ShepherdLeader.com

I loved the movie Amazing Grace. I went home that night after watching it and I couldn't go to bed. I stayed up for hours praying. I cried in repentance for how little I have felt [or done] for the marginalized, oppressed, hurting and disenfranchised. After the very real cry of repentance for myself...

I believe gate keeping is a job I am to share with my elders / board. It is a job that we discuss at staff meetings, and with our small group leaders. So you would think that in the church family I am a part of that we were well guarded: small group leaders, ministry leaders, board and pastors. Perh...

I wonder if it is "defying the open jaws" of the Lion of Judah, as much as it is jumping into them? When we pray "Your will be done" aren't we praying "God if you want to crush me, kill me, heal me then I submit to your will"? Imagine being at a zoo, in the kiddy area p...

I think the picture on the first page of this devotion is excellent. I've never seen one like it. It's terrible and beautiful. I actually spent some quiet time thinking through the picture. The eyes look right at you - almost making you feel like food! You can just see his two sharp teeth under his ...

I appreciate the lesson for leadership in today's meditation. I appreciate the responsibility of recognizing threats to church life. However I feel this same lesson needs to be discipled into every believer so that each of us owns and lives by it! The truth is straight forward: we are vulnerable whe...

"You can't afford losses dues to a 'failure of imagination'" (p.116). This line reminded me of some poetic and gritty wisdom in Shane Claiborne's "Irresistible Revolution": "war is for those who have lost their imagination". "Imagination" defined is a clear me...

My thoughts through this devotional today lingered on the word "tenacious". Is my concern for my congregation, my drive to advocate on their behalf, my prayer life for them defined with the word tenacious? The shepherd obviously fills the role of protector, but "protector" needs ...

Abram and Simon received new names. We apparently will receive one (Revelation 2:17). Why? What's in a name? Perhaps that's not the right question. Perhaps the better question is 'why is a new name important to God?' Part of the answer is ownership. Parents consider 'what meaningful word, what hope,...

I met with a pastor not too long ago who said that "visiting is not [his] gift, so I stick to ministry that is within my gift mix: preaching, teaching, administration". I asked if pastoral leadership was not about being present in people's lives. His response: "I do that in my preachi...

Ezekiel 34:6-12, and Numbers 27:17 remind us of the plight of shepherd-less sheep: scattered, wandering, and no one "looked" or cared. Implied in the Ezekiel passage is a time period, a process that must have happened, wherein shepherds were caring for a flock and then they began to stop c...

I was surprised by the accounts given about lost sheep in today's meditation - I guess hearing the severity of concern for even one lost one was of most interest. It is a beautiful thing to read of people not at all connected to our Bible (I assume these Bedouin shepherds) underlining the depth of c...

Read through a thoughtful response in the forum to today's devotional - read it mostly because of the title "our Mother in Heaven"! I was at a funeral service not too long ago where the minister prayed to our "heavenly mother", but this was not prayed as a metaphor or illustratio...

It occurs to me that I have friends that I particularly need in certain circumstances. I need handy ones often, I need the ones that make me belly laugh often, I need the ones that ask me tough questions, and in this past season I needed the healing ones... Those friends whose homes were comfortable...

I think the two passages Laniak cited to connect feeding to leading make a very good argument: Jesus asking Peter if he loves Him, and the story of the five thousand. I am aware that as a sheep I require food all day long, and as a shepherd my flock eats all day long. It is not the complete picture ...

"Greener pastures" seems inevitable in ministry: if we only had more ministry money, if only everyone showed up on Sunday, if only I could pastor in that city... Greener pastures thinking is a symptom of unrest in my present ministry setting, either a personal unrest or a church situation....