Give us shepherds, Lord

I was as swept up on the “leadership” movement as anyone when I was beginning ministry. John Maxwell was my guy. I fell into his mantra of “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”

After decades of being hammered with “leadership, leadership, leadership” and bearing witness to a lot of toxic leadership practices that are mocking the goodness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I long for a new call: “Shepherd the flock.”

“Feed my sheep.”

“You want to be a ‘leader’? You want to be the man? Lay down your life for the sheep. Guide them, don’t drive them. Care for them. Learn their names!”

This coming Sunday is Good Shepherd Sunday and I am immersed in the texts for the day. I am thankful for a church led by shepherds. They certainly know how to lead, but they care for this church. It shows in how healthy the church is as they worship together and as they walk in this world.

I’m so weary of toxic leadership. I keep getting examples popping up of bad leadership and was reminded last week of someone I knew to be a good leader (well, there’s that), a great teacher of the Word that cared about the Word, and someone who loved prayer… and the example they laid out in an event was nothing but toxic leadership. In 35 plus years, he had shifted. It is heartbreaking above all for me.

Lord, give us shepherds.