"In God's kingdom, he was teaching, we should always 'count by ones'" (p79).
When I pastored a small-town church in South Carolina, particularly in the first two or three years, numerical growth was painfully slow. And yet it was in that very context, where patience was (seemingly) stretched to its limits, that God was teaching me to value every single soul.
By God's grace, the first few years at my current church have been a time of harvest. This is admittedly more fun, but for myself, also runs the danger of losing making us lose sight of the one. Dr. Laniak's reminder above is convicting for me. The harvest will come in and go out, over time statistics will rise and fall, but it is the very souls entrusted to us shepherds that we must love, serve, and at times weep for.
Just this very morning I learned of a young husband in our church family, filing for divorce for nonbiblical reasons, and I find myself grieved. Whether this man is a backsliding believer, or one of the "lost" described on page 79 I'm not sure. And of course, there's always far more to stories like these. Regardless, the shepherd's task is clear. I must give pursuit, with hopeful expectation that we will one day celebrate the return of a straying sheep to the fold.
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