shepherding the shepherd
from PreachingToday.com
The Mother Lode of Wisdom
Pastors work the mines of wisdom day in and day out without realizing just how rich we’re getting. Studying, contemplating, and applying Scripture as we do takes us deep into the treasures of God in Christ.
When the Elder Brother Celebrates
Who can grasp how rich we are in Christ? As long as we have been with Jesus we have never wanted for any good thing. He pronounces Amen to all of God’s promises. Our pastoral challenge is teaching God’s people how to draw upon the inexhaustible riches of God’s kingdom. No one who remembers their prodigal life, when they squandered their inheritance and came to envy pigs, ever thinks, “Those were the good old days.”
Pitch Perfect Compassion
Some of us have one passage of Scripture we tune our ministry to. For me, it is Jesus’ story of the father and his two wayward sons. And the tuning pitch, the A, at the heart of that story is this: “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”
Compassion Fatigue
Ministry compassion takes a toll. Frederick Buechner wrote, “Compassion is the sometimes fatal capacity for feeling what it’s like to live inside somebody else’s skin.”[i] Every pastor knows the slump of compassion fatigue.
One Thing Leads to Another
Compassion is a gateway grace. It is often someone’s first taste of Jesus. We tell them something good and true. We give them a glimpse into the kingdom where God reigns. We offer something healing—a balm of kindness or listening. We offer to pray for someone who has never had anyone pray for them before.
Carriers of Compassion
Crowds came to Jesus who were crippled in body and soul, chosen people who had never heard that there was good news in God’s kingdom. Harassed comes from a word literally meaning lacerated, an apt description of their hopes and hearts. Helpless because they’d been thrown down and couldn’t get back up; people rejected, unwanted, and unloved.