Listen carefully to the metaphors people use in regards to ministry. They can tell you a lot about a person’s style of leadership, belief about Church structure, evangelism, etc. They seem innocuous enough, but they speak volumes in many ways.
I have been involved in some interesting discussions recently and a certain question has been bantered about.
“Are you a shepherd or a rancher?”
This is a question that many of us have been struggling with.
What does that mean? We can go in a lot of different directions. But what we come up with I believe has many implications for what kind of leader we are and want to be, and what we believe about ministry and the congregation.
Dictionary Definitions:
Shepherding: To herd, guard, tend, or guide as or in the manner of a shepherd.
Ranching: To manage or work on a ranch.
I can tease this out more, but I’m going to be posting more extensively on this issue.
But let me ask you a few questions:
- What are your initial thoughts, observations on that question?
- Do you see yourself as a rancher or shepherd?
- Is one preferable over the other? Why or why not?
I will then pick up on this issue later in the week.
Hi Rhett,
Great point on the metaphor = style, approach to ministry. My initial thoughts were is this all I have to choose from? Why not also a cattle-hand, cowboy, cowgirl, shoot even a cow? But if I have to choose one or the other, I’d still go with the age old Shepherding metaphor. It’s more preferable to rancher because it seems more gentle, and patient and a little less pushy.
I have to agree with the poster above, but I’m aiming more towards the agricultural metaphor. There’s a great book called the _Omnivore’s Dilemma_ which deals with the whole food industry, but one of the points it makes is that a true animal manager – whether shepherd or rancher – is really a grass (or other plant) farmer. Because in order to provide the life that God’s planned for that species, the grass, thistles, heather, etc have to be taken care of more than the animal itself. If you take care of the ecosystem, this theory goes, the animals take care of themselves. And I’m believing that ministry is so often like this. That we get so involved with managing the animals that we forget about caring for and nurturing the things that sustain them, and acknowledging our rather limited ability to *control* those things. In metaphors of the kingdom, Jesus frequently turns to agricultural, growing, plant-y kinds of metaphors. In which we play a small part, but it is up to God to determine the fate and the course of the grass. Sometimes I think we’re so busy counting heads or pointing animals in the right direction or chasing after animals that we forget the simple rule that hungry animals come to where the food is and thirsty animals come to where the water is, and we have grass/bread of life and living water to offer. Those are just the initial thoughts.
Nice comments:
Wess: I agree, there are more than two metaphors, but this is what I’m dealing with right now. But how about “sheep shooter” or “CEO” or “catalyst”…..or “manure cleaner upper.”
Katie: Love the idea of taking care of the ecosystem, and when you take care of that, you also take care of the people. We do end up so managing people sometimes, that we forget ministry, the Church, etc. I need to read that book…I keep looking at it. Soon.
rhett