May 29, 2025 • 45 mins
Recorded live at Elim Leaders Summit 2025, these sessions focus on one of the fivefold ministry gifts described in Ephesians 4: apostolic, prophetic, evangelistic, shepherding, and teaching. Together, they form the APEST framework—helping leaders understand their unique calling and how it contributes to the life and mission of the Church.
You’ll hear leaders reflect on how their APEST gifting shapes their leadership, ministry relationships, and team dynamics. These sessions are practical, honest, and full of insight—ideal for anyone seeking to grow in their primary and secondary ministry strengths.
Whether you're exploring your own APEST profile or leading others through theirs, these recordings are a great next step for deeper clarity, collaboration, and whole-body ministry.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Well, good morning, everyone. If you could find your places,
find your seats, so wonderful tosee so many shepherds in the
room. Amen.
Shall we pray? Father, we thank you and praise
you for your goodness, and we thank you for the grace that you
distribute to your people. And we are particularly thankful
(00:25):
in this session about the grace of shepherding.
Thank you, heavenly Father, thatyou are the Good Shepherd.
And Lord, we pray as we share, as we discuss, as we receive,
and we give that your will be done.
Father be with us now. We pray in Jesus precious name,
(00:47):
Amen. Well, my name is Glenn.
Glenn Porter. I'm the minister of the Romfords
Elim Church, the lead minister. And.
Yeah, shepherding is something that's been very much on my
heart, so I'm looking forward tobe able to sharing with you.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Beryl Glass, I'm Ali Deel
Church in Clydebank and I'm going to be looking at how we
(01:11):
live out this grace of shepherding over our lives.
So look forward to sharing you with you after Glen has brought
what's on his heart. So thank you, Glenn.
Lovely. Thanks, Beryl.
If you turn to Ezekiel chapter 34, there's a lot to get through
this morning. So I'm hoping that we manage it
(01:33):
because so I'm not going to readthe whole of Ezekiel 34, but I
think it's the key passage from my experience about shepherding.
For me, I was the youth leader in Leeds back around about 1982,
been No 81. Actually.
I was a Christian for just a couple of years and seven years
(01:56):
later I felt the call of God to go to Bible college with my wife
Jill. And we went into the elders to
share the feeling that was time to move on.
And they they said, why? We've got a youth group of 100
young people. Things are going fantastic.
(02:17):
Can't you just do your studies here?
Why go away and leave all this behind?
And that question, why I couldn't answer because for me,
the, the, the reason I thought Iwas going was to learn the Bible
because I'd been involved in theyouth work, but I'd never ever
spoken. You know, teaching and preaching
(02:39):
wasn't my thing. I just enjoyed loving Jesus and
enjoyed leading others and helping others.
And so when they said, why are you going, my mouth open,
nothing came out. And then I thought back in my
mind and I recognized that, well, what I've been doing with
these young people, I've been shepherding them.
(03:03):
And so from the question coming,my mouth opening, no answer,
shepherding came out. I'm going to be a pastor.
And that brought great release for me because when we went to
Bible college, I knew exactly why I was going, and I knew that
I'd be applying to Elim afterwards and carrying on in
this journey of shepherding. It was a great release.
(03:27):
And one of the passages that hasmeant so much to me is this one,
Ezekiel chapter 34. For time's sake, I'm not going
to have time to read it to you in its fullness.
So please be reading, maybe as Ipick some things out.
But in that particular passage, Ezekiel the prophet shares God's
input and prophetic message overthe nation, particularly to the
(03:51):
shepherds of Israel, and it saysa number of things to them.
It says that shepherding God's flock is one of the greatest
life's greatest privileges. You are pushing a noble task.
(04:11):
Stay humble. Don't think more highly of
yourself than you ought. Keep your eyes detailed in on
Jesus and how far you still haveto go rather than on your own
flock and how far they still have to go.
Now when you read Ezekiel, you'll find a number of things
from Ezekiel, criticisms that God has about the shepherds #1
(04:38):
their failure. From verse 2 to 1st 4, you'll
find that he says, listen, I have this against you,
shepherds, you take care of yourselves and not the sheep.
You profited from the flock. You failed to strengthen the
weak, you failed to attend theirhurts.
You failed to gather the strays,you failed to search for the
(04:58):
lost. And you rule them harshly.
And in verse 10, God says this to them, that they will be held
accountable by God, accountable by God.
Now when I went to see then youth leader Chris Marsden, an
amazing, amazing youth leader who put so much into us as young
(05:19):
people in Leeds and he said, I want you to be the next youth
leader. My mouth opened again and
nothing came out. And I actually left that room
having been encouraged and amazed that I should be asked.
And when I went home, I just burst into tears because the bit
(05:41):
that stuck with me was when God said that I'd be accountable for
the sheep in my charge. And that weight has really
stayed on my shoulders right throughout the ministry.
I take a tremendous privilege tobe involved in shepherding lives
and I am accountable to Him. And if we can keep that
(06:04):
intention not to be, not to be something that destroys our joy
or our peace, but something thatjust holds us in check so that
it never is about me. It's about Him and what He's
called me to be and to do. Because shepherding is not about
the post or the office of of shepherd.
Yes, I'm a pastor, but I also have the grace of what has God
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has given me to use in that role.
And for me, yes, it happens to be that shepherding is near the
top, but there's other graces aswell.
It's not about the office, it's about our about our function.
Amen. It's about who we are and how
God can use us to achieve his purpose through us.
(06:53):
And so this issue of responsibility laid heavy on my
shoulders until I began to realize, yeah, I work alongside
Him. He will help me, but never lose
that sense of you're accountableand we are accountable only to
him. We're accountable to our our
session or elders. We're accountable to our
(07:14):
congregation and we're accountable to Elim.
We're accountable to Elim who have entrusted us in a
particular place at a particulartime and we need to keep that
responsibility in check. Let's see now.
(07:36):
God having said to them, these are your failures, he then says
to them, I'm going to have to step in here and show you how
it's done. And he gives us the example of
the Good Shepherd, Amen. And we know the Good Shepherd is
Jesus. And he says, I will look after
the sheep, I will rescue them, Iwill gather them, I will guide
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them, I will pasture them, feed them, I will tend to their
needs. I will make them secure to be
able to lie down. I will look after the lost, I
will strengthen the weak and I will rule them fairly.
Now when you read those two sections, our failures and
sorry, our failures and our successes, as it were, how how a
(08:20):
shepherd should be, that really to me covers the whole gambit of
shepherding. And it's worthwhile for you if
you haven't before, really studying and looking into
Ezekiel chapter 34. Now for the shepherds of Israel,
they were flawed. They were flawed as opposed to
the Good Shepherd who had no flaws for them.
They were selfish, they were greedy, they were dishonest,
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they were self-centered. They were generally
unprincipled. In the New Testament we see how
success for the shepherd dependson character.
One Timothy 3 one to seven. It says there that shepherds
need to be above reproach, A faithful husband, a temp, a
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temperate, self controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to
teach, sober, gentle, not quarrelsome, not greedy, good
family man, mature in faith and of good repute in and outside of
the church. That's what a shepherd is.
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That's what an overseer is for the church.
Now when it comes to being a a fantastic example, there's Jesus
because Jesus embodied all thosethings, Amen.
He embodied what it was to be a shepherd.
He embodied it quite naturally because when you think of of
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some of these attributes, looking after the sheep or how
he looked after us, he was able to say I didn't lose 1 except
the one bound for perdition. When it comes to rescuing them.
Look at his dealings with Peter.Having failed miserably, he
restores him because he had a plan and a purpose for him.
(10:12):
When you think of gathering, howmany people gathered around this
guy because they saw something in him and they they wanted it.
They saw truth, but they also saw a life that modelled
something. When it comes to guiding them,
His wisdom was beyond measure. When it comes to feeding them,
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we're still feeding on his parables.
We're still feeding on the the words that Jesus spoke when we
think of him, tending their needs, the healings, the
deliverances, absolutely outstanding.
When we think of how he made people feel secure, He actually
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modelled some of these things. But I want to just for a minute,
look at the example of Paul because sometimes we make a
mistake when we look at Jesus and think, well, we know who
Jesus is, He's God. That's not me, that's not me.
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But maybe we can identify a little bit more with Paul
because Paul was one of us. And when I look at Paul and his
life and his example, I see, yes, he was an apostle.
Amen. However, he did have the grace
of shepherding in an amazing way.
When I looked at him, His converts, it says his converts,
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he called them sons, of course, Timothy, Titus, Silas, others,
He shared his life with them. What does it say in one
Thessalonians 2, verse 7 to 8? But we were gentle among you,
like a mother caring for her children.
We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you
not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well.
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It's our great privilege to share our life.
That's basically what we're doing, is it not?
In church, we're sharing our lives.
And I think for us, the challenge is, particularly when
we're married and we've got family, the balance is to try
and get that balance right. Because you're, you're, you're
sharing yourself with so many others, not to forget your
family in that process. He prayed for them.
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One Thessalonians 310 night and day.
We pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply
what is lacking in your faith. He sent trained men.
Oh sorry, he visited them. Acts 1536.
Sometime later Paul said to Banamas, let's go back and visit
the brothers in all the towns where we preach the word of the
Lord and see how they are doing.And when we think of him
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visiting, remember no aeroplane,no car, no public transport
apart from maybe a donkey, a whole area to cover Turkey and
and wider Asia. He visited them and we sometimes
struggle to go half a mile to pay a visit.
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And he sent trained men. He couldn't possibly cover that
whole area. 1 Thessalonians three, one to three, we see that
he sent trained men, people who could extend that pastoral care,
and he wrote letters. He wrote letters.
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And what letters? They were guys.
They're more than an emoji sent on a text.
They're more than an e-mail witha few words on it.
These letters were full of richness.
They were full of life. They took time to be done, but
the value of them, we are still benefiting from them today.
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Amen. Absolutely amazing.
Now that speaks to me of someonewho really cared, someone who
really loved the people, someonewho have had the best intentions
for the flock, the churches thathe'd planted to succeed and to
do well. What an example he sets before
us. And he combined with Jesus, this
challenge of sharing their liveswith us is absolutely amazing
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because the Good Shepherd even laid down his life for his
sheep. So where are we?
Let's look at some of the benefits as well as the dangers
of being a shepherd. Some of these things you would
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have got in the in the emails and stuff that you would have
received, But let me highlight one or two things from them.
Benefits and dangers of shepherding the grace gift.
Firstly, with regards to the benefit, when you've got someone
who's a shepherd, you find love,love for the people.
There are literally times, certainly, certainly I was going
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to say in the youth days, but it's still the same in church.
There's times when I just look at my people and I just, I just
want to cry. It's not cries of frustration or
fries of but just cries, tears of joy.
I'm amazed. I mean, we've, we've moved five
times. We've still not got a home
that's that can house us. So we, we continually happen to
move and rent places five times.And that it staggers me that the
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people are still there because with every move, there's a
potential to lose people. And it staggers me that folks
who've been so loyal for so longand it just drives me to tears,
tears of joy, tears of joy because I love the people
individually, collectively. Shepherding provides care,
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concern, correction. Shepherding is a unifier and an
includer. I have that drive.
I know on on other other stuff that we've done other
assessments, probably we've all done about 567, maybe even 10 in
our lifetimes apart from the apes one.
And in all of those, the caring and the inclusiveness I love
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including people. I was an outcasting to a degree
and I love always seeing the onewho's on the fringe and left
out. I love to draw them in.
Shepherding brings patients, timely care, stretching people
to grow. It creates A relational
environment. I know for us, our, our
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punchline is relationship to God, relationship to one
another, relationship to the world, worship, fellowship,
mission. That's our, that's our mantra
for the church. It's all about relationships.
It's all about people at the endof the day.
An awareness of spiritual needs within the community.
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A shepherd brings that. A shepherd brings desires to see
people enriched, connected, understood.
Shepherding has a vision for growth and see others develop.
And shepherding involves being aware of the dangers of for the
flock. It protects it gods.
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But there's dangers. There's dangers of being a
shepherd. And some of the dangers can be
not all of them for everybody, but can be.
And maybe you'll identify with some of these.
You've got to be careful becauseyou can take on too many
people's problems because you care, but there's only so much
you can do. You can be obsessive at the
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expense of truth because you love people.
I don't like hurting people. I don't like sometimes having to
give a strong word because I know that they might burst into
tears or whatever, however they may react.
But sometimes you've got to be aware.
Not doing that at the expense ofjust wanting everything to be
nice. Sometimes a shepherd can be risk
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averse. Not wanting to take rest with
just maybe a bit cautious over cautious sometimes.
Sometimes we can be conflict avoiding because we love, we
care, and we don't want to hurt or upset.
Sometimes it can lead to a lack of clear planning strategy.
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Focus is yes, something that I'malways having to battle with
because I love being, I love thepeople.
And you can be over involved in that lack of time management,
lack of healthy boundaries. You know when you've got to be
careful. So you know when you're someone
who's good looking like me, you've got to be careful.
(19:03):
So you've got to be aware of boundaries when you're getting
involved with people. Shepherd has got to be careful
about measuring themselves, about losing sheep.
How many people like losing sheep?
None of us. And I had to learn that the
issue is not so much that we're not going to lose people, we
will lose people. People come and flew in and out
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of church all the time. The issue I had to learn was
it's not that they will go, it'show they go.
It's how they go. And I love to know how everyone
has left, whether there's an issue and if there isn't, if
you're trying to resolve it before they go.
I want to always leave the door open so that anytime they can
come back. But as long as they've gone,
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loving Jesus, buoyant in faith, and they say, well, I feel it's
time to have another fresh, OK, God bless you.
That's fantastic. No problem.
But at least I know we've got tobe aware of being driven by the
approval or disapproval of others.
And we've got to be beware that we can be just as much dependent
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upon that kind of relationship we have with our people as they
depend upon us as shepherds and not to get over involved in
people's lives. What should I say in conclusion,
shepherding and those characteristics that grace that
God's given us is not just for the church.
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It's it's our life. It's our life, our attitude, our
actions, our relationships. It should be displayed just as
much in church as outside. For those who are by vocational
who you are in the church context, it should be just the
same as you are in the workplace, in the home, wherever
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you are. Can I finish with this example,
a young guy, Sam, 21 years of age, we knew him from Ilford,
was seven years in Ilford and then now we've been 27 in
Romford and the family moved with us to Romford.
So known him before he was even born.
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He joined the RAF and he was doing absolutely amazing.
Great young lad and then suddenly playing basketball for
the RAF team, he just suddenly dropped and he was gone on the
basketball court talking with his mom and dad.
When it comes to Sam, they said Sam, his smile, his warmth, his
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love of people was outstanding. His faith, wherever he was, was
immense. We had then had the funeral.
There was 60 people from the RAFin all their uniforms, part
military burial. It was an incredible occasion.
And these guys and gals came andwhen they shared about Sam, it
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was oh, his smile. His warmth would light up a
room, his love for us wherever we were.
If we needed him, he'd drive, he'd be there.
But his faith, he'd just love Jesus.
And then his friends from college and from school who came
to the funeral when they got up to share, oh Sam, his smile, his
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warmth and lighting up a room, his love for us wherever
whatever we need to, he was always there.
And his faith, One girl, she's saying, I can't believe that
someone who was 21 years of age had his life so together about
his faith and who he was. And it was just the same.
Whether it was in his home, whether it was in church,
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whether it was in the RAF, whether it was within college
and school, he was just the same.
You see, the grace of shepherding, which he clearly
had, is not just for church, it's for our lives.
And it should be just the same wherever we are because that's
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who we are. Amen.
So God bless you in your shepherding.
We're just introducing this partto you at this particular point
in time. I'm going to hand over to Beryl
and she's going to give a different perspective, a more
personal one. Thank you.
(23:44):
Thank you so much, Glen. It's just such a strong reminder
of the heart of Jesus and and the heart that we carry.
And sometimes there's a big wrestle with that.
I going to share a little bit ofmy of my story today.
I've just really entitled sort of the the working out as we
begin to look at this grace thatis so evident in all of your
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lives of shepherding and I've entitled it living out the the
shepherd grace. And really we're just trying to
today just to spark a conversation that you're able to
think more of the the this gracethat God has placed over your
life. So I want to just share a few
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things that I've found helpful. I think I look at my life, I
look at what Jesus has done and I I am humbled.
I've always know that there's somuch to learn, isn't there?
There's, there's so much more that we, we discover about
ourselves that maybe does not reflect the heart of Jesus.
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But then to see him work and, and the the wonderful fact that
he uses us to care for and and show his love to other people,
It really blows my heart away that just the fact that we can
just humble ourselves before himand bring encouragement to
others. I've read a book that I would
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recommend to you. It it's all about lead like a
shepherd. It's called and it's Larry
Osborne is the writer. And this, this quote from the
book really stood out for me as we're thinking about living out
this shepherd grace. So shepherding God's flock is
one of life's greatest privileges.
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And it is, isn't it? It's a privilege to love people,
to care for people and to point them in the direction of Jesus.
You're pursuing a noble task. And I want to just affirm you
today in that you're pursuing a noble task as you love and as
you care, and you work out what that looks like for you to
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shepherd God's people. Don't think of more highly of
yourself than you ought. That's that's really a
challenge, isn't it? To us?
Keep your eyes dialled in on Jesus.
This is reflecting the verses from Philippians, isn't it?
Keep your eyes dialled in on Jesus and how far you still have
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to go. We have a long way to go.
I have a long way to go in this grace of showing love of care
and concern and protection for God's people rather than on your
flock and how far they still have to go.
Because that's where there's a tension, isn't there?
And those verses just really speak of having the attitude of
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Jesus, having our eyes fixed on him, our eyes dialed on him.
And I just want to speak a few minutes about humility as as we
look at that working out what itlooks like to be humble every
day in front of every person we meet in Glen So put that so well
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didn't he about you know, our our life just isn't in in church
and this has been a struggle forme.
I was never very confident in dealing with people too much to
share today of of my story. But but God has done her work.
And when I look at that quote, when it says don't think of
yourself more highly than you ought, I just thought for me
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that that's the trap of people popping a title on you.
Well, you're the pastor, you're the shepherd.
And it and it puts pressure, butgrace is a liberation.
And that's why if we say we lookat this as this grace to
shepherd, there's grace on our lives to love people, to live
life before Jesus, to humble ourselves every day and say,
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Lord, would you help me to love this person and care for this
person? Whether it's whether we meet
them in the supermarket, whetherit's whether it's at home with
our family or whether it's in a church setting and we're dealing
with a difficult conversation. Titles become traps, don't they?
And we, we feel like, oh, look at me and I've had to deal with,
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with all of that and, and just look back to, to humbling myself
and saying, love, would you helpme to love?
Would you help me to care? And would you give me grace to
look to you? It's as almost as though we live
life open handed. We surrender all those things
that maybe when we look at the the list from Ezekiel and we see
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all the traps and the things that we we might fall into.
We have to just say, Lord, wouldyou help me?
Would you give me your grace to love and to care well, to
understand people and even to say they're your sheep, Jesus,
I'm one too. And would you just work because
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you're building your church? So that humbling.
So there we go. That's my my story.
So I'm just gonna briefly look at some joys and tensions in
shepherding. I want us to think about what it
looks like to press through whentimes are difficult for
ourselves and to draw close to the Good Shepherd.
I'm going to briefly just look at Psalm 23.
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If you want to get that out, I'mnot going to read it.
Also going to look at working out the shepherd in grace.
You might want to be thinking how, how do I cultivate it?
How do I invest in it? Because that's something that I
how I had to learn and perhaps to even think about.
If you I pastor a church by myself, it's very small.
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I have to rely on other people. It's not a a big team setting or
anything like that. And and it looks different in
all these different contexts. So for us to to think about that
as well. But I'm just going to touch on
these things. So my story is really, I
mentioned before about I used tofeel really awkward around
people. I won't tell you about certain
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things that that sort of led to that in my life, but I really
felt the Lord asking me to draw closer to him around 2025 years
ago and and really began to praythis prayer on a regular basis.
Love, would you break my heart for what breaks yours and never
really discovered what it would actually look like to be led by
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the Good Shepherd to a place where I would say Lord, I need
your compassion and to feel his compassion for people because
the situations and the circumstances were quite
difficult and quite complex. And I would have never imagined
that there was so much grace to actually show love and and to
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care for the people that God hadplaced in front of me at that
time. Now in a time of ministry
transition, getting to know people quite challenging it in
one way because of what was going on in the background of of
my life. But someone spoke to me and they
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said you are showing such love and such grace.
And for me that was, was confirmation to recognise this
shepherding, this pastoral gift,that grace that God had given
me. And it was, even though it's a
gift, it was such a grace at that time because really I
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didn't really see that there wasmuch progress being made in
being able to understand people.So I used to pray every week,
especially on Sundays. And this is how I worked it out.
Love, would you give me a coupleof significant conversations
with people so you would work inmy heart and enable me to to
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share grace and, and to help them and to encourage them to
press forward and further with you?
God dealt with my fears and my insecurities.
He does, doesn't he? He's so gracious.
He is the Good Shepherd and as we position ourselves as sheep
in front of him, He works, doesn't he?
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So firstly, joys and and tensions of shepherding.
We have to understand the times and the seasons, don't we?
Sometimes we will have real grace to deal with difficult
situations and other times God will work with perhaps the gift
of the grace that's on our lives.
That appears secondary as you'vedone that apest test.
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And then for for many years, I saw myself as what people had
just called out and they've donevarious tests of, you know,
Shepherd prophetic and doing thetest this time that the shepherd
has come a little bit lower downin the list.
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But so many people have encouraged me and said, this is
what we see over your life. And I understand how the two
work together. And that's where the tension.
But as we understand the times and the seasons that we're in,
and as we journey with people and get to know people, the Lord
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works, doesn't he? So there's these wonderful
moments, aren't there? As we, we care for God's people
and, and care for our families and, and those around us, you
know, we get those discipleship moments, the, the moments where
people want to journey deeper with Jesus and they, they come
and they ask for prayer and it'sjust beautiful to be able to
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lead people through discipleshipgroups and through a journey
towards baptism. And, and it's lovely when people
see though that they get that light bulb moment that the Lord
is actually placing something ontheir heart that they know that
they have to deal with. And it's almost as though you
don't have to have that difficult conversation at that
(34:00):
time. You can be just lean into the
grace that God gives and just able to share freely, pray,
blessing over them. So in all of this, I would say
that I have learnt to listen to people and I would say please
never undervalue the fact that you're not jumping in to say
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very much. That's how I used to be.
I used to think I need to be saying something.
I need to be saying something here.
The more I've learned that I listen, the more patience is
developed in me. The more I understand where
people's hearts are at, the moresometimes that you're just able
to weep with them because you perceive and and that's nothing
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in me. That's what Jesus does because
he's the Good Shepherd. Showing empathy and
encouragement doesn't always come naturally.
We have to invest in this grace over our lives.
And I heard an illustration on the radio just as, as we're
talking about empathy, of reallywhat empathy is, they were
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asking people to phone in and say, oh, what's the description
of empathy? And this mum phoned in and she
said, well, I was driving reallyslowly, having to drive really
slowly behind this car in front the other day.
And I was getting really frustrated.
And I sort of say, why are they going so slow?
I need to be here, I need to be there.
And she said, my son in the backpiped up and said, mommy, you
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need to be patient because the people in the car in front might
be carrying a goldfish in a bowlof water and the goldfish
doesn't want its water spill. I just thought, what a beautiful
picture of empathy and encouragement because we have
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those times, those tensions whenwe're ministering, when we're
shepherding. We've got so much else to think
about as we leave church or we we're involved in in the
ministry that we're in and we'reworking with all this and we can
go from patients and everything's fine.
We're showing love and care to frustration and that that just
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that just bubbles over. So for me, that's it.
Remember, goldfish, we don't want to spill the water and and
that's what God wants us to do to his school because of his
faithfulness, isn't it? So I'd encourage you to continue
and regarding against frustration and courage and call
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out the gold in others. There we go.
So really what I want to share quickly as we as we wind up.
I've probably spoken for too long already, but when I was
praying about what to share, I had a a picture.
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I mentioned that prophetic gifting, I often if I see a
picture, it's so helpful to me. But in all this frustration, in
times of ministry, when we feel frustrated because there are
frustrations in pastoral ministry, I want us to think
about drawing close to the Good Shepherd.
And as we draw close, we can become aware of our weaknesses,
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our limitations, and our blind spots.
And, and this picture is from Psalm 23.
And we know it, don't we? And it, it touches our hearts,
it ministers to us. And we see the shepherd, there
he is, He's holding the sheep. And that's the picture that I
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had. That's the best one that I could
find that would, would describe really what, what is going on.
It's the sheep leaning against the leg of the shepherd.
And I want to encourage you all today to lean in to the knee of
the Good Shepherd, leaning to the knee of Jesus in all that
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frustration in the time when we feel weak, when the the time
when we we're all so aware of really what what is is is going
on on our own hearts. And we want him to minister to
us. So we're enabled to minister, to
show this grace to others. And we know this verse says you
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anoint my head with oil. Now I spent a few years ago did
a whole series on Psalm 23 and spent a lot of time and I would
recommend it to you reading W Philip Keller's book, The
Shepherd looks at Psalm 23. We need the Good Shepherd to
minister to our irritations and distractions.
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Now, Philip Keller, he writes all about he was a shepherd,
what they used to put on the head of the sheep to calm the
irritations. Because it's widely known that
sheep can be bothered by flies. They get up their nose, they get
in their eyes, and in extreme cases, sheep can be driven mad
by the flies, the eggs that theylay the head.
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And so they rub oil in and that calms the sheep down because it
can irritate the sheep to a place to distraction and to even
where they go mad and they even die.
And we don't want that for any of the people that we care for
and that we love. But I know from experience I
don't lean into the knee of the Good Shepherd and allow him to
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anoint my head with oil that I am never going to be able to
allow that grace flow to others.I am much of as much as a sheep
as I am grace to shepherd. So I would encourage you to lean
in. Lean in today and allow the Lord
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to apply this oil to our heads so we're able to have this grace
to show love and to show care. And as we think about.
Moving on quickly about working out what the shepherd grace
looks like, how we cultivate it,how we invest in it.
I had to work hard and still do have to work hard investing in
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this grace of shepherd because of all the reasons that perhaps
we've briefly outlined before. But this is all about God's
faithfulness, and I think we canrecognize that we will always be
stretched in ministry wherever God's placed us and he gives us
his grace. But you might want to think
about who can you learn from at this time?
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Who is near you? Maybe that you would consider
someone to be an excellent pastor shepherd that you might
want to reach out to and contactand, and say, would you show me?
Would you help me because I'm wanting to learn more about this
grace that God's given me? What would you have done in that
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situation? Think about what you're reading.
I'd recommend this lead like a Shepherd by Larry Osborne.
Also want to give a plug to Stuart Blount.
He says where have all the shepherds gone?
There's a room here full of you all, which is wonderful.
So many people that have a love and a care and protection for
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God's people and also to remember what's the Holy Spirit
saying? And that's something that I, I
think we perhaps neglect becausewe think we want to jump in and
we want to fix people, don't we?So and then as well as we going
to spend a little bit of time just now around our tables.
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There'll be some questions to think about, but you might want
to think about as you exploring this grace, how this grace works
with the other graces. I mentioned a little bit about
how you know that there's a bit of a tension there with with the
prophetic and with the shepherding.
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And Glenn also mentioned some other things in his talk.
And also to think about levels of what shepherding looks like,
what it looks like 1 to one, what it looks like in a small
group, or rather in a larger context.
And then to think about the teamsetting.
And perhaps when we're you, you're thinking about with your
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leadership team or with your elders or with in even even in
your kids ministry. How, how do we approach this in
the best way? How do we have the shepherd
heart? And who on the team perhaps
knows or understands this personthe best?
Perhaps they're the ones that can lean into that grace and
minister to them at that time. So I'm going to hand back to
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Glenn just now and I hope that'sgiven you something to think
about and be encouraged as we spend some time around the
tables looking at what we're going to be doing.
Thank you so much, Beryl. So over to you now.
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If in on your tables, hopefully nobody's on that.
If you're on your own, please jump on a table.
Yeah, jump on a table where you can have a little discussion,
talk about and maybe think of some of these things.
Was there anything that resonated with you or is there
anything that's on your heart atthis particular point in time
that you just want to pick otherpeople's brains concerning?
How does this grace show up in your context in your situation?
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And where do you see grace needed more in your church life
with regards to shepherds? Have a good discussion for the
for 10 minutes or so before we wrap up.
OK, fantastic. So folks, how many of you found
the session beneficial? Just give us a wave.
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Yeah, we have some great shepherds in this room.
And some of the conversation on the tables have been absolutely
fantastic to to hear and the situations and circumstances.
All I can say is just make sure you know, as a shepherd you
absorb a lot. Just make sure you've got an
outlet with someone when that absorption because you you you
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don't want to hurt people, but sometimes you have to.
So you do absorb a lot. So make sure you've got an
outlet to talk to someone if it gets too much.
Amen. But one or two notes is to give.
I'm going to get let Beryl just fill you on that to remind you.
Yeah. So we, I would like you to
really just think about what youmight like to take away from
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this session and if you have anyfeedback being asked, there's a
scan code to scan there. But also to say, so we go now
into a coffee break and then everyone needs to be back in the
main auditorium for the next part of this morning at 11:30.
(45:04):
But Glenn and I would like to say that, you know, we're here
if anyone wants to to chat or you've any questions or you'd
like some prayer. And we'll be here for a little
while as we go into the coffee break.
And we want to thank you so muchfor listening and and for your
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time this morning.
Well, good morning, everyone. If you could find your places,
find your seats, so wonderful tosee so many shepherds in the
room. Amen.
Shall we pray? Father, we thank you and praise
you for your goodness, and we thank you for the grace that you
distribute to your people. And we are particularly thankful
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in this session about the grace of shepherding.
Thank you, heavenly Father, thatyou are the Good Shepherd.
And Lord, we pray as we share, as we discuss, as we receive,
and we give that your will be done.
Father be with us now. We pray in Jesus precious name,
(00:47):
Amen. Well, my name is Glenn.
Glenn Porter. I'm the minister of the Romfords
Elim Church, the lead minister. And.
Yeah, shepherding is something that's been very much on my
heart, so I'm looking forward tobe able to sharing with you.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Beryl Glass, I'm Ali Deel
Church in Clydebank and I'm going to be looking at how we
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live out this grace of shepherding over our lives.
So look forward to sharing you with you after Glen has brought
what's on his heart. So thank you, Glenn.
Lovely. Thanks, Beryl.
If you turn to Ezekiel chapter 34, there's a lot to get through
this morning. So I'm hoping that we manage it
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because so I'm not going to readthe whole of Ezekiel 34, but I
think it's the key passage from my experience about shepherding.
For me, I was the youth leader in Leeds back around about 1982,
been No 81. Actually.
I was a Christian for just a couple of years and seven years
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later I felt the call of God to go to Bible college with my wife
Jill. And we went into the elders to
share the feeling that was time to move on.
And they they said, why? We've got a youth group of 100
young people. Things are going fantastic.
(02:17):
Can't you just do your studies here?
Why go away and leave all this behind?
And that question, why I couldn't answer because for me,
the, the, the reason I thought Iwas going was to learn the Bible
because I'd been involved in theyouth work, but I'd never ever
spoken. You know, teaching and preaching
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wasn't my thing. I just enjoyed loving Jesus and
enjoyed leading others and helping others.
And so when they said, why are you going, my mouth open,
nothing came out. And then I thought back in my
mind and I recognized that, well, what I've been doing with
these young people, I've been shepherding them.
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And so from the question coming,my mouth opening, no answer,
shepherding came out. I'm going to be a pastor.
And that brought great release for me because when we went to
Bible college, I knew exactly why I was going, and I knew that
I'd be applying to Elim afterwards and carrying on in
this journey of shepherding. It was a great release.
(03:27):
And one of the passages that hasmeant so much to me is this one,
Ezekiel chapter 34. For time's sake, I'm not going
to have time to read it to you in its fullness.
So please be reading, maybe as Ipick some things out.
But in that particular passage, Ezekiel the prophet shares God's
input and prophetic message overthe nation, particularly to the
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shepherds of Israel, and it saysa number of things to them.
It says that shepherding God's flock is one of the greatest
life's greatest privileges. You are pushing a noble task.
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Stay humble. Don't think more highly of
yourself than you ought. Keep your eyes detailed in on
Jesus and how far you still haveto go rather than on your own
flock and how far they still have to go.
Now when you read Ezekiel, you'll find a number of things
from Ezekiel, criticisms that God has about the shepherds #1
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their failure. From verse 2 to 1st 4, you'll
find that he says, listen, I have this against you,
shepherds, you take care of yourselves and not the sheep.
You profited from the flock. You failed to strengthen the
weak, you failed to attend theirhurts.
You failed to gather the strays,you failed to search for the
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lost. And you rule them harshly.
And in verse 10, God says this to them, that they will be held
accountable by God, accountable by God.
Now when I went to see then youth leader Chris Marsden, an
amazing, amazing youth leader who put so much into us as young
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people in Leeds and he said, I want you to be the next youth
leader. My mouth opened again and
nothing came out. And I actually left that room
having been encouraged and amazed that I should be asked.
And when I went home, I just burst into tears because the bit
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that stuck with me was when God said that I'd be accountable for
the sheep in my charge. And that weight has really
stayed on my shoulders right throughout the ministry.
I take a tremendous privilege tobe involved in shepherding lives
and I am accountable to Him. And if we can keep that
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intention not to be, not to be something that destroys our joy
or our peace, but something thatjust holds us in check so that
it never is about me. It's about Him and what He's
called me to be and to do. Because shepherding is not about
the post or the office of of shepherd.
Yes, I'm a pastor, but I also have the grace of what has God
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has given me to use in that role.
And for me, yes, it happens to be that shepherding is near the
top, but there's other graces aswell.
It's not about the office, it's about our about our function.
Amen. It's about who we are and how
God can use us to achieve his purpose through us.
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And so this issue of responsibility laid heavy on my
shoulders until I began to realize, yeah, I work alongside
Him. He will help me, but never lose
that sense of you're accountableand we are accountable only to
him. We're accountable to our our
session or elders. We're accountable to our
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congregation and we're accountable to Elim.
We're accountable to Elim who have entrusted us in a
particular place at a particulartime and we need to keep that
responsibility in check. Let's see now.
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God having said to them, these are your failures, he then says
to them, I'm going to have to step in here and show you how
it's done. And he gives us the example of
the Good Shepherd, Amen. And we know the Good Shepherd is
Jesus. And he says, I will look after
the sheep, I will rescue them, Iwill gather them, I will guide
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them, I will pasture them, feed them, I will tend to their
needs. I will make them secure to be
able to lie down. I will look after the lost, I
will strengthen the weak and I will rule them fairly.
Now when you read those two sections, our failures and
sorry, our failures and our successes, as it were, how how a
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shepherd should be, that really to me covers the whole gambit of
shepherding. And it's worthwhile for you if
you haven't before, really studying and looking into
Ezekiel chapter 34. Now for the shepherds of Israel,
they were flawed. They were flawed as opposed to
the Good Shepherd who had no flaws for them.
They were selfish, they were greedy, they were dishonest,
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they were self-centered. They were generally
unprincipled. In the New Testament we see how
success for the shepherd dependson character.
One Timothy 3 one to seven. It says there that shepherds
need to be above reproach, A faithful husband, a temp, a
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temperate, self controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to
teach, sober, gentle, not quarrelsome, not greedy, good
family man, mature in faith and of good repute in and outside of
the church. That's what a shepherd is.
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That's what an overseer is for the church.
Now when it comes to being a a fantastic example, there's Jesus
because Jesus embodied all thosethings, Amen.
He embodied what it was to be a shepherd.
He embodied it quite naturally because when you think of of
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some of these attributes, looking after the sheep or how
he looked after us, he was able to say I didn't lose 1 except
the one bound for perdition. When it comes to rescuing them.
Look at his dealings with Peter.Having failed miserably, he
restores him because he had a plan and a purpose for him.
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When you think of gathering, howmany people gathered around this
guy because they saw something in him and they they wanted it.
They saw truth, but they also saw a life that modelled
something. When it comes to guiding them,
His wisdom was beyond measure. When it comes to feeding them,
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we're still feeding on his parables.
We're still feeding on the the words that Jesus spoke when we
think of him, tending their needs, the healings, the
deliverances, absolutely outstanding.
When we think of how he made people feel secure, He actually
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modelled some of these things. But I want to just for a minute,
look at the example of Paul because sometimes we make a
mistake when we look at Jesus and think, well, we know who
Jesus is, He's God. That's not me, that's not me.
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But maybe we can identify a little bit more with Paul
because Paul was one of us. And when I look at Paul and his
life and his example, I see, yes, he was an apostle.
Amen. However, he did have the grace
of shepherding in an amazing way.
When I looked at him, His converts, it says his converts,
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he called them sons, of course, Timothy, Titus, Silas, others,
He shared his life with them. What does it say in one
Thessalonians 2, verse 7 to 8? But we were gentle among you,
like a mother caring for her children.
We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you
not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well.
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It's our great privilege to share our life.
That's basically what we're doing, is it not?
In church, we're sharing our lives.
And I think for us, the challenge is, particularly when
we're married and we've got family, the balance is to try
and get that balance right. Because you're, you're, you're
sharing yourself with so many others, not to forget your
family in that process. He prayed for them.
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One Thessalonians 310 night and day.
We pray most earnestly that we may see you again and supply
what is lacking in your faith. He sent trained men.
Oh sorry, he visited them. Acts 1536.
Sometime later Paul said to Banamas, let's go back and visit
the brothers in all the towns where we preach the word of the
Lord and see how they are doing.And when we think of him
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visiting, remember no aeroplane,no car, no public transport
apart from maybe a donkey, a whole area to cover Turkey and
and wider Asia. He visited them and we sometimes
struggle to go half a mile to pay a visit.
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And he sent trained men. He couldn't possibly cover that
whole area. 1 Thessalonians three, one to three, we see that
he sent trained men, people who could extend that pastoral care,
and he wrote letters. He wrote letters.
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And what letters? They were guys.
They're more than an emoji sent on a text.
They're more than an e-mail witha few words on it.
These letters were full of richness.
They were full of life. They took time to be done, but
the value of them, we are still benefiting from them today.
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Amen. Absolutely amazing.
Now that speaks to me of someonewho really cared, someone who
really loved the people, someonewho have had the best intentions
for the flock, the churches thathe'd planted to succeed and to
do well. What an example he sets before
us. And he combined with Jesus, this
challenge of sharing their liveswith us is absolutely amazing
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because the Good Shepherd even laid down his life for his
sheep. So where are we?
Let's look at some of the benefits as well as the dangers
of being a shepherd. Some of these things you would
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have got in the in the emails and stuff that you would have
received, But let me highlight one or two things from them.
Benefits and dangers of shepherding the grace gift.
Firstly, with regards to the benefit, when you've got someone
who's a shepherd, you find love,love for the people.
There are literally times, certainly, certainly I was going
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to say in the youth days, but it's still the same in church.
There's times when I just look at my people and I just, I just
want to cry. It's not cries of frustration or
fries of but just cries, tears of joy.
I'm amazed. I mean, we've, we've moved five
times. We've still not got a home
that's that can house us. So we, we continually happen to
move and rent places five times.And that it staggers me that the
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people are still there because with every move, there's a
potential to lose people. And it staggers me that folks
who've been so loyal for so longand it just drives me to tears,
tears of joy, tears of joy because I love the people
individually, collectively. Shepherding provides care,
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concern, correction. Shepherding is a unifier and an
includer. I have that drive.
I know on on other other stuff that we've done other
assessments, probably we've all done about 567, maybe even 10 in
our lifetimes apart from the apes one.
And in all of those, the caring and the inclusiveness I love
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including people. I was an outcasting to a degree
and I love always seeing the onewho's on the fringe and left
out. I love to draw them in.
Shepherding brings patients, timely care, stretching people
to grow. It creates A relational
environment. I know for us, our, our
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punchline is relationship to God, relationship to one
another, relationship to the world, worship, fellowship,
mission. That's our, that's our mantra
for the church. It's all about relationships.
It's all about people at the endof the day.
An awareness of spiritual needs within the community.
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A shepherd brings that. A shepherd brings desires to see
people enriched, connected, understood.
Shepherding has a vision for growth and see others develop.
And shepherding involves being aware of the dangers of for the
flock. It protects it gods.
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But there's dangers. There's dangers of being a
shepherd. And some of the dangers can be
not all of them for everybody, but can be.
And maybe you'll identify with some of these.
You've got to be careful becauseyou can take on too many
people's problems because you care, but there's only so much
you can do. You can be obsessive at the
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expense of truth because you love people.
I don't like hurting people. I don't like sometimes having to
give a strong word because I know that they might burst into
tears or whatever, however they may react.
But sometimes you've got to be aware.
Not doing that at the expense ofjust wanting everything to be
nice. Sometimes a shepherd can be risk
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averse. Not wanting to take rest with
just maybe a bit cautious over cautious sometimes.
Sometimes we can be conflict avoiding because we love, we
care, and we don't want to hurt or upset.
Sometimes it can lead to a lack of clear planning strategy.
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Focus is yes, something that I'malways having to battle with
because I love being, I love thepeople.
And you can be over involved in that lack of time management,
lack of healthy boundaries. You know when you've got to be
careful. So you know when you're someone
who's good looking like me, you've got to be careful.
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So you've got to be aware of boundaries when you're getting
involved with people. Shepherd has got to be careful
about measuring themselves, about losing sheep.
How many people like losing sheep?
None of us. And I had to learn that the
issue is not so much that we're not going to lose people, we
will lose people. People come and flew in and out
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of church all the time. The issue I had to learn was
it's not that they will go, it'show they go.
It's how they go. And I love to know how everyone
has left, whether there's an issue and if there isn't, if
you're trying to resolve it before they go.
I want to always leave the door open so that anytime they can
come back. But as long as they've gone,
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loving Jesus, buoyant in faith, and they say, well, I feel it's
time to have another fresh, OK, God bless you.
That's fantastic. No problem.
But at least I know we've got tobe aware of being driven by the
approval or disapproval of others.
And we've got to be beware that we can be just as much dependent
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upon that kind of relationship we have with our people as they
depend upon us as shepherds and not to get over involved in
people's lives. What should I say in conclusion,
shepherding and those characteristics that grace that
God's given us is not just for the church.
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It's it's our life. It's our life, our attitude, our
actions, our relationships. It should be displayed just as
much in church as outside. For those who are by vocational
who you are in the church context, it should be just the
same as you are in the workplace, in the home, wherever
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you are. Can I finish with this example,
a young guy, Sam, 21 years of age, we knew him from Ilford,
was seven years in Ilford and then now we've been 27 in
Romford and the family moved with us to Romford.
So known him before he was even born.
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He joined the RAF and he was doing absolutely amazing.
Great young lad and then suddenly playing basketball for
the RAF team, he just suddenly dropped and he was gone on the
basketball court talking with his mom and dad.
When it comes to Sam, they said Sam, his smile, his warmth, his
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love of people was outstanding. His faith, wherever he was, was
immense. We had then had the funeral.
There was 60 people from the RAFin all their uniforms, part
military burial. It was an incredible occasion.
And these guys and gals came andwhen they shared about Sam, it
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was oh, his smile. His warmth would light up a
room, his love for us wherever we were.
If we needed him, he'd drive, he'd be there.
But his faith, he'd just love Jesus.
And then his friends from college and from school who came
to the funeral when they got up to share, oh Sam, his smile, his
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warmth and lighting up a room, his love for us wherever
whatever we need to, he was always there.
And his faith, One girl, she's saying, I can't believe that
someone who was 21 years of age had his life so together about
his faith and who he was. And it was just the same.
Whether it was in his home, whether it was in church,
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whether it was in the RAF, whether it was within college
and school, he was just the same.
You see, the grace of shepherding, which he clearly
had, is not just for church, it's for our lives.
And it should be just the same wherever we are because that's
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who we are. Amen.
So God bless you in your shepherding.
We're just introducing this partto you at this particular point
in time. I'm going to hand over to Beryl
and she's going to give a different perspective, a more
personal one. Thank you.
(23:44):
Thank you so much, Glen. It's just such a strong reminder
of the heart of Jesus and and the heart that we carry.
And sometimes there's a big wrestle with that.
I going to share a little bit ofmy of my story today.
I've just really entitled sort of the the working out as we
begin to look at this grace thatis so evident in all of your
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lives of shepherding and I've entitled it living out the the
shepherd grace. And really we're just trying to
today just to spark a conversation that you're able to
think more of the the this gracethat God has placed over your
life. So I want to just share a few
(24:28):
things that I've found helpful. I think I look at my life, I
look at what Jesus has done and I I am humbled.
I've always know that there's somuch to learn, isn't there?
There's, there's so much more that we, we discover about
ourselves that maybe does not reflect the heart of Jesus.
(24:49):
But then to see him work and, and the the wonderful fact that
he uses us to care for and and show his love to other people,
It really blows my heart away that just the fact that we can
just humble ourselves before himand bring encouragement to
others. I've read a book that I would
(25:11):
recommend to you. It it's all about lead like a
shepherd. It's called and it's Larry
Osborne is the writer. And this, this quote from the
book really stood out for me as we're thinking about living out
this shepherd grace. So shepherding God's flock is
one of life's greatest privileges.
(25:33):
And it is, isn't it? It's a privilege to love people,
to care for people and to point them in the direction of Jesus.
You're pursuing a noble task. And I want to just affirm you
today in that you're pursuing a noble task as you love and as
you care, and you work out what that looks like for you to
(25:54):
shepherd God's people. Don't think of more highly of
yourself than you ought. That's that's really a
challenge, isn't it? To us?
Keep your eyes dialled in on Jesus.
This is reflecting the verses from Philippians, isn't it?
Keep your eyes dialled in on Jesus and how far you still have
(26:17):
to go. We have a long way to go.
I have a long way to go in this grace of showing love of care
and concern and protection for God's people rather than on your
flock and how far they still have to go.
Because that's where there's a tension, isn't there?
And those verses just really speak of having the attitude of
(26:42):
Jesus, having our eyes fixed on him, our eyes dialed on him.
And I just want to speak a few minutes about humility as as we
look at that working out what itlooks like to be humble every
day in front of every person we meet in Glen So put that so well
(27:03):
didn't he about you know, our our life just isn't in in church
and this has been a struggle forme.
I was never very confident in dealing with people too much to
share today of of my story. But but God has done her work.
And when I look at that quote, when it says don't think of
yourself more highly than you ought, I just thought for me
(27:28):
that that's the trap of people popping a title on you.
Well, you're the pastor, you're the shepherd.
And it and it puts pressure, butgrace is a liberation.
And that's why if we say we lookat this as this grace to
shepherd, there's grace on our lives to love people, to live
life before Jesus, to humble ourselves every day and say,
(27:51):
Lord, would you help me to love this person and care for this
person? Whether it's whether we meet
them in the supermarket, whetherit's whether it's at home with
our family or whether it's in a church setting and we're dealing
with a difficult conversation. Titles become traps, don't they?
And we, we feel like, oh, look at me and I've had to deal with,
(28:14):
with all of that and, and just look back to, to humbling myself
and saying, love, would you helpme to love?
Would you help me to care? And would you give me grace to
look to you? It's as almost as though we live
life open handed. We surrender all those things
that maybe when we look at the the list from Ezekiel and we see
(28:34):
all the traps and the things that we we might fall into.
We have to just say, Lord, wouldyou help me?
Would you give me your grace to love and to care well, to
understand people and even to say they're your sheep, Jesus,
I'm one too. And would you just work because
(28:56):
you're building your church? So that humbling.
So there we go. That's my my story.
So I'm just gonna briefly look at some joys and tensions in
shepherding. I want us to think about what it
looks like to press through whentimes are difficult for
ourselves and to draw close to the Good Shepherd.
I'm going to briefly just look at Psalm 23.
(29:19):
If you want to get that out, I'mnot going to read it.
Also going to look at working out the shepherd in grace.
You might want to be thinking how, how do I cultivate it?
How do I invest in it? Because that's something that I
how I had to learn and perhaps to even think about.
If you I pastor a church by myself, it's very small.
(29:40):
I have to rely on other people. It's not a a big team setting or
anything like that. And and it looks different in
all these different contexts. So for us to to think about that
as well. But I'm just going to touch on
these things. So my story is really, I
mentioned before about I used tofeel really awkward around
people. I won't tell you about certain
(30:03):
things that that sort of led to that in my life, but I really
felt the Lord asking me to draw closer to him around 2025 years
ago and and really began to praythis prayer on a regular basis.
Love, would you break my heart for what breaks yours and never
really discovered what it would actually look like to be led by
(30:27):
the Good Shepherd to a place where I would say Lord, I need
your compassion and to feel his compassion for people because
the situations and the circumstances were quite
difficult and quite complex. And I would have never imagined
that there was so much grace to actually show love and and to
(30:47):
care for the people that God hadplaced in front of me at that
time. Now in a time of ministry
transition, getting to know people quite challenging it in
one way because of what was going on in the background of of
my life. But someone spoke to me and they
(31:07):
said you are showing such love and such grace.
And for me that was, was confirmation to recognise this
shepherding, this pastoral gift,that grace that God had given
me. And it was, even though it's a
gift, it was such a grace at that time because really I
(31:29):
didn't really see that there wasmuch progress being made in
being able to understand people.So I used to pray every week,
especially on Sundays. And this is how I worked it out.
Love, would you give me a coupleof significant conversations
with people so you would work inmy heart and enable me to to
(31:50):
share grace and, and to help them and to encourage them to
press forward and further with you?
God dealt with my fears and my insecurities.
He does, doesn't he? He's so gracious.
He is the Good Shepherd and as we position ourselves as sheep
in front of him, He works, doesn't he?
(32:12):
So firstly, joys and and tensions of shepherding.
We have to understand the times and the seasons, don't we?
Sometimes we will have real grace to deal with difficult
situations and other times God will work with perhaps the gift
of the grace that's on our lives.
That appears secondary as you'vedone that apest test.
(32:35):
And then for for many years, I saw myself as what people had
just called out and they've donevarious tests of, you know,
Shepherd prophetic and doing thetest this time that the shepherd
has come a little bit lower downin the list.
(32:56):
But so many people have encouraged me and said, this is
what we see over your life. And I understand how the two
work together. And that's where the tension.
But as we understand the times and the seasons that we're in,
and as we journey with people and get to know people, the Lord
(33:18):
works, doesn't he? So there's these wonderful
moments, aren't there? As we, we care for God's people
and, and care for our families and, and those around us, you
know, we get those discipleship moments, the, the moments where
people want to journey deeper with Jesus and they, they come
and they ask for prayer and it'sjust beautiful to be able to
(33:38):
lead people through discipleshipgroups and through a journey
towards baptism. And, and it's lovely when people
see though that they get that light bulb moment that the Lord
is actually placing something ontheir heart that they know that
they have to deal with. And it's almost as though you
don't have to have that difficult conversation at that
(34:00):
time. You can be just lean into the
grace that God gives and just able to share freely, pray,
blessing over them. So in all of this, I would say
that I have learnt to listen to people and I would say please
never undervalue the fact that you're not jumping in to say
(34:24):
very much. That's how I used to be.
I used to think I need to be saying something.
I need to be saying something here.
The more I've learned that I listen, the more patience is
developed in me. The more I understand where
people's hearts are at, the moresometimes that you're just able
to weep with them because you perceive and and that's nothing
(34:48):
in me. That's what Jesus does because
he's the Good Shepherd. Showing empathy and
encouragement doesn't always come naturally.
We have to invest in this grace over our lives.
And I heard an illustration on the radio just as, as we're
talking about empathy, of reallywhat empathy is, they were
(35:11):
asking people to phone in and say, oh, what's the description
of empathy? And this mum phoned in and she
said, well, I was driving reallyslowly, having to drive really
slowly behind this car in front the other day.
And I was getting really frustrated.
And I sort of say, why are they going so slow?
I need to be here, I need to be there.
And she said, my son in the backpiped up and said, mommy, you
(35:34):
need to be patient because the people in the car in front might
be carrying a goldfish in a bowlof water and the goldfish
doesn't want its water spill. I just thought, what a beautiful
picture of empathy and encouragement because we have
(35:54):
those times, those tensions whenwe're ministering, when we're
shepherding. We've got so much else to think
about as we leave church or we we're involved in in the
ministry that we're in and we'reworking with all this and we can
go from patients and everything's fine.
We're showing love and care to frustration and that that just
(36:15):
that just bubbles over. So for me, that's it.
Remember, goldfish, we don't want to spill the water and and
that's what God wants us to do to his school because of his
faithfulness, isn't it? So I'd encourage you to continue
and regarding against frustration and courage and call
(36:36):
out the gold in others. There we go.
So really what I want to share quickly as we as we wind up.
I've probably spoken for too long already, but when I was
praying about what to share, I had a a picture.
(36:57):
I mentioned that prophetic gifting, I often if I see a
picture, it's so helpful to me. But in all this frustration, in
times of ministry, when we feel frustrated because there are
frustrations in pastoral ministry, I want us to think
about drawing close to the Good Shepherd.
And as we draw close, we can become aware of our weaknesses,
(37:21):
our limitations, and our blind spots.
And, and this picture is from Psalm 23.
And we know it, don't we? And it, it touches our hearts,
it ministers to us. And we see the shepherd, there
he is, He's holding the sheep. And that's the picture that I
(37:42):
had. That's the best one that I could
find that would, would describe really what, what is going on.
It's the sheep leaning against the leg of the shepherd.
And I want to encourage you all today to lean in to the knee of
the Good Shepherd, leaning to the knee of Jesus in all that
(38:04):
frustration in the time when we feel weak, when the the time
when we we're all so aware of really what what is is is going
on on our own hearts. And we want him to minister to
us. So we're enabled to minister, to
show this grace to others. And we know this verse says you
(38:24):
anoint my head with oil. Now I spent a few years ago did
a whole series on Psalm 23 and spent a lot of time and I would
recommend it to you reading W Philip Keller's book, The
Shepherd looks at Psalm 23. We need the Good Shepherd to
minister to our irritations and distractions.
(38:47):
Now, Philip Keller, he writes all about he was a shepherd,
what they used to put on the head of the sheep to calm the
irritations. Because it's widely known that
sheep can be bothered by flies. They get up their nose, they get
in their eyes, and in extreme cases, sheep can be driven mad
by the flies, the eggs that theylay the head.
(39:11):
And so they rub oil in and that calms the sheep down because it
can irritate the sheep to a place to distraction and to even
where they go mad and they even die.
And we don't want that for any of the people that we care for
and that we love. But I know from experience I
don't lean into the knee of the Good Shepherd and allow him to
(39:34):
anoint my head with oil that I am never going to be able to
allow that grace flow to others.I am much of as much as a sheep
as I am grace to shepherd. So I would encourage you to lean
in. Lean in today and allow the Lord
(39:54):
to apply this oil to our heads so we're able to have this grace
to show love and to show care. And as we think about.
Moving on quickly about working out what the shepherd grace
looks like, how we cultivate it,how we invest in it.
I had to work hard and still do have to work hard investing in
(40:20):
this grace of shepherd because of all the reasons that perhaps
we've briefly outlined before. But this is all about God's
faithfulness, and I think we canrecognize that we will always be
stretched in ministry wherever God's placed us and he gives us
his grace. But you might want to think
about who can you learn from at this time?
(40:42):
Who is near you? Maybe that you would consider
someone to be an excellent pastor shepherd that you might
want to reach out to and contactand, and say, would you show me?
Would you help me because I'm wanting to learn more about this
grace that God's given me? What would you have done in that
(41:03):
situation? Think about what you're reading.
I'd recommend this lead like a Shepherd by Larry Osborne.
Also want to give a plug to Stuart Blount.
He says where have all the shepherds gone?
There's a room here full of you all, which is wonderful.
So many people that have a love and a care and protection for
(41:23):
God's people and also to remember what's the Holy Spirit
saying? And that's something that I, I
think we perhaps neglect becausewe think we want to jump in and
we want to fix people, don't we?So and then as well as we going
to spend a little bit of time just now around our tables.
(41:43):
There'll be some questions to think about, but you might want
to think about as you exploring this grace, how this grace works
with the other graces. I mentioned a little bit about
how you know that there's a bit of a tension there with with the
prophetic and with the shepherding.
(42:03):
And Glenn also mentioned some other things in his talk.
And also to think about levels of what shepherding looks like,
what it looks like 1 to one, what it looks like in a small
group, or rather in a larger context.
And then to think about the teamsetting.
And perhaps when we're you, you're thinking about with your
(42:25):
leadership team or with your elders or with in even even in
your kids ministry. How, how do we approach this in
the best way? How do we have the shepherd
heart? And who on the team perhaps
knows or understands this personthe best?
Perhaps they're the ones that can lean into that grace and
minister to them at that time. So I'm going to hand back to
(42:48):
Glenn just now and I hope that'sgiven you something to think
about and be encouraged as we spend some time around the
tables looking at what we're going to be doing.
Thank you so much, Beryl. So over to you now.
(43:09):
If in on your tables, hopefully nobody's on that.
If you're on your own, please jump on a table.
Yeah, jump on a table where you can have a little discussion,
talk about and maybe think of some of these things.
Was there anything that resonated with you or is there
anything that's on your heart atthis particular point in time
that you just want to pick otherpeople's brains concerning?
How does this grace show up in your context in your situation?
(43:35):
And where do you see grace needed more in your church life
with regards to shepherds? Have a good discussion for the
for 10 minutes or so before we wrap up.
OK, fantastic. So folks, how many of you found
the session beneficial? Just give us a wave.
(43:56):
Yeah, we have some great shepherds in this room.
And some of the conversation on the tables have been absolutely
fantastic to to hear and the situations and circumstances.
All I can say is just make sure you know, as a shepherd you
absorb a lot. Just make sure you've got an
outlet with someone when that absorption because you you you
(44:19):
don't want to hurt people, but sometimes you have to.
So you do absorb a lot. So make sure you've got an
outlet to talk to someone if it gets too much.
Amen. But one or two notes is to give.
I'm going to get let Beryl just fill you on that to remind you.
Yeah. So we, I would like you to
really just think about what youmight like to take away from
(44:40):
this session and if you have anyfeedback being asked, there's a
scan code to scan there. But also to say, so we go now
into a coffee break and then everyone needs to be back in the
main auditorium for the next part of this morning at 11:30.
(45:04):
But Glenn and I would like to say that, you know, we're here
if anyone wants to to chat or you've any questions or you'd
like some prayer. And we'll be here for a little
while as we go into the coffee break.
And we want to thank you so muchfor listening and and for your
(45:25):
time this morning.
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