shepherd Archives - Passion for Planting

The Four Foundational Requirements of Leadership

Sean Cronin — Sat, 06 Mar 2021 10:00:00 +0000

By Shawn Lovejoy: Every leader wants to build great teams, develop more leaders and make an impact.

As you can tell if you search “leadership” on Amazon or any podcast platform…there are endless amounts of best practices or new hacks to try and lead more effectively.

While I believe there is a ton of great content and wisdom out there, I also believe the foundational requirements of what it means to lead people can be found in the best selling book of all time: The Bible!

One of the most historically and biblically impactful leaders was King David. About midway through the Bible, in Psalm 78, the writer describes King David’s reputation as a leader:

“And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.” Psalm 78:72

In one sentence, the writer uses David’s example to highlight the four foundational requirements of leadership.

Care

“And David Shepherded them…”

Shepherds were common in society during Biblical times, meaning the Bible references them many times to highlight leadership. Great shepherds watch over and protect the sheep. Great shepherds care about what happens to the sheep.

Great leaders care about the people they lead. Great leaders are close to people, not hidden in a back office separated from the those they lead.

Similarly to shepherds, great leaders recognize that they must love those they lead.

Great leaders lead with love and care.

Integrity

“…with integrity of heart.”

Great leaders lead with integrity. Great leaders are the same backstage as they are on the big stage.

Great leaders ask people to follow them because of who they are, not just because of what they say.

Great leaders focus on what’s on the inside, not just what’s on the outside.

Great leaders can be trusted.

Great leaders lead with integrity.

Skill

“…with skillful hands he led them.”

Great leaders lead with skill.

They practice. They prepare. They outwork everyone else.

Great leaders master their craft. Great leaders are disciplined.

They seek counsel and make wise decisions over time, and in doing so, they earn the right to lead.

Great leaders are always learning and always growing. Great leaders read. Great leaders study. Great leaders have mentors and coaches.

Great leaders recognize that the toughest person to lead is themselves.

Great leaders lead with skill!

Courage

“…he led them.”

Great leaders lead with courage.

They are out in front of the battle taking the hits with everyone else.

Great leaders are willing to do the tough thing…the scary thing.

Great leaders are willing to have courage conversations and make courageous calls. Great leaders are willing to speak the truth in love. Most organizations don’t grow because they’ve chosen not to. They have chosen to refuse to have the conversations and make the calls they know they need to make, to grow!

Great leaders aren’t cowards. They are courageous.

Do you want to be a great leader? Care, Integrity, Skill, and Courage is the way.

By the way, my calling and skill is in coaching leaders to places of healthy growth.

I would love to help you become the leader God wants you to be!

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Source: The Four Foundational Requirements of Leadership

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What’s the Difference? Shepherding vs. Disciple Making

Sean Cronin — Tue, 25 Feb 2020 10:00:58 +0000

by Justin Gravitt: Clarity breeds brevity. Lack of clarity leads to lots of words. Our churches today lack clarity on disciple making. That confusion is evident by the long list of words used interchangeably such as discipleship, coaching, mentoring, disciple making, and shepherding. Unfortunately, these words aren’t synonyms. Instead of clarifying the call to make disciples, they complicate and confuse.

Many pastors view their life, ministry, and calling primarily through the lens of a shepherd. This makes sense. After all, Jesus called Himself the “Good Shepherd” (John 10:11). In His last conversation with Peter, He repeatedly says, “Feed my sheep,” (John 21:15-17). Even the word ‘pastor’ derives from the Latin word that means ‘shepherd’. The tie is clear and Biblical.

So why is it that while Jesus was both the Good Shepherd AND a Master Disciple Maker, most pastors shepherd without making disciples? Let’s dive into the differences…

Since shepherding is both Biblical and Christlike we must be careful in how we unpack this. Shepherding is a part of disciple making, but it’s not the same. The problem of using the terms interchangeably is two-fold:

First, it makes shepherding bigger than it ought to be.

In other words, it’s a problem of emphasis, not inclusion. The shepherding image doesn’t stand alone in Scripture because the motif breaks down from certain perspectives. For example, Jesus shepherded His disciples, but they were also His friends because they knew the Master’s affairs. An actual shepherd wouldn’t share the master’s business with the sheep, because that business ends with the sheep being slaughtered! And while real sheep never became shepherds, it was a clear goal that Jesus’ disciples become shepherds in the future (Luke 6:40).

Second, our cultural understanding of a shepherd’s role is vastly different from Jesus’.

What comes to mind when you think of someone who has “a shepherd’s heart”? For most, it’s a person who is marked by gentleness, care, and comfort. All godly attributes, but ones that Jesus balanced with direct speech, challenge, and rebuke. We can’t escape the influence our culture has on our values. We value comfort over character. Jesus presents the Shepherd motif primarily to highlight the character and commitment of the Shepherd, not to show how to comfort the sheep!

Jesus said, “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep….I am the Good Shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me…I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:11, 14-15)

So, shepherding and disciple making aren’t interchangeable, what’s the difference? Here are four:

1. Shepherds focus on developing contentment, disciple makers focus on developing vision.

Since a shepherd focuses on daily food and care, she often loses sight of the big picture. A flock that’s well-fed, comfortable, and satisfied are content, but without movement towards the Master’s purposes for the flock they are stunted.

Since a disciple maker focuses on training, she must clearly seethe Master’s purpose for the flock. Sheep can’t see much, so the disciple maker must see for them. As she walks with them day-by-day growth happens and the Master’s vision becomes a reality.

2. Shepherds focus on caring for the sheep, disciple makers focus on training them.

A shepherd views his primary responsibility as caring for the sheep. He’s diligent in finding infestation, disease, and hurts. He cares and wants them to be comfortable. He wants them to know he is the one they can come to for support and care.

A disciple maker views his primary responsibility as training the sheep. He is diligent to discern where God is working in their lives, to join Him, and to use life circumstances to help them develop. He knows God’s plan for the sheep is that they become shepherds. He wants them to know they can do it, and he will help them through trial.

Justin Gravitt, author of this blog, is with Navigator’s Church Ministries. They have made available to you, “The Start Small Grow Slow Strategy,” which you can download for free here.

3. Shepherds focus on satisfying the sheep, disciple makers focus on stretching them.

Shepherds believe that peace and satisfaction yield growth, but Hosea 13:6 illustrates the problem of satisfied sheep: “When I fed them they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.” Satisfaction isn’t wrong, but it can be dangerous. Instead of yielding growth, satisfaction often leads to movement away from God, not towards Him.

Disciple makers know that grow this often the result of stretching circumstances and experiences. So, the disciple maker’s first reaction to difficult times isn’t to fix. Instead, the disciple maker seeks to prayerfully walk alongside and help the disciple lean into what God is doing.

4. Shepherds focus on growing the flock, disciple makers focus on flowing the flock.

Shepherds believe that a healthy flock will grow. As the sheep are content they will invite others in, who will invite others in. This often happens, but the focus misses the aim of the Master for the flock.

Disciple makers believe that mature sheep are ready to be sent out to others. Developing a flow movement from here to there provides opportunity for sheep to become shepherds. They go out to find lost sheep, connect them one to another and begin to shepherd them towards maturity. As time goes on, they are sent out to do the same.

Let’s not forget, a full-bodied perspective of Jesus’ ministry includes both shepherding and disciple making. Jesus was the Good Shepherd. He laid down His life for the sheep. He knew them intimately and sought to grow them so they too would be shepherds. He was tender with them, but He was tough, too.

Do you shepherd like Him? Are you focused on the sheep’s comfort or development?

Written by Justin Gravitt

Justin Gravitt is the Dayton (Ohio) Area Director for Navigator Church Ministries. Read more from Justin at his blog, “One Disciple to Another,” where this article first appeared.

The post What’s the Difference? Shepherding vs. Disciple Making appeared first on Discipleship.org.

Source: What’s the Difference? Shepherding vs. Disciple Making

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CHURCH ZERO

Patrick Bradley — Sun, 04 Feb 2018 10:00:01 +0000

by Peyton Jones: When Jesus ascended with His work unfinished, He knew that no one person was going to be able to follow in His wake. The five kitbags each represent a specific skillset necessary for a church leadership team, like a sapper, sniper, commando, Navy SEAL, and heavy weapons expert. A church planter is never a splinter cell who acts alone, but the leader of a platoon of daredevil pathfinders. Church planting resembles a covert commando operation that travels covertly in small teams, creates an opening for other special teams, and gets the heck out of Dodge when the mission is accomplished.

Wimps need not apply. Typically, church-planting teams have not been very specialized. If somebody plants a church, it’s assumed that he must be a pastor. What about the other four roles? Imagine Navy SEALs outfitted in full scuba gear getting ready to jump out of an airplane. They just don’t have the kit. Don’t get me wrong, a pastor may be called to plant, but he’s going to need to jump with an apostle. If a pastor isn’t particularly gifted on the evangelistic side of things, he’s going to need somebody on hand with the evangelism kitbag. What good would it be if we were all Navy SEALs? I need a sapper. I’m gonna probably need a sniper as well. If you’ve seen Stallone’s The Expendables, you’ll know that the individuals in that team of elite mercenaries were recruited because of their special skills. So were you. When Jesus recruits leaders, He equips them like a Stallone, Statham, Li, Lundgren, Couture, Austin, Crews, Rourke, or Willis to assemble a super-team of highly specialized talents. We may be a Dirty Dozen crew of specialized ex-convicts, but we have skills. The Dirty Dozen impacted cinematic history because it concentrated on special teams. If it had been called The Dirty One, it would have conveyed an entirely different meaning, or it would have blown as a film.

Nobody wants to watch one guy doing everything. Nobody buys it, and it doesn’t work in real life. Because the church has assumed that all you need for simple shake-and-bake church planting is a pastor, the church has not learned to knit bands of special teams together, and rather than becoming the Expendables, they’ve often become the Disposables in terms of expanding the kingdom. The church desperately needs to see the return of the A-Team. The pastor-only club is killing the leadership of the church. Guys are burning out, losing their families, sabotaging their marriages, or simply going back to selling used cars. It’s time those of you in ministry got your life back. There was only one guy who could shoulder all five jobs on His own, and He’s not physically camping out here anymore. Jesus was the Master Chief of those five roles. Master Chief is a cybernetic super-soldier who can use any weapon of any make, alien or otherwise, simply by picking it up. He possesses integrative software hardwired into his cyber-suit that immediately breaks down the operational component of any weapons system. You and I, unfortunately, do not possess such a suit. We’re grunts. Therefore, we specialize. A shepherd can’t concentrate on evangelism; a teacher has to hit the books and resist being bogged down with too many namby-pamby counseling sessions.

Jesus alone mastered all five roles: •Apostle: “Consider Jesus, the apostle” (Heb. 3: 1). Let’s face it, He is the ultimate pioneer, missionary, messenger, and sent one. •Prophet: “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers— it is to him you shall listen” (Deut. 18: 15). After Jesus gave the people bread in the wilderness like Moses did, John did the math for us: “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’” (John 6: 14). Good guess. •Evangelist: When Jesus took the scroll in the synagogue at Nazareth, He read Isaiah 61: 1, which says that He was anointed to “bring good news [gospel] to the poor” as well as liberty and the Lord’s favor. If John’s gospel presents Jesus as anything in His conversations, it presents Him as an evangelist. •Shepherd: “I am the good shepherd” (John 10: 11). Peter calls him our “chief Shepherd” (1 Peter 5: 4). •Teacher: “And he opened his mouth and taught them” (Matt. 5: 2). “Never man spake like this man” (John 7: 46 KJV). ’Nuff said. FIST leadership isn’t something we’ve made up; it’s what our Master Chief has distributed to the church so that He can “fill all things” (Eph. 4: 10). That means to spread out! Therefore, He calls some to be apostles, some evangelists … you get the picture. Facing a task unfinished, we seek to fill the hole that He’s left behind. When Bugs Bunny ran through a wall, he left a Bugs-shaped hole, rabbit ears and all. What does a Jesus-shaped hole look like? You got it: apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, and teacher. Each of these leaders plays a vital role in equipping believers with a specialty so that they become a balance of the five roles. That’s why Paul said these leaders are given “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to … the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4: 12– 13). Last time I checked, the whole church hasn’t attained that fullness yet. These roles have been given until we attain it. Therefore, I think we’re gonna need these roles to stick around for a bit, until He comes back. If people see just the pastor-only model, they mistake Jesus’s leg for the whole body. But when all five roles operate, the church’s other three limbs will begin to be built up and attain Christ’s stature in the world.

The church is a bit like Voltron: Defender of the Universe. Voltron featured a team of five young pilots who each controlled a giant lion vehicle that combined to form Voltron, a super robot as big as a skyscraper and nigh invulnerable. (Yeah, it’s an eighties thing.) On their own, each of these lion robots, cool as they were, got their metallic butts kicked by aliens. For some reason that only the modern church could relate to, the five pilots repeatedly tried taking on said aliens individually before finally uniting to form Super Robot Voltron. Now, I was only eight when I watched this, but every day I knew their modus operandi was doomed. So I just waited till they got their cans kicked enough till they decided it was time to press the red button, uniting them into (step back) Voltron, Defender of the Universe. Once Voltron took shape, alien mutants got cut down, massive energy swords flashed, some alien chick screamed, and the universe got saved. Thus endeth the lesson. It’s tough for an evangelist to strike out on his own when he doesn’t know how to shepherd the community of people who get saved under his ministry. The pastor shepherds the people in the church while praying that he doesn’t leak more out, but he struggles to get them to walk through the doors no matter how hard he tries. The pulpiteering teacher swashbuckles through the riggings of exegesis like Errol Flynn, but he has no clue how to care for his hearers when their lives fall apart. If we would take a lesson from an eighties Saturday-morning kids cartoon, we’d start to unite the five lions in order to create the image of Jesus, who would tower over our communities wielding the sword of the Spirit.

Buy Peyton’s newest book “Reaching The Unreached: Becoming Raiders of the Lost Art” over on Amazon.com. You can also download a free chapter and watch a cool trailer for the book HERE or click the image below.

Source: CHURCH ZERO

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