ShepherdLeader.com

It’s a funny thing how something that is good for us is good for the flock as well. That’s God’s economy at work. I had lunch with a couple of key leaders in my church yesterday. We had come together to talk about some strategic decisions we need to make for the next year. But almost half of o...

I am sometimes surprised at the amount of trust that the flock puts in us shepherds. I mean I can see that being true for shepherd and sheep. But the people in my congregation are not sheep. They are people; smart people with businesses to run and assets to manage and still they put an almost inordi...

Day 35 was a relief for me. It seemed to acknowledge the reality that I struggle with a lot. Having a flock that has grown to a size that I can no longer keep up with each ONE. That has been one of the hardest parts of my ministry development. Some of the difficulty has been that part of me that wan...

We track our numbers all the time. We don’t measure our success by the numbers but we believe but we do track them. The point is to figure out where we are falling short, where key ministries might need to be shored up, where efforts may need to be redirected. There have been times where colleague...

The church I’m at was started about 6 years ago. We’ve grown considerably since then and have about 12 people on our program staff. Most were hired from within and grew into their ministries. Most have been part of the church for at least three years. It’s a tight family. That’s a very good ...

I think this is something that at least my denomination has long forgotten. It’s like there is an inertia that seems to drag us back to lagging, to loitering, to grazing on the grass that’s not really very good but at least it’s here where we are. It’s the maintenance mind set and I’ve fel...

I woke up this morning in a funk. I don’t know if it was something I dreamt last night or what but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d dropped the ball. It set the tone for my prayer time – a lot of repenting and a lot of laying the whole thing out before His truthful gaze. I’ve found th...

Day 26 – “Guard Yourselves� was a challenge for me. It still is. There’s something about it that makes me pause. I don’t think it’s because I’ve become a wolf and just don’t know it. I think instead that it’s because at times I’ve spent too much time self examining my motives and...

Darkness must be a scary thing in a place lit only by fire. Even in the Andes there is electricity and bare bulbs. There is no real darkness. But out in the desert the darkness must be unlike anything that I’ve ever seen. And yet that darkness can be found in the bright lights of Dallas or LA or D...

I’ve seen a lamb butchered on a mission trip to Peru. We are planting a church up in the Andes mountains. We were there visiting a family preparing for a death feast – the feast held eight days after the death of a family member. We came up the path to find the carcass being dismembered and the ...

Day 18 and 19 lay out before us the two lions that confront us. What a strange combination to speak of both in the same breath – Satan and God. Lions with “open jaws�. Actually, I’m not surprised at the lumping the two together. As Lewis makes clear, neither are “safe�. And to be honest ...

I really liked this reading. I think it’s because it explains the way I think. My biggest challenge in going to sleep at night or taking a day off is thinking too much. Questions keep rising up to be considered, data comes in to be evaluated, possible decisions are weighed. Even when I’m just si...

Is that me? It’s a good question as I look at the sheep laid out like beached whales; fat, content, lazy, relaxed, at rest. I wonder when the last time I felt that “satisfied�. And the answer is not for a long time. After all there’s stuff that has got to get done, tasks that need to be fini...

This last month I had two people leave the church because they were mad at me. Didn't want to talk, didn't want tell me the problem just wanted to leave. What makes it hard is that they’ve been with us for almost four years, they’ve grown up with us. I married them in her hometown out of state. ...

This one is a challenge for me. The thought that each night every sheep must “pass under the shepherds rod� to be individually checked makes me tired. And yet I believe it to be true. Somehow I need a solution. We’ve got about 1400 members in our church. For most of the last year I’ve been t...