Yeah. No. Wisdom and leadership. That's right. Nehemiah represents that balance for us.

And it's a great picture for us to follow. There you go.

Guys, Make sure you join us tomorrow, same time, same station. We're going to be diving further into the topic of Nehemiah and how he rebuilds the walls of Jerusalem. Make sure that you're sharing our content by following along on any podcasting platform. And you can also support us financially at Abadanshah.com forward slash give. That's right.

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