Shepherding and Pastoring

Shepherding is synonymous with pastoral care: It is the practical individual, and spiritual care of Christ's people as His lambs and sheep. It goes hand in hand with the complementary function of teaching. Some shepherds and teachers may feel they have a greater gift for one than for the other. We may hear it said, "He is a better teacher than a pastor," or the opposite, " He is more of a pastor than a teacher." Becuase the functions are inseparably and uniquely linked in God's ordering of the Church life, we should determine to be as effective as we can in both spheres... There are at leasat four key words in the New Testament used of pastoral care, and they are of equal importantance: encouragement, exhortation, admonition, and counsel. All Christians need enoucragement, whether to persevere in godliness or personal evangelism or to develop their spiritual gifts and to discover their proper place in the body of Christ... Alongside encouragement goes exhortation. They cannot always be separated, but exhortation has much more of a directional element within it than encouragement,: It tells us what we should be doing... The Scriptures consistently point us in the spiritual or moral direction we should go. In exhortation, using the Scriptures, we point one another in the right direction... Admonition-in terms of warning and correction-must, where necessary, accompany both encouragement and exhortation. In giving a warning or rebuke, we should be quick to give praise where it is due(1Cor 11:2), since that makes correction easier to accept.

- On Being A Pastor: Understanding Our Calling and Work

by Derek Prime and Alistair Begg