ShepherdLeader.com

I found Laniak's suggestion about what was going on in Numbers 20 to be provocative and novel. I feel a bit disappointed in Moses, but God's judgment does make more sense if Moses was faking it. He was pushed to extremes by his flock's complaining and criticism; the leadership load was almost more t...

The depiction of the portable Bedouin home is challenging for those of us who have houses, filled with possessions. When we move it takes maybe months and weeks of planning. When I resigned as pastor, it was quite a task just to move my books and files home. The culture is against us in this and we ...

Although as a pastor, it sometimes felt like I had no authority, I actually know the reverse to be true. I had lots of authority. I saw the truth of this when a congregation member became a pastor - the increase in authority was stunning to her. I saw it too in the relational conflicts I had with my...

For awhile on the farm on which I grew up, we had two sheep. I can picture my dad being butted in the head by a sheep that didn't want to be caught. Though we let their fleece grow too long, we did somehow shear these two sheep at some point. The abundant wool was taken to the woolen mills near Cars...

I too am unwilling to imagine God as unsafe. But his ferocity as a lion surely needs qualification so as to not paint a picture of God as arbitrary, volatile, and untrustworthy. But his wrath should not be underestimated, wrath against evil and sin. And sometimes God's flock are the sinners. The lam...

A married woman (a university professor) in my congregation decided that she was in fact a lesbian, and left her husband. The couple were relatively new to our congregation. She had reached this conclusion based on feelings and personal searching and felt that she would at some point need my help to...

'Shepherds sometimes stand at a distance to see the "big picture."' As a 'big picture' person, I find that I do this kind of thing all the time, usually viewing the flock as a whole rather than as individuals. The problem with this is the tendency to miss the concerns of individuals. And w...

I find that I have a strong identification with the shepherd warrior image - maybe because of the years spent in church conflict. What is discouraging to me is that most of it was with the sheep themselves. Or perhaps it was with the "fat sheep" who "shove with flank and shoulder, but...

The stories about the shepherds naming and knowing their sheep are beautiful. And the sheep know their shepherds and are bonded to them. I grew up on a farm and we had cattle. But the rancher's or farmer's cattle are cared for in a far different way. Much less personal. No farmer sleeps with his cat...

I am struck by the critical importance and effort required to attach a (rejected) newborn to a surrogate mother, the staff being used to prod the ewe to accept the unfamiliar lamb. I think I can remember the face of each newborn child of God over the last 15 years who was either stillborn in the fai...

"biblical restoration involves returning to a place of divine provision where comprehensive care is available and where life can be restored." What a beautiful description of the rest that God gives, and what should be the frequent experience of people in our churches. So much in our cultu...

This past Sunday, one of our homeless friends died. He was in his thirties. Thomas was a lovely person, an easy-going man who cared for others. A high risk lifestyle perhaps in combination with a congenital problem meant that his heart stopped in his sleep. Of him and his 2 brothers, all known to us...

Laniak draws out a wonderful connotation of the term "lost" in Shepherds After My Own Heart in that it implies that what is lost in fact originally belonged to the Great Shepherd. In the context of evangelism, this is a beautiful depiction of those "in other folds" that Jesus see...

The image of the maternal in ministry is one I can relate to as a woman. Even before I became a mother, it seemed a natural fit that I relate to my congregation as a mother. When I moved to a new church, I received cards and calls from people in my old church on Mother's Day - though I was at the ti...

It sounds as thought sheep are prone to many problems! And so are we as God's sheep. The one aspect of this metaphor that troubles me is that the sheep that we treat as pastor-shepherds will sometimes not take their medicine. The under-shepherd's voice (and the Great Shepherd's!) is just one of a mu...