Last week’s tornadoes displaced dozens of people from their homes—inconveniencing many for days, likely displacing some for months. City services and regular neighbors began the rebuilding effort almost immediately; federal relief may yet arrive. Thank God the devastation was not county wide, leaving 100,000 homeless and jobless.

Yet that’s what happened to residents of Old Jerusalem about 2500 years ago. That great walled city lay in ruins after the Fire of 586 BC, not to be restored until Nehemiah and company came on the scene in 445 BC. Nehemiah provides a case study that I’d like to explore further with you, as I apply it to community development efforts in general and to Middleton Outreach Ministry in particular.

Working in Persia (modern Iran) as the king’s “cupbearer” (his confidante and food-taster), Nehemiah grieves and prays over his beloved but destroyed Jerusalem (Nehemiah 1:1-11). To redevelop the city, Nehemiah applies for and receives a government grant, a leave of absence, and a letter of credit (2:1-9).

With these outside resources in hand, Nehemiah rebuilds the city as a layperson, a general contractor. He’s no pastor, but teams up with Ezra the scribe, who pastors the people in the rebuilt city. Likewise, although I am ordained a pastor, I function mostly as a lay social worker in this city: I contract for outside resources and refer clients to church pastors for priestly and pastoral services.

Nehemiah conducts his local needs assessment with sensitivity and confidence, without being intrusive or causing a ruckus (he went “alone” and “at night”). He knows the limits and liabilities of trying to renovate the city as an outsider, and that trumpeting his presence in messianic fashion would not work. Yet people there recognize Nehemiah’s authority as “from God and king” ( 2:11 -18).

Nehemiah is very comprehensive and balanced in his approach to ministry, which MOM staff and volunteers strive to emulate, as well. He is both spiritual and practical, people-oriented and task-oriented. His prayer life is integrated with public action. Nehemiah divides up the task, assigns parts and partnerships. He resists enemy subterfuge by relying on both God’s protection and human ingenuity ( 2:19 — 4:23 ).

He sets aside a busy construction schedule to honor God in public worship. This mobilizes the people to work hard and complete the rehab project in record time (52 days). MOM staff and volunteers are known to work equally hard, under tight schedules and with limited resources. We don’t stop very often for prayer meetings, but advocate for housing issues “as unto the Lord,” much as Nehemiah urges, “Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your housing” (4:14).

When the poverty and powerlessness of his own people loom large, Nehemiah works on justice issues (5:1-19). The landless were starving, lenders were foreclosing landowners, and debtors had to sell their children into slavery to pay up. Nehemiah advocates for these debtors and lends money and grain. Likewise, MOM zealously advocates for tenants in debt, offers cash assistance, and staffs a food pantry.

Nehemiah protests what we sometimes call plantation politics. He empowers the people to take charge of their lives. He offers life skills and an opportunity to do something for themselves, by themselves, as he puts them to work. Likewise, MOM envisions that clients in need will attain financial self-sufficiency through employment.

It’s not enough to rebuild a city’s crumpled infrastructure; its people must also be renewed from within. Nehemiah knows this. So they worship God in Bible study (8:1-18), confession of sin (9:1-37), and renewal of their covenant ( 9:38 — 10:39 ).

Once the urban housing project was complete, Nehemiah recruited ten percent of the people among neighboring towns and villages, to reseed or repopulate the abandoned inner city and blighted neighborhoods (11:1-3). Imagine doing that at Allied Drive.

While rebuilding the walls took only 52 days, redeveloping the systems and values that hold cities together would take decades. In Nehemiah’s first term as mayor of that city, not all the reforms necessary were implemented. Upon returning to Jerusalem 13 years later (in 432 BC ), he discovers the city had relapsed. The people had lost their original vision and commitment to serve the needy and honor God (13:6-11). Middleton Outreach Ministry must also do all we can to diligently maintain our mission and vision over the long haul.

Nehemiah would pray, strategize, study, and get political to effectively reform broken city systems. But before instituting democracy or a theocracy, he starts simply and symbolically—with a visible carpentry and masonry project. Families could readily do it without specialized training, work side-by-side to encourage each other—AND close to home for convenience and support.

Likewise we at Middleton Outreach Ministry create service opportunities for all generations and close to home. We delegate visible, doable, hands-on things to do, on projects where progress is plainly visible and daily measurable.

Many such projects and workdays are on MOM’s summer calendar. Just last week the High Point Church youth group, rallying to the call of their Nehemiah-like leader John Wilkinson, completed a weeklong rebuilding project at the MOM Distribution Center in the Middleton Business Park. You will hardly recognize the new DC.

On Friday, August 27, several teams of workers from area businesses will join hands with MOM for community service projects as part of United Way ’s “Day of Caring” in Middleton. Following a half-day of service projects, we’ll celebrate at the VFW beer tent, as part of Good Neighbor Fest.

Leaders know how to celebrate the great things God has done in their midst. Upon completing the walls and restoring broken lives, Nehemiah throws a grand party (8:1). So too Middleton Outreach Ministry, through its newly released Annual Report, publicly celebrates just how much we’re “blessed to be a blessing.”

If you know of neighbors whose home or business was damaged by the recent tornadoes, I hope you’re pitching in to help. Nehemiah and company would. So does MOM.

© 2004 Middleton Outreach Ministry

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