The Shepherd Leader by Timothy Witmer

Timothy Witmer does a great job in this book describing his view of what a "Shepherd Leader" ought to be. There may be some that thinks he takes to long to get to the point, or that he is working to hard to "re-describe" the role of a Leader, but if you work your way through the entire text you will not be disappointed as it all comes together for a complete and well documented discussion of how Leaders need to be Leading their church.

I found the book the most helpful and interesting book on Shepherd Leadership that I have read in recent years. Witmer's thesis is that the church is experiencing a crisis of "Leadership." He will document what he believes the crisis is and then do a good job of working through what he believes is a "Biblical" answer to the crisis. His further premise is that "The Fundamental responsibility of church leaders is to Shepherd God's Flock."

So, what does it mean to Shepherd? That is a topic he handles well and uses many good resources from Keller's work on the 23rd Psalm to Tim Laniak's work on "They Smell Like Sheep." Those works gave us a good introduction to what it means to be a Shepherd and why sheep need a Shepherd. Witmer goes into that deeply and even further into why doing a poor job of shepherding is so damaging to the church today.

He will address the topics that Jesus taught when he accused the Rabbi's of being poor shepherds. Do those same conditions hold true for today's pastorate? The answer is, YES. Why is that true? Well Witmer will lack out the argument and give you the answer in a clearly written work.

Witmer divides the book into three Sections;
Section One: Biblical and Historical Foundations
Section Two: So What' a Shepherd to Do? (A comprehensive Matrix for Ministry)
Section Three: Putting it all together

He describes what he sees as the problem, addresses it with good foundational material and then gives you very practical advice on how to proceed with leading the flock that God has placed in your care.

You will find good discussion on what it means to be a "professional paid" staff member and what the role of the "laity" is.

I found the book helpful in coming to terms with how our Pastors (paid professionals) should work in partnership with our Elders (Lay people) to lead our congregation in a way that is Biblical and absolutely clear about the importance of proper care.

I would say the book is for all Christians, but especially to Pastor's and Elders and / or Leadership teams of the local church. It will give you a lot of good material to discuss and then put into action.

Enjoy!