Leadership is always a challenge. Leading during a pandemic and in the midst of social unrest, division, and a presidential election is particularly challenging.

Although most of my readers have substantial leadership experience, all of us can profit from being reminded of the fundamentals of effective leadership. Peter wrote:

Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder, since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things. (2 Peter 1:12–15)

We can learn a great deal from studying Nehemiah’s leadership practices. He was a superb leader who faced extreme challenges in circumstances that make ours pale in comparison.

Here is a quick helicopter flyover of some of the key principles I see in Nehemiah’s leadership that you and I can apply to our leadership during these challenging times.

At twelve years old I learned an invaluable lesson from my father about leading in a time of crisis. My dad was not an educated man. Though he eventually earned his GED, he dropped out of high school to join the Air Force.

Although my dad was not well educated, he was a leader. His leadership was demonstrated vividly one spring when we found ourselves stranded by an impassable snowbank high atop a steep narrow logging road in the mountains of Idaho.

It was early March when my dad decided to take the family to Yellowstone Nation Park. We packed up the wide-body Pontiac Catalina, hitched the 15’ camper to the back and headed out over the mountains to Yellowstone.

We drove for several hours with the windows down enjoying the magnificent beauty of the mountains and the pine-scented mountain air.

The mountain scenery was beautiful but the road was rough and dangerous.

Are you ready for the new normal?

While we do not know with certainty what the long-term impacts of the pandemic will be, we can say with confidence that there will be a new normal that will present unique challenges and opportunities. As Andy Crouch et al., have written in their excellent essay, Leading Beyond the Blizzard: Why Every Organization Is Now a Startup:

We believe every leader and organization — every nonprofit, every church, every school, every business — should be planning for scenarios that include years-long disruption. Almost all of us are in a new business. From today onward, most leaders must recognize that the business they were in no longer exists. This applies not just to for profit businesses, but to nonprofits and even in certain important respects to churches …

Even if we can return to something like the “normalcy” of 2019, but with our programs and services, business playbooks, and even our relationships purified by creative scrutiny, our organizations will be far stronger … (emphasis added)

Responsible leaders have no choice, today, but to assume that the winter is upon us, and an ice age of unknown duration is before us. We are playing a game no one now living has ever played before. We are, for reasons only God knows, on the front line, on the starting team. Let us act boldly, today, to build as best we can, for the love of our neighbor and the glory of God.

Unique and difficult challenges await us in the new school year. Unique opportunities also await us. We have an unprecedented opportunity to use this crisis for good by accomplishing what one head of school said "under normal circumstances would have taken three years and $150,000 in consulting fees to accomplish.”

The face mask has transformed from a simple prophylactic to a symbol of political identity reflecting and reinforcing our country’s polarization. With the image of former Vice President Cheney wearing a mask with the hashtag #Realmenwearmasks, it is also becoming a reflection of a man’s masculinity, or lack thereof.

“Since masks became widely used,” writes Bonnie Kristian of MSN, “they acquired symbolic meaning for their skeptics. Among those skeptics is R.R. Reno, the editor of the conservative religious journal First Things, who argued masking signals unmanly cowardice: “”Just to reinforce. Talked to my son in Seattle. The mask culture is fear driven. Masks+cowardice. It’s a regime dominated by fear of infection and fear of causing infection. Both are species of cowardice. — R.R. Ren (@rr_reno) May 13, 2020”” 1

Face masks have become a battle flag in the culture war.

This question is often asked, “How do we grow our network of donors?” It’s asked because a huge part of the work of any ministry organization is securing much needed resources to advance your vision for making a difference.

The relevant questions behind the need to grow your network are, “How do you find people to talk to about giving? How do you find prospects? How do you keep from running out of people to talk to?” These are very relevant questions if you are trying to grow your giving, grow your constituents, and grow your results.

On the other hand, leaders who are consistently focused on doing the most effective things to grow their networks are actually suffering from too many people and too many opportunities to follow-up and not enough time to do it. This is a good problem to have, and what I’m hoping to help you with in this article!