Bonus Reading: Called to Care

Called to Care

Pastor Jamie and I met in Israel during the year I was interviewing Bedouin shepherds and studying pastoralist subsistence economies. Though the ultimate purpose of my research was to reconsider what the Bible says to spiritual shepherds, I hadn’t planned on interviewing pastors as a part of my field research. In an informal get-together, when I least expected it, Jamie’s story convinced me afresh that God fully intends to use the shepherd image to shape the identity of his people.¹

Back in 1996 Jamie wasn’t looking to change careers, nor was he expecting God to speak to him in some mysterious way. He was happy with his family, his church life, and his job in Southern England. While walking home one day, he looked across a riverbank at a lush green field where a shepherd tended his flock. As he stopped to reflect on the scene, a sheep came trotting in his direction. Jamie began to realize the sheep was headed for the riverbank. He motioned with his hands to alert the shepherd, but he was too far away. Jamie then shouted at the sheep to discourage it from coming any farther. But the ewe lumbered to the edge of the embankment and, without hesitation, stumbled down the hill into the murky river.

With a thick coat of wool weighed down in water and mud, the animal began to struggle. Helplessly stuck, her slick hooves felt in vain for a solid bottom. Smitten with sympathy, Jamie pried off his shoes and hustled down the embankment into the river. Kneedeep in muck, he too struggled. But seeing the sheep’s pathetic predicament, he persisted in wading across to help. With no small effort he hauled the animal out and scrambled up the precipitous embankment.

As the young English businessman stumbled across the field that afternoon, soggy ewe atop his shoulders, he heard an inaudible voice inside his heart say, “Jamie, this is my plan for your life: to rescue my lost sheep, one at a time.” The message was that simple and that direct. And that moment changed the course of his life. 

Following his calling, Jamie cautiously launched a ministry now operating in several cities in the United Kingdom and Australia. Their mission is simply to minister to anyone they find “lost,” one at a time. They offer counseling, housing, food, job training, and friendship. Shepherding requires a wide range of competencies and tasks, all of which begin with a compassionate heart for individual sheep.

It was only natural for God to call shepherds to be leaders of his community. David, like Abraham and Moses, was a herder before he was summoned to spiritual shepherding. Caring is at the heart of it.

David’s dramatic calling as a young man left an unforgettable memory that would brace him in days of doubt ahead (see 1 Samuel 16). But the pages of Scripture are filled with stories of lesser-known figures who simply responded to a more general invitation to serve God’s people. They too became God’s undershepherds. When Jesus called a group of unremarkable individuals to serve with him, he sent them out as spiritual shepherds to “the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 10:6). This mission defined their ministry as an extension of his pastoral service to those who were sick and in bondage. Their work was a reflection of the concerns of the Good Shepherd who gave his life for the flock (John 10:11). Every disciple was a shepherd called to the messy work of caring for people, of shouldering their various needs and bearing them for Christ, the Chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4). 

At the beginning of this season of reflection, let’s remember our call to our particular ministry. Not everyone is called as dramatically as Pastor Jamie. Not everyone is called to vocational ministry. But something in his story reminds us all of what we are each summoned to do. To get dirty helping the people Jesus came to recover. Can we recall an occasion when a personal mission was planted in our hearts? Did an undeniable sense of unique destiny in the kingdom of God surface during a specific season in life? This spiritual calling, this destiny, this identity is more transcendent than a job description. It is our life’s mission. 

Let’s reconnect with our individual “riverbank” experience before we go any further. 

For those of us who have been in the fields for a long time, we may be aware of major adjustments to our calling through the years. The original vision didn’t turn out to be the detailed blueprint we assumed, and some of the changes have taken us by surprise. How has shepherding changed in each new setting? In our reassignments, what core elements of the original call have remained intact?

Finally, consider how God has shepherded us during these changes. Occasionally we’ve been the soggy ewe atop his shoulders. Can we learn something from the way he calls . . . and recalls?

Unfortunately, while many of us did experience a strong sense of calling earlier in our lives, we have grown “weary in doing good” (Galatians 6:9). Perhaps our culture’s view of our work has dented our self- image, prompting us to long for a “real job.” Leadership is often thankless, with more criticism and opposition than we ever dreamed of. Every day, disillusioned ministers walk away from a calling they once cherished but now doubt. Parents disappear from homes with children they once had a vision to disciple. Caregivers of all types give up caring. 

May God use this season of reflection to inspire us afresh with renewed vigor to serve his flock, whoever that flock happens to be.

1. Another pastor in Israel shared how when he was a goat herder, God called him into ministry. The vision he had at that time was of people serving the needy out of an oasis tent. He now leads Tents of Mercy, a congregation that lives up to this vision by caring for immigrants and poor people.

Taken from The Good Shepherd: Forty Biblical Insights on Leading and Being Led © 2024 by Timothy S. Laniak.  Used by permission of Our Daily Bread Publishing, Box 3566, Grand Rapids, MI 49501.  All rights reserved.