Today is Monday December 18, 2017, and that means it’s the day of the week that my blog post is taken from a book I recommend to you.

Today’s quote is from the new book Shepherd: Creating Caring Community. It’s a book that focuses on the shepherding role all teachers have. The other two roles are Teacher and Leader (read about them in the book 3 Roles for Guiding Groups).

Here is what the authors of the Shepherd book have to say about the way shepherd-teachers view their work and ministry:

I have grown in my understanding that shepherding a group requires so much more of me than I initially thought. The people I lead are worth it and I don’t mind those “2 AM” calls and emergencies. I value those “Where is God in all this?” emails I sometimes receive as people struggle to understand God’s activity (or a perceived lack of it) in their lives. Sunday School, or whatever name your church calls its ongoing Bible teaching ministry, isn’t only about sixty to ninety minutes on Sunday morning. If your group happens to meet during the week, it’s not only about that mid-week gathering. Shepherding is about the things you do before, during, and after the group’s gathering for Bible study (p.19).

The authors remind us that although teachers certainly have a responsibility to prepare and guide group members through a study of God’s Word, they also have responsibilities to their group members that go beyond the weekly gathering of the group. Shepherding a group is as much about building relationships and spiritual transformation as it is about the transmission of Bible knowledge and content. Shepherd-teachers keep this in balance, and they budget time beyond the classroom to invest in the lives of the people they teach.

_______________________________

Follow this blog by clicking here. You can sign up with only your email address, which is never sold or given out.