Several of the chapters have lists of lessons. Here’s a collection of all the lists.

Nehemiah’s passion

Chapter 1

“If you had something that mattered that much, wouldn’t you start working on it, no matter what?”

Nehemiah’s prayer

Chapter 2

1. Every day I said, ‘God you are the faithful one, the committed one. Please listen to me.’
2. Every day I said, ‘We have sinned. Generations of us, yes, but my family too. And I have sinned, God.’ That reminder was important to me as I was learning about sharing and justice and compassion. I learned to look at my own behavior.
3. Every day I reminded God about the stories of repentance from Moses and from Isaiah. And when I did that, I was reminding myself.
4. Every day I wanted to be ready for serving the King.

Nehemiah’s five steps to an action plan

Chapter 4

1. A clear picture of what was wrong.
2. A simple confidence that God was involved from the start.
3. A simple proposal of what to do.
4. A specific plan of how to proceed.
5. A commitment to act on the plan.

Nehemiah’s five lessons for building a wall

Chapter 5

1. What looks like a line might be a circle.
2. Most of the people rebuilding the wall didn’t come with me. They were on location and had been for years.
3. Everyone’s story needs to be told.
4. Not everyone is going to work the same way.
5. Most people work hardest on what’s closest to their heart

Nehemiah’s five steps of conflict management.

Chapter 6

1. In the face of verbal challenge, respond with simple truth.
2. In the face of insults, pray.
3. In the face of threats, pray and post a guard.
4. In the face of an opponent’s mobilizing, implement a clear plan, which includes meaningful action, leadership strategy and reminding the people of the purpose.
5. For long-term protection, lay out a clear defense that is sustainable. It gives the people something at their back so they can go about the work.

Nehemiah’s six simple steps to remedy justified whining

Chapter 7

1. First, take a very deep breath.
2. Second, confront the leaders who permit it.
3. Third, call everyone together and clearly outline the problem.
4. Fourth, explain what everyone can do to solve it, looking to the Bible for support.
5. Fifth, bring the leaders together for a public commitment.
6. Sixth, make the promises visual.

What makes a great work?

Chapter 8

1. Something about it makes you weep.
2. You have to take lots of small steps that don’t seem like they will get you anywhere.
3. Doing the work transforms you.
4. God calls you to do it.
5. It matters enough that you ache when you can’t accomplish it quickly enough, and it’s big enough that you can’t accomplish it quickly enough.
6. It is not about you.
7. It takes so long that you can’t do it in a day, but the choices of each day matter in whether you can get it done.
8. You may not know anything about how to do the work.
9. You cannot not do it.

Five reasons to repeat the stories

Chapter 11

1. As you lead, remind people of the significant problem you are solving together.
2. As you lead, remind people of God’s involvement from the start.
3. As you lead, remind the people of God’s power.
4. As you lead, make the lessons visual.
5. As you lead, live out the stories that God gave you to live.

The heart of the story

Chapter 12

The book of Nehemiah constantly tells the stories of redemption, rejection, repentance, and renewal. God redeems us. We reject God. We repent of our rejection. God renews his promises. And the cycle starts. Chapter 9 reviews it clearly so that if all someone reads is just this one book, they get the story of a man who followed God, and they get the story of a people who didn’t.

Four lessons about lists of names

Chapter 14

1. The records matter. That’s why we kept them.
2. The threads of history matter. That’s why we trace people and families and tribes through generations.
3. The people matter. Each name on each list is a person, created and loved by God. Like me. Like you.
4. The people’s interaction with geography matters. Real people built the wall. Real people marched on the wall. Real people stood in front of the wall and explained what God said and Ezra read.

Six ways Nehemiah kept focus

Chapter 15

1. He tried to get his priorities from God.
2. He talked with God.
3. He kept the routines.
4. He reviewed the stories
5. He didn’t get nearly as sidetracked worrying about what people were going to think.
6. He just kept going.

Four truths about leaders and promises

Chapter 16

1. Make sure that when you make promises, you make them about the things that matter. At least that way, when people wander, they are wandering from what is important, and when you call them to repentance, it’s a call that is a call back to God.
2. When you are a leader, remind people of the promises that they made. Our job is to keep people focused on what we all committed to. It’s why we have been called by people and by God. More than anything else we do, calling people to faithfulness matters.
3. When you are a servant, you have to follow God, no matter what.
4. People struggle to obey. That’s how it is.

A summary of lessons from Tobiah

Chapter 18

1. Leaders need to know the full story of their opponents to guide their responses.
2. Resistance, especially spiritual resistance, can have deep roots.
3. Tribal tensions, family tensions, can last a long time.
4. Even after the rest of the people relax, leaders need to stay alert.
5. Little compromises can have big consequences.
6. God waits a long long time for people to change.