Shepherds After My Own Heart PASTORAL TRADITIONS AND LEADERSHIP IN THE BIBLE

Abstract

At a time when books on leadership are being published at a dizzying pace, one wonders if the Bible has anything to say about it. While the Bible does say a lot about the topic, there has been no survey like the one you are about to read. One of the primary metaphors by which biblical authors conceptualized leadership is shepherding. This is quite consistent throughout Old and New Testaments. Yet no exegetical resource orients the culturally removed contemporary ‘pastor’ to this wealth of material. It is my hope that the following journey through Scripture will prompt rich reflection on the nature of the pastor’s identity as God’s undershepherd.1 Translating the term ‘shepherd’ is problematic, though not for lack of English vocabulary. We use the term ‘pastor’ – an anglicized form of the Latin/French word for shepherd – but it has no appreciable metaphorical significance. For most modern readers in the industrialized, urbanized West there is little first-hand familiarity with the cultural realities that inform the meaning of the metaphor. The familiarity we may think we have comes from idyllic scenes that have made their way into our imaginations through museum paintings or simple Sunday school stories.