Tending the Flock

Brain Food

As a career, shepherding would probably be pretty foreign to most youth workers if it weren’t in the Bible. It may be an outdated profession, but it’s still a job that can teach us about ministry.

Shepherds don’t just kind of recognize their sheep at the mall. They don’t simply wonder about that face showing up to Bible study. They know the names of their sheep. They acknowledge each individual sheep’s role and significance in the flock.

Shepherds also don’t leave their sheep in the same place. Once the grass is eaten in one area, shepherds bring them to new ground, making sure there is time for rest and sources of water.

Continue to guide your students at a pace that helps your students discover who God made them to be. It’s a process that takes time and intentionality; thank you for going through it as you shepherd teenagers.

Like They Say...

“Being a spiritual director is bringing the same care and skill and intensity to the ordinary, boring, uneventful parts of our lives that we readily give to the eventful conversions and proclamations.”—Eugene H. Peterson, Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity

God's Word

“What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost.“ —Matthew 18:12-14