For six years, eleven concrete pillars stood in the rain on a plot of land off the Ring Road in Ibadan. Iron rods stuck out of their tops like fingers reaching for something that was never handed to them. Elephant grass grew to shoulder height between them. Children from the neighbourhood played hide and seek in the half-dug foundations, and a family of lizards had taken up residence in the stack of blocks that had been delivered and never laid.
The pillars belonged to a church. At a crossover service on New Year’s Eve, Pastor Folarin had stood before his congregation of about four hundred people and announced that the Lord had shown him a three-thousand-seat auditorium. He described it in vivid detail: the gallery, the glass frontage, the car park. People wept. Pledge cards were distributed before midnight. Within a year the land had been bought and the foundations dug.
Oluchi was a quantity surveyor who had attended the church since her university days. At a workers’ meeting early in the project, she raised her hand and asked, respectfully, whether the church could see a bill of quantities, an estimated total cost and a plan for how the money would be raised over time. She had done the rough figures in her head. They frightened her.
Pastor Folarin smiled at her, but the smile did not reach his eyes. “My sister,” he said, “vision is not subject to committee. When God speaks, we do not calculate. We obey.” A few people clapped. Oluchi sat down. She never raised the question again, but she noticed that afterwards she was not invited to the building meetings.
The money ran out in the third year, exactly where her figures had said it would. Giving fell as members grew discouraged. Some left. The pillars stood. And every Sunday, as the congregation drove past them to the rented hall where they still worshipped, nobody mentioned them, because mentioning them felt like questioning God.
I do not tell this story to mock Pastor Folarin. He is a sincere man who loves God, and I believe God had genuinely placed a desire in his heart. His failure was not in receiving a vision. It was in the way he communicated and stewarded it. And the way he eventually put it right is one of the most encouraging things I have seen a pastor do.
Before Nehemiah spoke
PunchlineThe book of Nehemiah is the Bible’s great case study in stewarding an assignment, and it begins long before any building.
Nehemiah was a Jewish exile serving as cupbearer to Artaxerxes, king of Persia, a position of considerable trust. When visitors from Judah told him that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down and its gates burned, his first response was not a plan. “I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven” (Nehemiah 1:4). The assignment began as a burden carried before God.
Then he waited. The news came in the month Chislev (Nehemiah 1:1). He did not speak to the king until the month Nisan (Nehemiah 2:1), roughly four months later. He was not idle in that time. When the king finally asked what he wanted, Nehemiah prayed a quick prayer and then answered with remarkable precision. He asked to be sent to Judah to rebuild the city. He gave the king a timeframe. He requested letters of safe passage for the journey, and a letter to the keeper of the king’s forest for timber, naming specifically what the timber was for: the gates of the citadel, the city wall and his own residence (Nehemiah 2:5-8).
Nehemiah had clearly done his planning during those months of prayer. He knew what he needed, where it would come from and how long it would take. And he did not regard that planning as a lack of faith. In the same sentence in which he records the king’s generosity, he gives the credit to God: “And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me” (Nehemiah 2:8).
Prayer and planning were partners in Nehemiah’s life. The good hand of God and the careful list of timber requirements sat side by side in the same verse.
Walking the walls at night
Then Nehemiah arrived in Jerusalem, and what he did next deserves careful attention:
So I came to Jerusalem, and was there three days. And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon. And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire. Then I went on to the gate of the fountain, and to the king’s pool: but there was no place for the beast that was under me to pass. Then went I up in the night by the brook, and viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned. And the rulers knew not whither I went, or what I did; neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work. Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach. Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king’s words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work .
Notice first that he waited three days. He did not arrive and announce. He rested, observed and listened.
Then he inspected the walls at night, quietly, with a few men. “Neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem.” He went out through the Valley Gate, past the Dragon Well, to the Dung Gate, viewing the walls “which were broken down, and the gates thereof were consumed with fire.” At one point the rubble was so bad that his animal could not pass. He saw the problem with his own eyes before he asked anyone else to give their lives to solving it.
Leaders often want to announce before they have looked. Nehemiah looked first. He knew the condition of every section of wall before he spoke a single word about rebuilding it.
Then, when he finally gathered the people, look at how he spoke. “Ye see the distress that we are in.” He began with a reality they could all see. He did not start with his own revelation. He started with their shared situation. “Come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.” Let us. The assignment was presented as a common work, with a clear purpose: to remove the reproach on God’s people.
Then he gave them two reasons for confidence. “Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king’s words that he had spoken unto me.” His testimony of God’s leading, and the practical, verifiable resources the king had committed. Spiritual conviction and concrete provision, both shared openly.
And the people responded: “Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.” They were not pressured into it. They understood it, and they chose to join. Two chapters later the writer records that the wall rose quickly, “for the people had a mind to work” (Nehemiah 4:6). People who understand an assignment carry it with their whole hearts.
A ministry assignment needs to be understood by those asked to share its work. Nehemiah looked before he spoke, began with what everyone could see, and invited people to build with him.
Write it so others can run
There is a verse often quoted at vision-casting events, and it is worth reading in full:
And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
In context, God is giving the prophet a revelation about judgement on Babylon and the vindication of the righteous, who “shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). It is not a verse about church building projects. But a principle in it reaches further. “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.” What God reveals is to be made plain, so that those who read it can act on it. And it is to be waited for patiently, because it has an appointed time.
Plainness serves the people who must carry the work. A vague vision cannot be followed. If people do not know what is being built, how much it will cost, what part they are being asked to play and what success will look like, they cannot run with it. They can only applaud and wait.
Another verse is also often misused: “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18). The Hebrew word translated vision refers to prophetic revelation, the word of God given through His messengers. And perish has the sense of cast off restraint, running wild. The rest of the verse makes the meaning clear: “but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” The verse is about the need for God’s word, not about organisational strategy. It certainly does not mean that a congregation which questions a building plan is perishing.
Jesus Himself taught that counting the cost belongs to wise discipleship: “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” (Luke 14:28). And He describes the result of failing to do so: “all that behold it begin to mock him, Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish” (Luke 14:29-30). Jesus was speaking about the cost of following Him, but He drew His illustration from ordinary wisdom that He clearly expected His hearers to recognise. Eleven pillars standing in the grass are a sermon on that verse that nobody wants to preach.
When people matter more than the project
Halfway through the wall-building, Nehemiah faced a crisis that had nothing to do with stone. The poorer families were in desperate trouble. They had mortgaged their fields to buy grain during a famine and borrowed money to pay the king’s taxes, and their own Jewish brothers were charging them interest and taking their children as bond-servants. A great cry went up. This was Nehemiah’s response:
And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words. Then I consulted with myself, and I rebuked the nobles, and the rulers, and said unto them, Ye exact usury, every one of his brother. And I set a great assembly against them. And I said unto them, We after our ability have redeemed our brethren the Jews, which were sold unto the heathen; and will ye even sell your brethren? or shall they be sold unto us? Then held they their peace, and found nothing to answer . Also I said, It is not good that ye do: ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies?
Nehemiah stopped and dealt with injustice in the middle of his great project. He did not say, “The wall is the vision; we will deal with this later.” He recognised that a wall built on the backs of exploited families would be a reproach, not a remedy. He called a great assembly, confronted the nobles, and secured a promise that the interest would be stopped and the property returned. He himself had been lending to the poor, and he included himself in the correction: “I pray you, let us leave off this usury” (Nehemiah 5:10).
Responsible priorities mean that the people always matter more than the project. A ministry assignment exists to serve people. When it begins to consume them, when families are pressured to give money they need for food and school fees, when workers are driven to exhaustion, when the poor are made to carry the weight of a leader’s ambitions, the assignment has lost its way.
That applies in the marketplace too. A company with a bold strategy that ignores the welfare of its staff, or a founder whose vision requires employees to work unpaid overtime indefinitely, has inverted the order. Vision is meant to serve people, and leaders steward it best when they remember that the people were there first.
The council in Jerusalem
The New Testament gives us a different kind of example: not a building project, but a decision about the direction of the whole church. Men from Judaea had come to Antioch teaching that Gentile believers must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. Paul and Barnabas had “no small dissension and disputation with them” (Acts 15:2). The church sent them to Jerusalem to bring the question to the apostles and elders. Here is how the council began:
And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they. Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.
NuggetNotice several things. The leaders “came together for to consider of this matter.” They did not issue a decree from a distance. They met, and they considered.
“And when there had been much disputing.” Luke does not hide it. There was vigorous debate. The apostles did not regard disagreement as rebellion. They allowed it, heard it and worked through it.
Then Peter spoke, drawing on what God had done in the house of Cornelius. His argument was grounded in the gospel: “we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.” Then Barnabas and Paul reported what God had done among the Gentiles, and “all the multitude kept silence” to listen. Testimony was heard and weighed.
Then James spoke, and he tested what had been reported against the Scriptures, quoting the prophet Amos to show that God had always intended to gather a people from the Gentiles (Acts 15:15-17). Experience and Scripture were brought together. Neither was allowed to stand alone.
How the decision was made and explained
Then the council reached its conclusion:
Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God: But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood. For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day. Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely , Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren.
The decision was clear: Gentile believers would not be required to be circumcised or to keep the whole law of Moses. They were asked to observe a few specific practices that would preserve fellowship with Jewish believers. And notice who agreed: “Then pleased it the apostles and elders, with the whole church.” The leaders led, but the whole church shared in the decision.
Look at how the decision was communicated. They wrote a letter, explaining the reasons. They chose trusted men, “Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren,” to carry it. And the letter itself explains why: “We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth” (Acts 15:27). They did not rely on paper alone. They sent people who could answer questions in person.
And the letter contains a striking phrase: “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us” (Acts 15:28). The leaders were confident that God had guided them. Yet that confidence came at the end of a process of disputing, testimony, Scripture and agreement. They did not use it to prevent the process. They used it to describe the outcome of a process in which they believed God had been at work.
The result was joy. When the letter was read at Antioch, “they rejoiced for the consolation” (Acts 15:31). People who understand a decision, and who know their concerns have been heard, can receive it gladly even when it requires something of them.
When “God told me” closes the conversation
Here we come to the heart of the matter. Many leaders sincerely believe that God has given them a vision. Often He has. But a claim of divine vision must never be used to prevent examination.
Paul gave the Corinthians a rule for prophetic words in the church: “Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge” (1 Corinthians 14:29). Even genuine prophecy was to be weighed. To the Thessalonians he wrote, “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21). Testing what is claimed to come from God is itself a form of obedience.
Even Paul’s own guidance was weighed with others. When he saw the vision of the man of Macedonia, Luke says, “immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us” (Acts 16:10). Assuredly gathering translates a word meaning concluding, putting things together. Paul shared the vision with his team, and together they reached a conclusion about what it meant. And just before this, Paul’s own plans had twice been redirected by the Spirit (Acts 16:6-7). The apostle had to revise his course. He was not ashamed to.
So leaders should leave room for questions and revision. A question about costs, timelines or priorities is not an attack on God’s word. It may be God’s way of protecting the assignment. “Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established” (Proverbs 15:22). Oluchi’s question was one of the most valuable gifts the church in Ibadan received, and it was turned away.
If you lead, here are some practical habits. Share the reasoning behind your direction, not only the conclusion. Invite questions publicly, and answer them patiently. Give people with relevant skills, such as accountants, engineers, lawyers and administrators, a real role in shaping plans. Distinguish clearly between what you believe God has said and the methods, timescales and budgets you have chosen to pursue it, because the second can be revised without denying the first. And when a plan needs to change, say so openly. Revision is a sign of faithful stewardship, not of failed faith.
Decently and in order
Paul closed his long discussion of spiritual gifts in Corinth with these words:
If any man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order.
The Corinthian church was full of spiritual energy and full of confusion. People spoke over one another. Tongues were used without interpretation. Paul did not quench the gifts. “Covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues.” But he insisted that “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33), and that everything should be done “unto edifying” (1 Corinthians 14:26). Order exists to build people up.
“Let all things be done decently and in order.” The Spirit and good order are not enemies. A ministry that believes God is leading it should be the most orderly of all: clear roles, honest budgets, accurate records, regular reports, decisions minuted and explained. These are the ways a faithful steward makes the assignment understandable to those who share its work.
The same holds for every leader in the marketplace. A founder may have a genuine sense of calling for her business. That calling will be served, not undermined, by a written strategy, transparent accounts, a board that asks hard questions and staff who understand where the company is going and why.
Pastor Folarin’s turning point came at a pastors’ retreat, where a speaker taught on Nehemiah 2. Folarin told me he sat in the back row and felt his face grow hot. “Nehemiah walked the walls before he spoke,” he said. “I spoke before I had walked anything.”
When he got home, he called Oluchi. He apologised for the way he had answered her years before, and he asked her to lead a review of the building project with two other professionals from the church. They spent three months on it. Then Folarin called a church meeting on a Saturday afternoon, and in front of the whole congregation, with the figures on a projector, he did something I have rarely seen a pastor do. He said, “I announced this project without counting the cost. That was my failure, not yours, and not God’s. Here is where we really are.”
He took questions for two hours. Some of them were angry. He answered every one.
The review recommended a revised plan: a smaller hall of eight hundred seats, built in phases, with four classrooms attached for a nursery school, because the neighbourhood had none. Every phase was costed and would begin only when its funds were in hand. The church voted to adopt it.
PunchlineAs people were leaving, an elderly woman who had given faithfully for all six years came up to Folarin and took his hand. “Pastor,” she said, “now we can see it.”
The roof went on two years later. Oluchi still keeps a photograph on her phone of the old pillars in the elephant grass. She says it reminds her that a vision from God deserves the best stewardship we can give it, and that the best stewardship always lets people see.
Teaching Companion
For Reflection
- Nehemiah prayed, planned, waited and inspected before he spoke. Which of these steps do you tend to skip when you lead?
- When you share a vision or plan, do you begin with your own conviction or with a reality the people can see for themselves?
- Has a claim that “God said it” ever closed a conversation that needed to happen, in your own leadership or in a ministry you have known?
- How did the Jerusalem council hold together spiritual confidence and open discussion? What could you learn from their process?
- Which questions about your current assignment are people afraid to ask you? How could you make it safe for them to ask?
This Week
Choose one assignment you are currently leading, whether in church, business or family. Write it out on a single page as plainly as Habakkuk was told to: what it is, why it matters, what it will cost, what each person is being asked to do and how you will know it has succeeded. Then give the page to three people involved, including at least one with professional skills relevant to it, and ask each for their honest questions. Answer every question, and revise the plan where their questions show you need to.
A Prayer
Lord, You are the God of order and peace, and every assignment I carry belongs to You. Thank You for the burdens You place on my heart and for the people You give me to share the work. Teach me to pray as Nehemiah prayed, to plan carefully, and to look honestly at the walls before I speak. Keep me from using Your name to silence questions. Give me humility to listen, wisdom to count the cost, and courage to revise my plans when I am wrong. Let every vision I steward serve Your people and not consume them, and let all things be done decently and in order, to Your glory. Amen.
Truth received brings freedom. Truth believed establishes the heart.
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version. · Illustrations using first names only are composites unless stated otherwise.