Names Before Numbers: The Dramatic Shift True Shepherds Must Make
The Emotionally Healthy Leader Podcast
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality
4.8 • 673 Ratings
🗓️ 26 November 2024
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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The truth is, you can’t shepherd numbers. You can only shepherd names. And yet, in a culture obsessed with metrics, many leaders feel trapped, measuring success by attendance, budgets, and fast growth rather than the flourishing of the people God has entrusted to them.
In this episode, Pete unpacks the heart of biblical shepherding—leading with Jesus’ love, slowing down to be present, and praying over the specific names God has placed under your care. He explains how this dramatic shift, though countercultural and painfully slow, leads to a deeply transformative and spacious life for both shepherds and sheep.
If you’re longing to move beyond hurried leadership into a ministry marked by patience, prayer, and personal connection, this episode is for you. Pete shares four practical ways to shepherd like Jesus and invites you to reflect: Who is on your list?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, everyone. I want to welcome you today to the Emotionally Healthy Leader podcast. Great to be with you. |
| 0:10.0 | I'm excited for today's podcast. Our title is names before numbers, the dramatic shift. True Shepherds must make. |
| 0:24.8 | You can't shepherd numbers. You can only shepherd names. We're going to unpack that today. So the number of people today without shepherds is overwhelming. |
| 0:32.1 | I'm talking about people who are, of course, not in the church, but then folks who have left church |
| 0:36.4 | altogether and folks in our churches. |
| 0:39.0 | In fact, it can be so overwhelming the number of sheep without a shepherd. It can look hopeless. |
| 0:43.7 | People are, as it says in the message version, Matthew 9, they're mangled, they're helpless, |
| 0:49.8 | they're cast down, and they're harassed. It's a lovely list due to the deceitfulness of the promises |
| 0:57.8 | the world makes of what life can be, as well as just poor spiritual leadership. And so people |
| 1:03.7 | need a good shepherd. And the good shepherd is Jesus. I mean, he is the good shepherd. And he needs |
| 1:09.0 | good shepherds sent by him whose hearts break for sheep, just like it says in |
| 1:15.0 | the message, not that he had compassion, his heart actually broke as he looked at the sheep |
| 1:20.1 | without a shepherd. |
| 1:21.0 | So folks with, shepherds with a passion to see people live a spacious life, a life where |
| 1:26.0 | their sheep who are well fed, they're nourished, |
| 1:29.2 | they're strengthened, they're not fearful or terrorized, but what's going on around them. |
| 1:33.2 | They're actually living life at its best. It's called the abundant life that God promised. |
| 1:37.4 | And so shepherds, we'll talk about shepherds. I'm talking about more than just caring and being |
| 1:43.6 | tender towards people, which is what folks tend |
| 1:47.0 | to think and we think of shepherd. I'm referring to shepherd leaders, much like David is referred to |
| 1:52.2 | in Psalm 78. He was a shepherd leader. He was taking people somewhere because sheep by their very |
| 1:58.1 | nature are dumb. Being called sheep by Jesus was not a great compliment. |
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