Book Review: The Shepherd Leader

The Shepherd Leader: Achieving Effective Shepherding in Your Church. By Timothy Z. Witmer. Phillipsburg, P&R, 2010.

This is a great tool! God’s design for the care of His Church is clearly set forth in the NT, a plurality of elders watching over the flock. Pastors are shepherds. They are gifted, called, qualified men who are entrusted by the local body to oversee the spiritual matters of the whole congregation and also of each individual member. It is a daunting task, but a thrilling one. It is the pervasive NT model, but sadly, it is one model among many in today’s evangelical world. Churches that do practice a plurality of leadership often do so with a board-of-directors mentality instead of a shepherd-leader approach. Witmer’s work call us back to the Lord’s model and also equips us to pursue it.

There are two important strengths of Shepherd Leader. It is both biblical and practical. Witmer demonstrates how the shepherd model for leading God’s people is grounded in the OT, exemplified in Christ, and entrusted to men in the NT era. After presenting the scriptural evidence for a plurality of shepherds, Witmer provides a strategy that enables the elders of any local church to begin caring for their members spiritually. With the Bible as his guide, Witmer divides the shepherd’s responsibility into four categories. A shepherd should know his sheep, feed his sheep, lead his sheep, and protect his sheep. Within each of these divisions, Witmer explains how to achieve these steps at the level of the entire church and at the level of the individual. In addition, he provides examples and illustrations of what each aspect would look like.

The end product is a manual that teaches what a shepherd does and how he could go about fulfilling his ministry. Witmer is to be commended for giving the church a tremendous resource. Qualified and gifted men may be overwhelmed when realizing the work of an elder is the care of souls. Witmer’s work gives elders the categories and the means to put spiritual care into practice.

I read this book because the elders I have the privilege to minister with have read this book. I’m thankful God used Witmer to help direct us toward a shepherd model. I’m thankful God has given our men the desire to shepherd the flock and a framework whereby to move from discussing a shepherd ministry to implementing a shepherd ministry. As I said at the beginning of this review, this is a great tool!