Staff

[ScottG]

I have heard many explanations of staff. The tool of the shepherd is wielded with care, the shepherd has a heart for the sheep and it is demonstrated by his use of the staff. This image is commonly used in preaching. I have used it in preaching. I was given a staff at my ordination with the admonition to remember to care for the flock, to remember my calling to always do what was best for the sheep. I was used to that type of definition and explanation of staff.

However, Laniak put two uses of the word together that I ashamedly never have. “We call our helpers ‘staff’� (97). Never before had I thought of staff as ‘staff!’ As a pastoral leader of ministry staff, that needs to be foremost in our minds. Our staff is the staff by which God cares for his sheep. Martin Luther famously called our vocational acts the “masks of God.� God is behind our work serving and loving his people. We become the face that others see. When others are comforted by our ministry as church staff, we realize that we are in the hands of the Good Shepherd.