What is Operation Nehemiah?

We hear stories of all kinds of financial irregularities – bribery, illicit sale of property, misuse of allowances, false projects and reports, abuse of power. Then we have leaders acquiring wealth through wrongful means, exploitation of gullible congregations, lack of transparency in church finances, misuse of roles and influence in church institutions, conflict of interest in administration and an overall lack of accountability to God, church and the government.

At the core of these deviations is the deceitful human heart, resulting in flawed theology and rationalization in the human mind – ultimately resulting in flawed actions through our human hands. Increasing number of Churches and Christian organizations are failing to measure up to intensifying government scrutiny.

These failures have a crushing negative impact on the gospel in the following essential ways:

We fail as a Church to be a witness to the world in one of the most critical aspects of human life – integrity with money and Finances. This failure is visible in our organizations, but is caused by the failure of us as individuals and specifically those of us who are in leadership. Matt 5:16

We fail as a Church to show a different model to our country. We are mandated to create a counter culture that can transform our society but instead we adopt the fallen culture around us into our own institutions. Romans 12:2

We fail as a Church to use our God given resources towards the furthering of the gospel and misuse those resources towards our own personal gain. Luke 16:10

The Operation Nehemiah movement exists to address this issue and to plug a gap in this neglected area in the Indian Church.

Who we are

The Operation Nehemiah (ON) movement is a holistic movement for Financial Accountability and Integrity for the Church in India and serves the church primarily through leadership and culture interventions and facilitating organizational processes of introspection and change starting with the top leadership.

This includes events, activities and projects all of which are driven by lay volunteers like businessmen, young people, corporate professionals, writers, and intercessors across India and abroad. Also, through a collaborative approach, several partner organizations come onto the ON platform to offer their resources to the church. ON does not believe in duplicating but believes in empowering existing efforts with the same vision. These initiatives are all focused towards serving the church and Christian organizations and providing resources to enable the church to engage in a journey towards better Financial Integrity.

ON is open to serve all Church traditions, structures and mission organizations ranging from the Roman Catholic to Pentecostal.

Feet washing

Ethos

Core to ON is an ethos of feet washing as against finger pointing. John 13: 14-15

The movement is meant to be a support structure from outside the established clergy and leadership that seeks to assist the church in finding answers to the questions of Financial Integrity. Exodus 17:12.Yet while the support is from outside the movement is to be owned by the church leadership as a resource towards financial integrity within their own systems

ON is clear that Christian Leadership and Integrity (including Financial) is first a matter of the heart. I Chron 29:17

ON believes that there are clear principles from scripture on handling money and finances, but also that each organization must seek God and His Word and treadits own journey to find solutions specific to them. The Operation Nehemiah Declaration against Corruption (ONDAC) is a guiding document for this journey.

Approach

ON appreciates that issues of Financial Integrity often need to be addressed in context of other leadership and organizational challenges and will therefore engage to assist with these broader challenges in the interest of Financial Integrity.

ON engages with organizations and leaders top-down. Because real change begins at the top. Deut 17:18-19; I Tim 3:1-12

As each leader and organization finds their answers they would share them with the larger community and a common language and culture would begin to emerge in the Indian church that is relevant to the Indian context and that begins to form a community hedge holding up our leaders and organizations and protecting them from failure. Eccl 4:9-12, Heb 10:24-25

approach

How it works

The Operation Nehemiah national events – In four national events since 2011 there have been more than 130 leaders in attendance. The events provide a Biblical Foundation andthe participating Leaders provide collective input and direction to the movement. They also serve to sensitize and motivate leaders to make this issue a priority.

We have also had several regional level events to serve the next level pastors and leaders within different churches and organizations. These events have happened in Chennai, Guwahati, Udaipur and Delhi.

Customized interventions – This is done through world class professionals that can help initiate need based integrated change processes within church leadership. Wework withlarge denominations. This is led by a professional change facilitation teamand supported by a group of leaders and professionals from the ONcommunity.

Peer groups –facilitated peer group support for leaders and heads of institutions and churches to enable the forming of friendships to counter leader loneliness and vulnerability. This will also enable peer mentoring, sharing of best practices and help for specific issues.

Prayer – prayer is mobilized on a regular basis and a committed group of prayer warriors are praying for our leaders and organizations to finish well and to be a witness through Financial Integrity.

Operation Nehemiah seeks to gather and develop necessary content – relevant to India through material created by theologians and practitioners and other content providers to create and share new or existing content under one platform that addresses the issue of Financial Integrity and related subjects in a holistic manner. This could be in various forms and available to the church as a resource in her journey towards Financial Integrity. This will help in creating a common language of accountability and enable the creation of a Christian counter culture.

What we are not

ON is a resource to the church and will come alongside like minded church leaders.

ON does not get involved in public anti-establishment activism. However in obedience to God’s leading, we will confront the ‘kings’ in their ‘chambers’ as an act of truth telling in love. 2 Samuel 12: 1-15. ON is not a watchdog from outside. ON is a partner from inside.

In keeping with I Cor 6:1-7 we will not use the courts of law to address issues of integrity but strongly believe that such matters should be resolved among the believers within the confines of the church. This is an important part of witness.

ON is not a quick-fix for all problems of financial integrity. Instead we believe in the longer but deeper journey that must be taken in partnership with our leaders and organizations to root out the problem over time.

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