Shepherd Nominations

This really isn’t following where I wanted to go, but part of the slowness of posting has been because of an increase in church stuff to handle, which really is a blessing. We’re currently in the process of trying to appoint additional shepherds, which we desperately need, and while we’re not having the evangelists do it, I think we’ve come up with a bit of a process that places more emphasis on the shepherding side of things.

I’ll cover my thoughts on shepherds vs. elders vs. board of directors vs. group of controlling/frustrating/spiritually stifling men later. For our process, we distributed nomination forms to the church body to get feedback from them on whom should serve as a shepherd. Unlike the traditional popularity vote method where we ask people to write names on blank pieces of paper, we instead had the respondents fill out a questionnaire for each nominee. There were seven questions, and those were:

• In what ways have you witnessed his ability to shepherd God’s flock?
• Why do you feel this man should serve as a shepherd for our church family?
• Why would you go to this man if you were in need of prayer?
• How has this man’s teaching impacted you spiritually?
• Why would you accept accountability from this man for spiritual growth, giving, ministry involvement, church attendance, etc.?
• Why does this man come to mind when you think of godly men?
• How has this man served you or your family?

This was a lot of work to ask of people, but the seriousness of the task dictated this approach. The results of which have provided us with a much better look at the spiritual side of the men that we will ask to fill a very spiritual office.

The whole reason I wrote this post was because of one answer on a form. I’ll totally avoid sharing the identity of the nominee or nominator, but this answer to “Why would you go to this man if you were in need of prayer?” really struck a cord with me:

Because of his humbleness I feel he would pour his heart out to God for me.

What an incredible testimony to the heart of the man being nominated! It simultaneously made me desire this man to serve as a shepherd AND inspired me to try to be a better Christian. This is the type of man I need leading me personally… and the church needs him, too.