They Smell Like Sheep, Volume 2

Leading with the Heart of a Shepherd

Dr. Lynn Anderson

• Publisher: Howard Books
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9781451636314
• eBook ISBN: 9781416561873
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. -- Proverbs 4: 23 They Smell like Sheep, Volume 2: Leading with the Heart of a Shepherd is about more than gimmicks and techniques of leadership. It speaks to the character and heart of the leader. After all, heart makes the difference in an effective Sunday-school teacher, youth minister, elder, small-group leader, parent, grandparent, or Christian school teacher. Spiritual sheep, stray sheep, and searching sheep aren't nearly as concerned about the knowledge and skill of the shepherd as they are about his heart. When finding their way -- at weddings, at funerals, during family crises, and in the hospital -- sheep go to a shepherd in whom they discern God's own heart, like King David of old. Jesus said sheep would know their shepherd's voice and be drawn to it. It is the heart behind the voice that soothes and comforts God's people. How do you measure the influence of a godly shepherd? Without doubt, it's the heart of the shepherd that most powerfully shapes lives and souls in our flocks. If you want your own heart shaped and molded into the likeness of Christ, this book is an excellent place to begin. Be shepherds of God's flock under your care... as God wants you to be. Heeding the call to be a leader is an awesome responsibility. Whether you have been called to serve as a minister or you're teaching an adult Bible study group or you're a teen leading the youth group in song, most assuredly from time to time you question your abilities and look for support and example. Author Lynn Anderson addresses the starting and ending place of true leadership among God's people: the heart of a shepherd. He presents Jesus, the Head Shepherd, as our only reliable model of godly leadership; he guides us through the Scriptures and gives us practical exercises to strengthen our hearts as we do the difficult yet rewarding work of shepherding people of God with love and grace. Enter the book's pages with the confidence that you are being led by someone who has the heart of a shepherd and who sees himself first as a smelly sheep, dearly loved and led by the Good Shepherd. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory. -- 1 Peter 5: 4

Section One

A Heart
for God

Most high and glorious God, bring
light to the darkness of my heart…

—Francis of Assisi

One

The Heart of
the Matter

Man looks at the outward appearance,
but the LORD looks at the heart.

—1 Samuel 16:7

My friend Brad writes,

Over thirty years ago a president engages his administration in a massive cover-up over a hotel break-in that eventually forces him to resign. Twenty-five years later another president wags his finger at the public and lies about an affair. Does character matter?

The CEO of a Fortune 500 company takes a small, upstart phone company, goes on a buying spree, and forms the second-largest communications company in history. He now faces up to eighty-five years in prison for cooking the company’s books to the tune of $11 billion, wiping out thousands of investors in the process. Does character matter?

A brilliant physicist, who does research in molecular biology, leaves his prestigious office every day, goes home, and beats his wife senseless, because of his low self-esteem. Does character matter?

When Mother Teresa was asked about the utter futility of trying to feed millions of hungry people and rescuing the dying amid abject poverty in Calcutta, she responded, “God does not call us to be successful; he calls us to be faithful.”

Yes, character matters. And it matters most of all in leadership, where Jesus talked a great deal about faithfulness versus success.

When it comes to the heart of a shepherd, we can say with certainty,

“Of course character does matter.”¹

So true! And character, dear reader, is a matter of the heart.

Spiritual Leadership

April is a bright, young, multitasking, twenty-something woman, balancing a business career with her role as mom and wife. She was looking for a “sounding board and for wise counsel,” she said, but then added, “My generation doesn’t have much time for authority figures. Rather, what we are looking for is wisdom figures.”

April spoke for many in our day who have grown weary with and suspicious of authority figures—charismatic preachers, church power players, PhDs, politicians, CEOs, and basically anyone flashing institutional credentials. And this new generation is not afraid to say so. This does not mean, of course, that April and her peers lack God-hunger. In fact, a good many people in our time remain very much open to the supernatural; but at the same time they often express cynicism toward the agents or promoters of “organized religion.”

April underscores the bias of this book, that a spiritual leader is not necessarily the person with the most Bible knowledge (though Bible knowledge is of utmost importance), nor the one with the best track record of managerial and administrative skills. It may not even be the person with the strongest leadership skills (at least, as our culture defines leadership). Rather:

A spiritual leader is the kind of person God-hungry people want to be like.

While you will see the preceding words repeated like a mantra throughout this book, they are no mere slogan. Rather, they represent my attempt to encapsulate the DNA at the heart of authentic spiritual leadership. It can help a Christian leader, of course, to know Scripture and to have experience in ministerial skills like teaching, counseling, or facilitating small groups—even in visionary leadership. But by themselves, these skills do not attract God-hungry followers and shape Christ-like lives.

In fact, I suspect that today’s so-called “postmodern people” are not so different from most people throughout history. Way back in “Bible times,” Scripture declared that what a spiritual leader is tends to shape the flock much more than what that leader claims to believe. “Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.”² Note: the emphasis falls not on credentials or expertise, but on character and on how well the leaders navigate their own lives.

A spiritual leader is the kind of person God-hungry people want to be like.

Especially in this way, spiritual leadership differs from all other kinds of leadership. Contrast spiritual leadership with, say, leadership in the practice of medicine. A medical doctor may take years to learn the principles of healthy living: balanced diet, proper exercise, and ample rest, and thus become equipped to train students how to lead a sick person to health—even if the doctor practices none of the healthy disciplines himself and, indeed, possibly even while the doctor grows sicker and sicker. Not so with spiritual leadership, however! Especially in our skeptical, postmodern world.

God-hungry persons are not saying, “Tell me your answers!” But they are urging, “Share your life with me. Let me see it. Are you a person of integrity, of real character? Is your faith ‘working’ for you? Is the church you lead an authentic community?” God-hungry people want to know the hearts of their shepherds.

Show Me Your Heart

Hearts matter.

My wife, Carolyn, knows shepherding. She is a consummate spiritual shepherd herself as well as a perceptive observer of shepherds. She writes, “When I look back in my own life to those who had a part in shaping who I am, I remember Elaine Burton, a Sunday-school teacher in the little Tupelo, Arkansas, country church when I was just a child.”

Elaine has surfaced in so many of our conversations that one day I asked Carolyn, “Tell me some of the things Elaine Burton taught you.” Carolyn sat quietly awhile. I think I could see her eyes peering into the long ago. Finally, she answered a bit wistfully, “Well, I don’t actually remember any specific things she taught. I just remember how she was!”

Eddie knows shepherds too.

A circle of ministers sat one afternoon, awkwardly reflecting on our pulpit loneliness and confessing our sense of inadequacy. One man in that circle was Eddie Sharp, minister of a large church in our city. Eddie’s father also sat in our circle—silent, listening. “Sharp Sr.” has been in ministry all of his adult life and has two minister sons. A lot of people know him only as “Eddie’s Dad.” His own ministry has occurred in small churches. Most of these churches he left better than he found them; some he left sooner than he would have wished, usually with tears but never with bitterness.

In our circle that day, Eddie sent warm tears rolling down his father’s cheeks as Sharp Jr. recalled, “Here sits the man who has made the difference for me. I don’t remember much about his sermons. I just remember what kind of man he was.”

Tears bathed my cheeks too.

Elaine and Eddie’s dad both have the heart of a shepherd.

Yes! Oh, yes, at the end of the day, the heart is what matters most to God-hungry people. And to God.

Hearts Matter to God

When God sent Samuel out to find a man fit to lead God’s people, Samuel pondered hearts. Saul, the first king, had held so much promise. He so looked the part—but he didn’t have the heart.

So God sent Samuel in search of someone better. Still, when Samuel met the sons of Jesse, who first caught the prophet’s eye? Eliab, the tall and impressive looking one—that is, until God reminded Samuel,

Do not consider his appearance or his height,

for I have rejected him.

The Lord does not look at the things man looks at.

Man looks at the outward appearance,

but the LORD looks at the heart.³

God had His eye on the shepherd boy who had the right quality of heart! But even after Saul anointed David, God sent David back to the pastures to season the young man’s heart for the throne. The psalmist explained,

He chose David his servant….

From tending the sheep he brought him

to be the shepherd of his people….

And David shepherded them with integrity of heart.”⁴

Integrity of heart. Don’t miss that! In fact, God himself calls David a man after his own heart.⁵ The Shepherd-King David had a heart hungry for God. Listen to him pray:

My heart says of you “Seek his face!”

Your face, Lord, I will seek.⁶

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

be pleasing in your sight,

O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.⁷

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.⁸

This notion will never become outdated. The wind can never whisk it away and cause it to be forgotten. Long after Samuel’s day, for example, I...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Praise
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Epigraph
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword C. Gene Wilkes
• Foreword Bob Russell
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Assumptions
• Section One: A Heart for God
• Section Two: A Heart of Integrity
• Section Three: A Heart for People
• Section Four: A Heart for the Word of God
• Section Five: The Heart of a Servant
• Section Six: A Heart that Moves at a Measured Pace
• Section Seven: A Heart Flooded with Hope
• Epilogue
• Notes