(More personal and internal aspects of shepherding are dealt with in Section 10, "Spiritual Care.")

Help heads of families to shepherd their families.

• Show them how.
• Help them to relate the stories of Scripture and pray daily as a family.
• Those who do this with their families will probably make good home group leaders. Help them to do evangelism and grow their group, training apprentice leaders in the process for new groups.

At the larger congregational level, shepherding tends to take the form more of teaching and general pastoral care.

• Constantly recognize at the congregational level what is being done, and by whom, in the smaller groups.

Find in 1 Peter 5:1-4 a brief sketch of how to shepherd others.

Find in 1 Corinthians chapters 12 - 13 guidelines for a Spirit filled "church within a church" whereby different gifts can be harmonized within a small body.

Find in Paul's three letters to Timothy and Titus guidelines for shepherding in general. List them.

Find in Exodus chapters 21 - 40 rules for nurturing the ancient nation of Israel.

__________________

For a general, practical guide to pastoral work, use A Practical Guide to the Ministry, Robert Anderson.

For pastoral care and its different aspects, Leadership Handbooks of Practical Theology, 1992, Editor, James D. Berkley, Volume 2, Section 14

For chaplain ministries, see Part VII for:

For pastoral discipling, Disciple-making Pastor, Bill Hull

For an understanding in general of shepherding: DES Video course: INT 502 "the Pastoral Epistles"

Locate every family unit represented among your people, then identify who is the effective head of household and their marital status.

• In many cultures it appears to an outsider that the woman is the head of the household. Be careful not to jump to this conclusion. The acid test is who actually brings the family to Christ. If you win the woman first, does she bring the rest? If not, she is not the head of the family as far as spiritual things are concerned, in spite of appearances. To err in this way very often causes painful and unnecessary family division.
• If working cross-culturally, it can also be unwise to blindly assume that the household head is the breadwinner, a man or even the oldest. In some societies, older women enjoy more prestige or influence than do adult men, at least in the areas of childcare, agriculture, or religion.