Nehemiah Part Four - Avoiding sham battles

Until Skelletones established itself as a venue, punk shows in West Michigan had almost no security. Many of my friends and I hoped our common love of the music would keep the peace. But punk music, and soon hardcore music, brought out all kinds of culturally repressed aggression. Not all the shows were safe to attend, whether due to the venue, bands, or fans. The worst part about the fights at these shows was that no recognized authority could step in and arbitrate. Sometimes enough onlookers would jump in and break it up. Other times, kids hurt each other. One of the members of the band Don Knotts got stabbed over twenty times at one show when he tried to stop one of these fights.

With the one exception of a skinhead dragging me toward the Grand River with threats of killing me, I managed to stay away from most of the real danger. My experiences came more from cheap shots in the pit or secondhand threats by the K-zoo Crew from Kalamazoo. I witnessed more than I experienced.

Mirf handled conflict better than anyone I’d ever seen. For him, resolving this sort of thing started before anyone squared off to fight. He showed love indiscriminately, which created a safe atmosphere at Skelletones. If anyone had any brains, they knew to respect Mirf’s authority. You don’t want to mess with the most popular guy in the room. When fights broke out during shows, he could confront the problem and maintain peace.

Of course, there were problems. Early on, a group of guys from Kalamazoo would drive to shows in Grand Rapids and piss off everyone. They called themselves “The K-Zoo Crew”. Their cheap shots and macho intimidation fostered a lot of ill will between people. Grand Rapids kids wanted to have fun. The K-Zoo Crew wanted “real” hardcore. I don’t know exactly why they hated so many of the kids in Grand Rapids. My friends and I often wondered aloud why, if they hated us so much, those kids would spend the time and money driving to our city.

Over time, the troublemakers moved to cities with “better scenes”, and the others ended up becoming well-loved figures at Skelletones. Before I moved to Nashville, I heard stories about another group of kids, the Great Lakes Youth Crew. They were a more aggressive version of the K-Zoo Crew. Where the Kalamazoo kids seemed to talk more than anything, the GLYC actually caused serious trouble. A fifteen-year-old girl apparently crossed one of them at an Eighteen Visions show. The guy cut her in the back with a razor blade. She didn’t notice at first because she assumed the wetness was only sweat. But then she felt dizzy and went outside for some air. That’s where someone finally noticed her blood-soaked shirt.

If the first part of Mirf’s conflict resolution came from loving people, the second part dealt with a refusal to focus on the problem. He addressed trouble when he saw it, and eventually he hired security, but he didn’t want people to think of Skelletones as a troubled place. An attitude of peace had to be the norm with occasional incidents, not the other way around. And it worked.
In 2005, Skelletones moved to the space below the coffee shop, selling the café portion to some kids who worked for him. They renamed it The Euclid, after a pet hamster. I stayed on staff there as I continued to volunteer at Skelletones.

Shortly after the shift in management, things began to change at The Euclid. Younger kids began to hang out as well as more suspicious people. This bothered me. I’d thought we had cleaned up the neighborhood and started something positive on South Division. But worse than some of the shady people who started to come around, I was more offended at the passivity of the new staff. They wanted to retain the good feeling that Mirf and Annette had established with Skelletones but they didn’t address the problems with a loving attitude. People began to take advantage of their politeness, and eventually, the staff began to lash out without the loving relationships Mirf taught his staff to create.

As much as I hate to admit it, I also lost my temper with people. One guy, Gary, could really piss me off. He panhandled on our block and would sometimes come into the shop. He bothered kids and aggressively told them to give him money or cigarettes. I don’t remember how many times I kicked him out, but I’d always give him a chance when he came through our doors. This isn’t an exclusive club, after all, I thought. He can come if he buys a drink and doesn’t pressure anyone.
I worked on the last night we let Gary come to the Euclid. He sauntered through the door and immediately asked a kid for a cigarette. The kid seemed willing, so I decided to leave it alone for the moment. Justin LeQuire was there by the counter talking with me as I worked. Gary asked him for his lighter before going into the bathroom. “There’s no smoking in the bathroom, Gary!” I yelled.

“I ain’t gonna smoke!” he yelled back.

I was busy making drinks and didn’t feel like dealing with the problem just then. Twenty minutes later, Justin said, “He’s still in there.” I looked from mopping the floor and saw two or three kids standing by the bathroom door waiting for Gary to finish.

“What are you doing in there, Gary?” I kicked the door. He didn’t answer. “Get out of there, man!”

The door burst open. Gary was pulling up his pants as he came out to yell at me. “Can’t a guy get a little peace when he goes to the bathroom?” he demanded.

Justin held his hand out for the lighter, which he dropped as soon as Gary returned it. “Ow! That’s hot!”

That’s when I noticed the un-smoked cigarette behind Gary’s ear. Wheels turned. Justin leaned in and said, “There aren’t many reasons why my lighter would be this hot.” I looked at Gary’s eyes. He was doing drugs in our bathroom, around teenagers. After years of convincing parents that their kids were safe inside our walls, I felt a new kind of anger.

I gripped the mop handle and came close to Gary. “Get out,” I said. “Get out of here and never come back. If you even see me on the street, turn around and walk the other way. And if you ever try to come in here again, we’ll call the cops.” I didn’t bother to lower my voice. Gary protested for a minute, saying that I couldn’t tell him what to do as I backed him out of the building, brandishing the mob handle.

The room had stopped to watch. I wanted to protect the kids, but publicly losing my temper made them aware of the situation. Instead of keeping the peace, I had emphasized a need for the peace to be kept. It made everyone uncomfortable, including myself. Half of the kids left soon afterward.

After another night, when I publicly announced a crackdown on people who were selling drugs instead of buying drinks, everyone began to talk about how the coffee shop had changed. We focused on the trouble, and so in the minds of people, The Euclid was a troubled place.

Sham Battles

In the beginning of Nehemiah 4, the rulers surrounding Jerusalem continue to mock and ridicule the reconstruction. Having already addressed these men and their attacks, Nehemiah prays instead of getting drawn into a verbal argument. He didn’t need to further defend the “Good Work”. Already, the people had rebuilt the wall to half its height all the way around Jerusalem.

I heard Ian Ashby, a pastor from New Hampshire, speak on this passage at a Newfrontiers men’s conference in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Ian focused primarily on two points in Nehemiah, the “Good Work” and how the people “Worked with a will”.

The “Good Work”, obviously, was a restoration of the heart as well as the walls. According to Haggai, the worship of God in the temple had all but ceased as people sat around the rubble. Jerusalem still had a high priest, Joshua son of Jehozadak. Temple worship still existed. But Haggai rebuked the people for neglecting God by focusing on their possessions.

This leads me to make a point on subtle idolatry. It is possible to commit the sin of idolatry in the name of serving God. Many people in the ministry, if they’re wise, will admit to the danger of making ministry their number one priority. Instead of seeking God and listening for the direction of the Holy Spirit as they minister, a person can get a skewed idea that serving the ministry is the same as serving God.

I won’t make this personal. Go back to Nehemiah. So God gave him the Good Work in rebuilding Jerusalem’s walls. Imagine if the walls became their primary goal instead of restoring the hearts of the people to God, living in the destiny He promised. When Sanvalat and Tobiah insulted the work, the Jews might have gotten huffy, righteously, of course. “Who do they think they are? King David took care of a certain nine-foot-tall mocker once.” Now they’re rolling up their sleeves and looking to chop off a few heads. But the rulers mocked the work and Goliath mocked God. God told the people to build. If the people fought instead of continuing the restoration, they would have moved in direct disobedience to God.

Okay, I lied. I’m going to maybe make this a little personal. Listen up, worship leaders. Ever had some “holy hecklers”? You know what I mean, those people who criticize the musicianship or song choice? Or what you wear? Or how much vibrato you used to pull out that last “Hallelujah”? Right, they’ve missed the point of worship. That doesn’t mean you should waste any time or emotional energy wringing your hands or punching pillows. Let’s assume God told you to lead worship and worship as you lead. That’s your job. That’s the obedience He requires. God blesses obedience, so what do you have to worry about? Ask yourself these questions. Are you defending God because you love His holiness and desire to give a reasoned answer to people? Or are you pissed because someone attacked your abilities, your ministry, and you feel like that makes you look bad? Are you righteously miffed or just embarrassed? In other words, who is your God? Your music ministry or the God who gave you the gift of music?

Nehemiah already told off the hecklers in Chapter 2. What would he say to these new attacks? “What? A fox knock down our walls? Nuh-uh! That’s stupid. You’re stupid.” What if he shifted his focus to these guys? It would have further damaged morale. And this was an attack on Jerusalem’s morale. Sanvalat & Co. wanted Nehemiah to defend himself as the new leader of a broken community and neglect the Good Work. They wanted him to focus on the trouble they made so that, in the minds of the people, Jerusalem would seem like a troubled place.
What did Nehemiah do in response? He prayed. Verses 4-5 of chapter 4 record his prayer. “Hear, O our God, how we are despised! Return their reproach on their own heads and give them up for plunder in a land of captivity. Do not forgive their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out before You, for they have demoralized the builders.” Having already credited the work to God in chapter 2, Nehemiah trusted God to answer the rulers’ taunts.

And God did bless their obedience. Verse 6 tells how the people finished the wall all the way around to half its height because “the people had a mind to work”. Other translations say, “they worked with a will”. They knew their God and obeyed despite the circumstances. It feels god to accomplish something, to complete a definite stage.

When I was in grade school, bullies would make fun of me in hopes that I’d take the first swing so they could blame me for the fight. I fell for this trick a few times until my dad told me not to throw the first punch. But most bullies weren’t happy when I denied them a justifiable fight. Several times, they’d start threatening a first move. A clenched fist, a step forward, maybe a shove. They continued to provoke without making the first attack. Bullies have been using the same tricks for millennia. The rulers in Nehemiah decided to do the same thing in verses 7-8. “Now when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repair of the walls of Jerusalem went on, and that the breaches began to be closed, they were very angry. All of them conspired together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause a disturbance in it.”

Now, surely, Nehemiah has to answer these men, to shove back. He can’t let them get away with this sort of thing, right? It’s not just two guys mouthing off anymore. There are rulers and nations on all sides of them looking for a fight. In verse 10, you can read some of the widespread propaganda.

But Nehemiah stayed focused on the work, responding now with both prayer and security guards. If these guys really wanted to mix it up, they’d have to come into Jerusalem. The Jews would have clearly been on the defense. More importantly, they wouldn’t get fooled into fighting. Obviously, the purpose of the threat was to get the people to stop working, to lose sight of God and His command. If the Jews stopped the reconstruction to train soldiers and go into the field of battle, not only would they waste time and lose sight of the Good Work, Sanvalat would have probably sent word to the king in hopes that he would shut down production. The accusations of Jerusalem’s “rebellious” past would have begun to look like a real problem. Nehemiah would have lost the king’s favor and thus diminished the power of his testimony to the people.
The enemies of Jesus today probably like the present condition of the Western church much like the rulers surrounding Jerusalem. When the walls are broken and the gates are burned, there’s no threat. They can continue living their lives without feeling like God might come in and mess up everything. It’s only when renewal comes, when the Gospel begins to breath life into people and cities, that they rear up and cause trouble. Every movement, every inspired teacher, every church looking to rebuild the body of Christ will face fierce criticism. The criticism will likely turn to insults and maybe threats of harm to persons or property.

Christians can face this opposition in a few different ways. Some decades ago, people formed an organization to show that Christianity hadn’t lost it’s power and authority. The Christian Coalition would use politics to influence culture and take a stand for what they believed. So they fought battles in the media and in Washington against abortion, homosexuality, gambling, liquor sales on Sunday, and so on. Very soon, the culture defined Christians by the things they opposed rather than the God they claimed to serve. It wouldn’t be long before David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons picked up their pens to survey the damage.

I wonder what the Coalition has to say about 1 Peter 3:8-9? “To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.” And later, in verses 13-16,

“Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.”

Peter tells the church to be “ready to make a defense”, not to look for fights. How often have you felt like somebody suckered you into a fight over religion? I know it’s happened to me at least a few times. And I never felt like I did anything for God in those arguments. Apparently, being defensive isn’t the same as being ready to make a defense.

It appears that readiness is the key. Another example in scripture comes to mind from Judges 7. The story goes that God has Gideon put together an army to fight the Midianites. But the army, God says, is too big. If they win, He says, they’ll brag about how great they were when they defeated Midian. During the winnowing process, God tells Gideon to have all the men go down by a body of water. The men were then divided into two groups, those who squatted down and cupped the water with one hand and those who got down on their knees to drink.

God tells Gideon to keep the men who drank with one hand. I imagine their other hand was free to grab their weapon should trouble come. They were ready while they drank water. The funny part is, come battle time, they don’t even use those weapons. They hold up torches and make a lot of noise, sending the enemy camp into a panic. Still, God wanted them ready.

Of course we shouldn’t turn a blind eye to abortion or give our blessing to homosexuality because the Bible clearly calls those things sin. I’m certain the Holy Spirit directs some people to take up those issues. My point is that the church should address sin and still focus on building the Kingdom of God through the Gospel. Organizations like the Christian Coalition seem to have fallen for the bullies’ trick and gotten themselves into a sham battle. All their arguments and politicizing have caused the average unchurched individual to associate Jesus with hate and politics. If you’re challenged, have a ready answer and make sure they come to you. Don’t go looking for a fight when you’re supposed to be building.

Through the rest of Chapter 4, we see Nehemiah using the strategy of readiness. The people who carry building materials do so with one hand while holding their weapon in the other. Those building on the wall need both hands, so they keep a sword strapped to their leg. In case of attack, there are men with trumpets ready to signal where to gather and defend. Verse 23 echoes back to Gideon’s men. “So neither I, my brothers, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us removed our clothes, each took his weapon even to the water.”

The Time I Got It Right

When Mirf still ran the coffee shop, he told the staff to pray before opening each night. He and Annette would pray in and for Skelletones all the time. I knew that the peace people felt when they entered the door came as a direct result of God moving in those prayers.

I was reminded of Mirf’s reliance on God when I had another confrontation at work. Thinking back on that night, nobody had yet come in after I opened. It was late November and people would sometimes come in just to wait for the bus by our front window. Not everybody caused trouble, but the occasional nut-job would bother customers so we had to enforce the one drink minimum.

So when Frank came in and stood by the window, ignoring my offers to get him a drink, I told him about the one drink minimum. He glared at me and kept his vigil for the bus. “You’ve got to buy a drink if you want to stay in here,” I said.

Frank turned around and shot back at me, “You’re telling me you’d kick an old man out into the cold because he won’t buy a cup of coffee.”

Instead of keeping my calm, I volleyed back, “Well it’d help for the chill.”

We started yelling at each other until I said, “I told you to leave! You’re trespassing. If you don’t get out of here, I’m going to call the cops.”

“Alright, fine!” He shouted, waving his hands around in frustration. “You’re saying I can stand there outside the door? Everything’s fine as long as I stand on the other side of that door?”

“Yeah, that’d be great.”

Frank zipped up his coat and went outside the door. But instead of walking to the corner to wait for the bus, he kept shouting curse words and blasphemes at me through the glass. A thought came to mind. “Pray.” I began to pray where Frank could see me behind the counter. I spoke aloud and told any blaspheming spirit to leave, even away from our part of the block. Frank’s voice dropped to a mumble and then he stopped talking altogether. After a few moments, he left. I had an especially peaceful night at work.

I sometimes wish I’d remembered that night when I chased Gary away with a mop handle. Prayer worked especially well when Frank shouted at me from the doorway. I don’t know why I didn’t stop to pray before I freaked out on Gary. Maybe I was a sucker for getting pulled into that fight. I don’t know. But addressing a problem and focusing on a problem seems to make all the difference.