Bonus Reading: Leading with Purpose

Leading with Purpose

In this last segment of our journey, we’ll spend some days reflecting on the guiding role of shepherd leaders. Beyond provision and protection, where are shepherds trying to take their flocks? What will it take to get there? A shepherd’s guidance involves shaping mission, casting vision, and managing objectives in a constantly changing environment. 

For the flock to move ahead toward the shepherd’s goals of productivity and reproduction, we’ll see the need for the shepherding traits of hard work, trustworthiness, adaptability, persistence, and wisdom. Sheep by nature can’t see the big picture and occasionally need to be driven to their destination. 

The experience of a shepherd named Husein reminds me of the often-unanticipated crises and threatening predicaments that have to be handled deftly out in the wilderness: 

Husein was a good shepherd who could discern changes in the environment and ascertain the impact on his flock. Yet at the same time that he managed the entire herd, he had an eye for each individual sheep. He skillfully rescued a struggling ewe, saved a newborn’s life, and got back to the larger crisis at hand. 

Wilderness stories in the Pentateuch characterize God as the Guiding Shepherd. Israel’s Divine Pastor led his people through the wilderness by pillars of cloud and fire. He made a pathway through the Red Sea and eventually led his people safely to their haven of rest (Psalm 77:19–20; 78:53–54). Numbers appears to be a book about aimless wandering, but the summary in chapter 33 reveals God leading with purpose. Detours resulted from the community’s unwillingness to follow God’s direction and timing (Numbers 13–14). 

What strikes me most in these accounts is God’s willingness to work with his people, even in their mistakes, moving them toward his overall plan. Forty extra years in the desolation of the wilderness were tacked on to the itinerary because Leading with Purpose 195 of disobedience. But God stayed near, guiding them day and night. He was determined to bring their children into the land of promise. Throughout their sojourn, God kept his vision for the community before them (Numbers 34–35).

Along with the pillars of cloud and fire, guidance in the wilderness period also took the form of frequent consultation between God and Moses in the Divine Shepherd’s “tent of meeting” (Exodus 33:7–11). I can imagine Israel’s leader stepping carefully toward the opening of the sacred tent, waiting respectfully for instructions about particular issues faced by the community. Divine wisdom was made accessible on a case-by-case basis. 

The crowning, permanent expression of God’s guidance was the Torah he delivered through Moses. With a divine signature, this blueprint for community life would provide ongoing direction for succeeding generations. The Torah mapped out a mission for God’s people and practical applications of its moral vision. Using a convention common for ancient Near Eastern kings, God’s laws were embedded in a covenant relationship intended to ensure Israel’s well- being. 

Direct divine guidance in the wilderness was obvious and dramatic. But delegation to trusted human shepherds was also essential to God’s plan. Though Deuteronomy 32:12 says, “The Lord alone led [Israel],” Psalm 77:20 reflects on the human instruments: “You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” This “divine preference for human agency”² is a principle we’ll want to reflect on more in the days ahead. 

I discovered God’s interest in using me to guide others one high-school summer at Camp Meadowrun. As a camp counselor I was responsible for a group of fifth-grade boys, one of whom had Asperger’s syndrome. 

Franky Moore had idiosyncrasies. He ate a special lunch. He wouldn’t join in group activities. He talked to himself constantly. Antisocial habits coupled with obesity made Franky an easy target for fifth- grade humor. However, Franky’s uncanny ability to recount facts kept his fellow campers in awe. If you asked Franky who won the World Series in 1967, he would rattle off not only who played and who won but also the names of the pitchers and the final score. If you didn’t stop him, he would tell you about every game in the series. In any year. 

I didn’t try to push Franky to do activities he shied away from. I let the current of the group’s interests move him along with us. But I really wanted Franky to enjoy swimming with the group. Although he knew how to swim, every afternoon that we went to the pool Franky refused to go in. When I asked him to join us, he would say, “My mom says I have to put on my swimsuit, but I don’t have to swim.” He would circle the pool on his tiptoes, belly bouncing with each step, repeating this pat answer to himself. 

One day as Franky was circling, I got inspired to try a new tactic. I got down on my knees in his pathway and purposely disrupted his routine. “Franky,” I asked, “will you go swimming today?” Leading with

“My mom says I have to put on my swimsuit, but I don’t have to swim.” 

“I know, Franky. You don’t have to swim.” 

“That’s right. I don’t have to swim. My mom says I don’t have to.” 

“Franky, I know you don’t have to swim; you get to swim.” 

Franky seemed disconcerted by the variation in our well-practiced dialogue. A small crowd of fellow campers was now waiting to see how the conversation would turn out.

“I don’t have to swim,” he repeated. 

“But you get to swim,” I continued. We tried out these new lines a few more times.

Then Franky Moore’s face took on an unusual look of pleasure. He announced with conviction, “I don’t have to swim. I get to swim.” He repeated his new mantra and then, before an astonished little crowd, jumped into the pool! You should have heard the applause. 

I still remember Franky’s beaming face bobbing up to the water’s surface after his first jump. “It’s cold, Tim!” he yelled, treading water vigorously.

“I know, Franky. But after you get used to it, you’ll like it.” 

“I already like it, Tim.” 

I tell this story because it was an occasion in my life when I had to figure out how to lead someone who wasn’t fully enjoying the benefits of life in our small flock. Rather than letting him wander in circles, God led Franky by my hand into a new way of thinking and experiencing life. 

Every day for the remainder of the summer Franky joined our group in the pool. He was no longer on the margins. 

I trust that our explorations in the days ahead will promote some good reflection on what it means to guide people in God’s ways using God’s wisdom.

1. Richard Critchfield, The Golden Bowl Be Broken: Peasant Life in Four Cultures (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973), 28–29. 
2. This phrase was coined in Timothy S. Laniak, Shepherds after My Own Heart: Pastoral Traditions and Leadership in the Bible, New Studies in Biblical Theology 20 (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 22.

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 4950l.  All rights reserved.