Pastoral Leadership
For the Care of Souls
HAROLD L. SENKBEIL & LUCAS V. WOODFORD
Pastoral Leadership: For the Care of Souls
Lexham Ministry Guides
Copyright 2021 Harold L. Senkbeil and Lucas V. Woodford
All rights reserved. You may use brief quotations from this resource in presentations, articles, and books. For all other uses, please write Lexham Press for permission. Email us at permissions@lexhampress.com.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Print ISBN 9781683594758
Digital ISBN 9781683594765
Library of Congress Control Number 2021930489
Lexham Editorial: Todd Hains, Abigail Salinger
Cover Design: Joshua Hunt
Prayer for the Ministry of the Word
Learning Leadership from Experience
Lucas V. Woodford
Lucas V. Woodford
Harold L. Senkbeil
Harold L. Senkbeil
The Fine Art of Leading Leaders
Harold L. Senkbeil & Lucas V. Woodford
Brian Croft
What’s old is new again.
The church in ages past has focused her mission through every changing era on one unchanging, Spirit-given task: the care of souls in Jesus’ name. Christian clergy in every generation have devoted themselves to bringing Christ’s gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation to people by first bringing them to faith and then keeping them in the faith all life long.
These people—these blood-bought souls—are cared for just as a doctor cares for bodies. The first step is carefully observing the symptoms of distress, then diagnosing the ailment behind these symptoms. Only after careful observation and informed diagnosis can a physician of souls proceed—treating not the symptoms, but the underlying disease.
Attention and intention are essential for quality pastoral care. Pastors first attentively listen with Christ’s ears and then intentionally speak with Christ’s mouth. Soul care is a ministry of the Word; it is rooted in the conviction that God’s word is efficacious—it does what it says (Isa 55:10–11).
This careful, care-filled pastoral work is more art than science. It’s the practical wisdom of theology, rooted in focused study of God’s word and informed by the example of generations past. It’s an aptitude more than a skillset, developed through years of ministry experience and ongoing conversation with colleagues.
The challenges of our turbulent era are driving conscientious evangelists and pastors to return to the soul care tradition to find effective tools for contemporary ministry. (I describe this in depth in my book The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor’s Heart.) It’s this collegial conversation that each author in this series engages—speaking from their own ...
|
About Pastoral Leadership: For the Care of SoulsChrist’s sheep need shepherding. That’s where you come in. With more than 60 years of ministry between them, Harold Senkbeil and Lucas Woodford have come to understand that everything in ministry—even administration, leadership, and planning—revolves around the ancient tradition of the care of souls. Pastors are entrusted with the care of a flock by the Good Shepherd and are called to be faithful to this task. But pastoring seems to be getting more and more difficult. Based on a sound theological framework, Senkbeil and Woodford present a set of practical tools for church leadership and strategy. Calling on their vast experience, they encourage pastors to protect, guide, and feed their flock as Jesus would, bridging the eternal wisdom of the word of God with the everyday practicality of hands-on leadership. Originally published as Church Leadership & Strategy, this revision includes a new chapter and litany. |
| Support Info | lmgleadadmin2ed |