ShepherdLeader.com

Imagine the patience and faith it takes to dig a well by hand in the middle of the desert and still not hit water at 20 feet! Yet faith gives the digger certainty that if they keep digging water will surely be there. No matter how furiously and faithfully they have dug, if the excavators quit before they hit water, everything they’ve done up to that point has been for nothing. There is no marginal value that can be derived from their activity thus far. Without water all the digging is worth nothing.

Ministry is a lot like that. It is so easy to create a complex web of activity that keeps diggers digging for years and call that ministry. But all that digging is for nothing if they are not hitting the water source underneath. I wonder if, in the past 13 years of ministering at my church, I’ve led our people to tap into the source of life.

I just finished writing a mini commentary on the cultural and historical background for the parable of the teaching on the cost of discipleship from Luke 14:25-35. It is a project to go along with the video clips from the Luke video, for oral learners, something I am doing for our Vernacular Media Services department here at Wycliffe's JAARS Center. Reading your entry after just writing on this parable was very timely. Whether it is digging a well or building a tower, failure is not an option. Following Jesus has its costs and they must be counted. We must make sure the flock receives the life giving water. Our 'followership' must produce followers. As we follow the great shepherd, we must be sure those following us are receiving what we receive...digging must be with the faith that water is there for each thirsty sheep. As the saying goes, though, and I'll modify it for this, you can lead a sheep to water, even dig next to them to help them find it. But you cannot make them drink. You might be able to make them thirsty though, if you are salty.