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LaunchPad: Day 16 · Equipped: A Podcast Platform for the Equip Ministry of Cuyahoga Valley Church

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah 2 17 Naming the Trouble to Rally the Team When Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC, the walls remained broken and the gates burned for more than a hundred years.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: By the time Nehemiah arrived, the destruction was no longer fresh.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: People had returned from exile, their temple had been rebuilt, worship had been restored, and Jerusalem was being inhabited again.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: But the walls were still broken.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's the part that gets me.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Fresh devastation is hard to ignore.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: When the rubble is right in front of you, nobody has to tell you that something is wrong.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: But what happens when the brokenness has been there for generations?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: People learn how to live around it.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's what makes Nehemiah's arrival so interesting.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: After only a few days in Jerusalem, Nehemiah gathers the people and says, You see the trouble we are in.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And part of me wants to say, of course they do.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: The walls had been broken for more than a hundred years.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah hadn't discovered something nobody else knew about.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: The people had seen the broken walls, the burn gates, and the rubble.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: They had built their lives around what was still broken.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: So why did this moment become different?
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was because Nehemiah did not rally the people by ignoring the problem or blaming them for it.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: He names the trouble honestly, but in a way that invited them to see it together.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we can see that in three small words he uses as he speaks to the people.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: You see the trouble we are in.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Come, let us build, that we may no longer suffer disgrace.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: We, us, we.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah could have arrived and asked why the people had allowed the walls to remain broken.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: He could have pointed at the problem and placed responsibility on those already living there.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, he joined them.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Their trouble became his trouble.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Their future became his future.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And before he ever asked anyone to pick up a brick, he made it clear that whatever happened next would not be about them helping Nehemiah accomplish his vision.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: This was going to belong to all of them.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's where a rally begins.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Not with someone standing in front of the crowd, telling everyone what they need to do, but with someone stepping into the crowd and saying, We're in this together.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we've seen an example of that kind of leadership in our own church.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Our lead pastor, Joe Valini, has called us to pray and fast, but more importantly, he has led the way himself.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: He has invited us into something he is already doing.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because there is something that happens when you become we.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is no longer someone else's.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: The work is no longer somebody else's.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: The future is no longer someone else's.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's ours.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't help but think about that as we look towards the future of Cuyahoga Valley Church.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Over the last several months, we have been hearing more about where God is leading us, a new mission statement, new ways of inviting people in, a discipleship pathway.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Soon we will have the full picture of the vision and direction in front of us.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is an opportunity for us to pay attention to Nehemiah's language.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: We, us, we.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: The future of any church cannot be carried by a few people while everyone else watches from the outside.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: It has to become something we discern, carry, and build together.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah had a burden from God, but when he stood before the people, he didn't say, Here is what God has called me to do.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: He said, You see the trouble we are in.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Come, let us build, that we may no longer suffer disgrace.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: That may be part of the opportunity in front of us right now.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: As the vision becomes clearer, we can move from watching what God is doing in Cuyoga Valley Church to seeing ourselves as part of it.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Not what are they going to do, but what might God do through us?
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Not where are they taking the church, but where might God be leading us?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: We, us, we.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Here's a question to consider.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: Where might God be inviting you to stop saying they and start saying we and us?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Pray for the courage to name what is broken and the humility to move from they to we as God invites us to move forward together.