Leaders get out front.  They get there quickly, driven by passion, not polls.  They get there without looking back or looking around.  They get the need before others get it.  They get disturbed first, compelled to do something with a need, a crisis, or a gap in service.  They aren’t content just to be informed about issues and hurting people.  Information is insufficient.  Action is the answer.  Leaders possess a heightened sense of right and wrong.  Victims capture their attention.  Hurting people are their priority.  They hate delays, excuses, barriers, and failure.  When a genuine leader gets involved, the motive is not recognition, saving or building reputation.  It’s bigger than that.  Motives run deeper.  Vision soars higher.  People are the focus.  Suffering must end.  It’s not just that something could be done—something must be done!

Whether it’s Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal taking the initiative to block the BP oil spill from touching their beaches and destroying the lives of the fishermen and their families, or a Chick-fil-A employee who proactively cleans a spill on the floor to prevent injuries to customers, real leaders are on top of issues sooner rather than later.  They are visible not because they seek reward, but because they get out front to find a way to fix problems.  They get personally involved.  Leaders believe energy, compassion, and resolve cannot be delegated, hired, or purchased.  You can coach and teach and inspire, but leadership is best grasped when it’s poured out on a real-life situation.  Leaders capture the moment, demonstrate the idea, and demand that things must change.  When Jesus discovered a man with a crippled hand attending synagogue on the Sabbath, He couldn’t tolerate the insensitivity or the man’s suffering.  Breaking all traditions, He healed the man on the spot (see Mark 3:1-6).  Then He moved on.  Get in His wake or drown seemed to be the message.  His agenda was pre-set.  Let the self-righteous debate the rules.  Leave them to struggle with believing what they saw.  Jesus made a statement, healed a man, and walked.  Ultimate Leader!  He got “out-front” every time!

In my personal worship time this morning, I read Nehemiah 1:2-4.  God surfaced that “get-out-front-first” leadership quality through Nehemiah’s immediate concern for the survival of the Jews left in the rubble of Jerusalem (5th century B.C.):  "Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem.  And they said to me, 'The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.'  So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven."

You don’t break down, or even do serious prayer and confession, unless you make an intimate connection with someone else’s tragedy.  You don’t go from hearing news to making news unless you are intentionally begging God for the opportunity to lead, to change the situation, and to leverage your position for unselfish reasons (see Neh. 1:5-11).

The Jewish nation had been conquered, dispersed, and resettled by the Babylonians.  Nehemiah was assigned to the king's service in Babylon, technically still a displaced captive.  Yet he remained deeply concerned about the conditions in Jerusalem and the survival of his nation.  Ultimately this Jewish cup-bearer waited on God's perfect timing and the alignment of resources from the King, so he could relocate to Jerusalem, assume leadership of a depressed minority, rebuild both the city walls and their confidence, restore moral standards, and reinstitute serious worship of God.  When nobody else was willing to relocate or rebuild, Nehemiah could see the need and took the risk.  He would be the NEW NORMAL!

The threat of enemies was close, real and powerful, the conditions harsh, the people’s confidence at an all-time low, and the task of rebuilding the city wall had never been done before.  That’s the worst nightmare if you live in it.  But if you are called to lead through it, it’s your greatest opportunity.  Leaders know you can’t steal second base with your foot still on first base.  They don’t just face risk, they eat it for breakfast.  Authentic leaders aren’t really happy unless they are engaged in the challenge.  Death is preferable to boredom for a leader consumed with a vision.  More than the adrenaline-rush of a rescue, a protest, a project, or battle, leaders crave results.  Progress is their drug of choice.  Statistics are meaningless unless something is achieved—unless something happened to move things forward.  Leaders—whether husband, mom, CEO, coach, student body president, broker, senator, waitress, pastor, reporter, or soldier—are not called by God just to make speeches, but model service.  Not just to pray, but to plunge into the need.  Not to delegate ministry, but to deliver ministry.  Not to condemn the mess, but to clean up the mess.  Not to focus on rules, but free people.  Not to prepare for retirement, but to prepare for rescues.

How can you spot a leader?  They’re out front.  Usually screaming about the problem until somebody listens.  Always with dirt on their t-shirts.  Sometimes wrong, but never in doubt.  Consistent in believing they are sinning if they don’t respond.  They may be lonely, but their vision has charismatic appeal.  Confident that they are making a difference on some level.  They are not intentional rule-breakers, but they may seek forgiveness rather than wait on permission.  You know what they believe because they are unafraid to speak it.  There’s no hesitancy to take a position, but pit bulls couldn’t move them once they assume a position.  They can’t stand by and let evil triumph or let oil reach a beach.  We sometimes think aggressive leaders are obsessed, out of balance, or out of touch.  They believe we are.  They were not originally searching for causes, but seized by causes.  Before they set out to conquer, they were personally captured by the cause.  Leaders believe they don’t have to slow down for critics or always explain their vision.  Their legacy is not manners but ministry.  They are the blood-splattered soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, the representatives talked about in cafes and coffee shops, the spiritual leaders scrutinized in the media, the police cussed out when they make arrests, the teachers defied in the classrooms, the entrepreneurs rejected for loans, and the physicians and nurses underpaid for ER surgery—but they amazingly keep doing it.

And we love to watch them.  Agree or disagree with their cause, their passion cannot be ignored.  Whether it’s Jan Brewer (Arizona’s governor who signed the controversial immigration law on April 23), Glenn Beck (writing and commenting about the threat of socialism), President Bush (leading in the aftermath of 9/11), Bill Gates (Microsoft creator and billionaire philanthropist who wants to wipe out diseases), Sarah Palin (once governor of Alaska and VP candidate, and now political speaker), Steve Jobs (Apple’s revolutionary tech genius), Nelson Mandela (enduring 26 years in a South African prison to destroy apartheid), Mother Theresa (giving her life for the poor and dying in the streets of Calcutta), Billy Graham (preaching the gospel around the planet for 3 generations), Senator Ted Kennedy (promoting healthcare, education, and the Special Olympics), Paula Deen (raising two boys as a single mom and building a food empire), or your local firefighter—leaders impact their generation.  Culture is different because they have pursued their cause.  Whether you love them or hate them, people can’t take their eyes off leaders.  Maybe it’s because they believe those leaders are doing what they would do if they had the opportunity. 

Regardless, you can be God’s leader where you are.  We would never have known the name “Nehemiah”—he never would have made the cut for Scripture—if his first priority was not checking out the latest needs from his hometown.  It was “Hands On Jerusalem” for him.  He was ordinary, unknown, destined just to be another Jewish body buried in the dust of Babylon’s history, until he cried out to God and surrendered to God’s destiny to be a leader—a “Patriot!”, to use a Bill O’Reilly label—that wouldn’t settle for the status quo.  Never satisfied.  Swinging from righteous anger to unrelenting work hours, Nehemiah was characteristically intense.  Leaders don’t watch clocks, they make them irrelevant.  Truth, timing, testimony, and touch are all tools employed to reach the goal.  Limits don’t exist—especially when a leader believes God is in it.  God defines success—not the crowd.  Nobody quits.  And nothing is dead until God says it is. 

 We know Nehemiah now.  We have a completed story.  Why?  Because he was a leader.  And leaders GET OUT FRONT!