The Shepherd: Care and Community-Building

This is the fourth post in a series exploring the five leadership types from Ephesians 4: Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds, and Teachers. In the previous post, we explored the Evangelist - the growth specialist who spreads the vision. Now we turn to the Shepherd - the leader who nurtures and protects the community.

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Leaders cannot simply charge ahead or preach their vision; a leader who cannot protect and nurture their team will find themselves with a team that never grew. Either they leave for one reason or another, or they stagnate.

There is a need for a nurturing protector; a ‘Mama bear’ of sorts. One who can shield their people just enough that they can grow up and hold their own.

This is the Shepherd. The Shepherd is quite a strong theme in the Bible, although really there have been Shepherds (and other kinds of herds) for pretty much as long as humanity discovered it was easier to herd than to hunt.

The Shepherd is exactly this nurturing protector, making sure the young and feeble are well cared for, able to grow strong and healthy. Sometimes, also the disciplinarian, making sure the foolish do not get themselves hurt or in trouble.

Too much of a good thing

It sounds like a good thing to have many Shepherds, but much as the other leaders, there is too much of a good thing.

If everything remains safe and the whole organization stays in the pen, then that is as much impact as the organization will have. At some point we must realize that we are not sheep, and venture forth to make an impact.