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| Like A Shepherd Lead Us |
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 Guidance for the Gentle Art of Pastoring
Edited by David Fleer and Charles Sibert
Some time back an elder friend who is also the CEO of a multi-national corporation told me over lunch, “Lynn, I am thinking of resigning from the eldership.”
“Why would you do that?” I pressed. His quick response, “One hour of ‘church’ business is taking more out of me than a week of ‘business’ business.” Hundreds of weary shepherds across the country share his feelings. Shepherding can be overwhelming.
In my passion to encourage and equip church leaders, I constantly keep an eye out for good resources aimed especially at elders. Not much is out there, and some seems wide off the mark. However, the new Leafwood book, Like a Shepherd Lead Us is right on target.
Early yesterday morning I flipped to page one, planning to read a chapter a day. But by lunch time I had read all the way through. What a gold mine! This book is stuffed with unusually thoughtful and desperately needed helps for Shepherds - written in a style that grabs your attention and keeps you turning pages. The contents are immensely practical, yet more about the shepherd’s soul than about his techniques.
The seven chapters are written by seven different authors, each man uniquely qualified in his field of expertise, thus offering top excellence on a wide range of shepherding concerns. Of course one volume cannot cover the whole water-front, but this one comes closer than any I have read. Buckle up and let me give you a quick ‘fly-over.’
Off the top, Randy Harris suggests that frantic, driven elders can leave the trail toward cynicism and burn-out and take a pathway leading back toward ‘joyful dreaming and a gentle unhurried shepherding.’ This refreshing path leads shepherds to ‘hear God’ through ‘listening prayer’ and ‘reflective reading’ of scripture.
Then Mark Love puts his scholarship and his shepherd’s heart together for a strong clinic on the shepherd’s main job which is praying pastorally with others He includes things like tips on preparing persons for prayer and choosing the ‘kind' of prayer that fits the person.
David Wray, always the consummate shepherd, coaches elders in Biblical ‘Soul Care’ of the flock (Strengthen the weak, Heal the sick, Bind up the injured, Bring back the strays, Search for the lost, Kindly and gently lead) by turning Ezekiel 34 upside-down.
Combing his background as professor of ethics in Vanderbilt Medical School with decades of local church ministry Rubel Shelly supplies a solid Biblical foundation plus hands on skills for ‘looking after the sick.’
Jeff Childers contends that the children of Christian families are part of the ‘faith community’ from birth. His fresh insights help shepherds coach young parents through questions surrounding the baptism of their children and ‘the age of accountability.’
Randy Lowery’s insights from two decades as director of Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution and his years of experience as an elder converge in sound and practical tools for mediating conflict within the flock.
Greg Stevenson helps today’s church leaders shepherd their flocks through the baffling collision between Christian faith and popular culture by pointing to positive communication and reflection values in the power of the movies.
This is definitely a book that church leaders have been waiting for. They will find it to be nourishing soul food as well as a useful shepherding tool kit.
Count on one thing for sure: As I interact with hundreds of church leaders I will be getting Like A Shepherd Lead Us into the hands of as many as I can.
-Lynn Anderson
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Hope Network Ministries
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San Antonio, TX 78255
(210) 690-2597
email: Hope Network
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