Evangelists after my own heart.

[darrenjpollock]

Shepherds After My Own Heart resonated not just with the quiet corners of my study or with the Sunday congregation’s edification but raised my head and forced me to look and step out into the bustling hills and meadows of life where I am called to be a shepherd. I began to think and imagine evangelism through the lens of shepherding, a ministry I am passionate about but, in my theological observation, has been reduced to an optional shepherding activity.

Laniak showed me the shepherd not just as a symbol of pastoral care but also as a beacon of outreach, seeking, illuminating and finding those lost in the wilderness. I was struck by the image of the shepherd not leading the flock with a crook from a mount but kneeling beside the lost animal caught in a trap.

This was most clear to me in the Lucan record of a string of three parables that include themes of losing, finding and rejoicing (with explicit correspondence made to the rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents) (p.205). As I reflect on how the shepherd prioritises searching for the lost sheep with relentless dedication, it reflects the divine love to those who have strayed, and I am mindful of how God is indeed the original seeker of the lost, as Paul reminds us: “God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17.27)

Therefore, as Jesus dines with sinners and calls the lost and even announces that the least of these people were sons of Abraham (p.206), I am drawn to explore and further develop cultures of evangelism in my own life and my ministry. I cannot stop thinking of that generous line, “To call such people ‘Lost’ is to imply that they belonged in the fold all along” (p.206). This is what the shepherd came to do Ezek 34:16, John 6:39. It is, therefore, appropriate for evangelism to be seen as a natural expression of the shepherd’s commitment to the whole flock of God, especially those who have not found their true home, leading others, not to my fold, but to the pasture of the one true Shepherd.