Leadership has a price tag; and that price tag is criticism. A leader must learn to handle criticism. Whenever we are out front, people are going to take shots at us. No leader is exempt from it. In fact, the only way to avoid criticism is by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing. Mark my words, the person ministering on the cutting edge will be criticized. Therefore, a leader must have thick skin. Stuart Briscoe writes, "Qualifications of a pastor (or any Christian leader): the mind of a scholar, the heart of a child, and the hide of a rhinoceros."

Nehemiah needed thick skin and he had it. "But when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab heard of our plan, they scoffed" (Neh. 2:19 LB). Scoffing or mocking means "to utter repeatedly words of criticism." And these critics uttered their criticisms throughout the entire building project and even after it was completed.

It is said that when Robert Fulton was building his steam engine, his wife came to him in his workshop and said, ...