Becoming a better shepherd or a better leader never happens by accident, and it doesn’t simply happen over time. Men and women who improve their pastoral capacity or their leadership do so with great effort and on purpose. Here are a few helpful suggestions to start improving.
- If you are going to an appointment that requires high shepherding and it’s not your strongest suit, take someone with you who has shepherding down. The visit will be much more beneficial for everyone. Secondly, you will get to observe pastoral behavior at a high level firsthand and begin to develop your pastoral side.
- After leading in a room that needed a pastoral touch, ask someone who was present to speak into how you handled the moment and give you at least two helpful pointers on how to improve.
- With intentionality, identify someone who is leading something larger than you are. There is a super high probability that if they are leading a larger church, their leadership is more developed than yours, or at the very least they have experienced some leadership transitions that are ahead for you. Ask them to give you an hour over coffee and show up with questions in hand. Make the questions as specific as possible. Come with actual situations and leadership challenges, and ask how they would navigate that situation at their church.
- Be humble.
