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The Shepherd Leader: Achieving Effective Shepherding In Your Church (2000)

by Timothy Z. Witmer(Favorite Author)

4.1 of 5 Votes: 4

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English

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review 1: Timothy Witmer has written an excellent practical guide to shepherding God’s people. He begins by giving the Old Testament background to shepherding and how the New Testament continues this Old Testament tradition. He then gives a historical sketch of the decline of shepherding. The final section ends with a note on authority where he strikes a balance between tyranny and the every man is equal mentality. The second section of the book was superb. He does a great job of distinguishing between macro (preaching/teaching, etc.) and micro (meeting one on one, etc.) shepherding. He then outlines four aspects of the elders’ work, knowing, feeding, leading, and protecting the sheep. He then shows how to apply these aspects in both the macro and micro areas of ministry. In... more all of these he gives concrete, practical ways to do each of these areas of ministry. I especially appreciated his emphasis on one on one, personal ministry. I think this is badly needed in our culture and yet is rarely emphasized in pastoral ministry books. The third part of the book is on implementing what he has talked about. Again he is very practical throughout this section. He is both realistic and demanding, which is what a good teacher needs to be. This book is not without its faults. However, I would highly recommend this book to any pastor or elder that needs some clear direction on how to actually shepherd the sheep. Even those who think they have an effective shepherding ministry would do well to review what Witmer teaches in this book.
review 2: A helpful look at how elders of a church function as shepherds of God's people. Witmer goes over the call and qualifications of elders. He they sets out to give practical steps for elders to fulfill their calling. The four basic categories are knowing the sheep, feeding the sheep, leading the sheep and protecting the sheep. He give helpful practical suggestions for implementing this such as assigning members of the congregation to each elder and having that elder be responsible to focus on getting to know those members more deeply.Overall a helpful book that goes beyond focusing exclusively on the teaching aspect of pastors and elders. Th one weakness of the book is that it is a little repetitive in places less

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