REV. BENJAMIN JOSHUA WOODRUFF Ordination

You need to know you will be in a bad, bad place if you ever get to the position where you have to shepherd God's people. Do so willingly and pay attention to the text. This is God's design. It says, clearly, as god would have you. So, shepherd god's people ungrudgingly. Shepherd god's people for the right reason. In verse two, not overseeing out of compulsion but willingly as god would have you, not out of greed for money but eagerly. [01:00:21] (35 seconds)  #ShepherdWillingly

I need you to know money has its place, but money is not the desire to serve. We are not shepherding people out of profit or financial gain. We are not shepherding people to live in poverty either. Money or any other impure motive is not the reason to shepherd a church. We shepherd because Jesus loves us, because we love his mission. He loves the world, and therefore, we have fallen in love with his people. [01:00:56] (34 seconds)  #ServeForLove

BJ, the IRS is going to consider you as a secular employee. Many members of the church, unfortunately, will consider you and treat you like a secular employee. You will never be in ministry under secular employment. While there are certain skill sets and leadership principles that will help you shepherd the congregation that our world has, absolutely. But you need to know, you are not an employee. You are called to be a shepherd, and you need to know your role. You are not the chief shepherd, but shepherding is the staple. It is the definition of how you lead the church that God has entrusted to you. [00:57:33] (48 seconds)  #CalledNotEmployed

In verse three, you you see that we are to oversee, but he says, not lording it over those entrusted to you. In other words, this overseeing component means that you are not a dictator. You are not a boss. You are not a manipulator. You are not a deceiver. You are a humble shepherd. You don't lord over leadership to people. You don't domineer the church. There are times that you must rule. There are times that you must say, we cannot do this. [01:01:45] (38 seconds)  #LeadAsShepherdNotBoss

I couldn't I couldn't say any better than what PB said, but in Proverbs chapter four verse 23, guard your heart above all else for it is the source of life, and you need to know that shepherding requires great emotion. I could not have said it better than your grandfather. You must find a way to be pure in your efforts, and your mind needs to be sound doctrinally, and your soul gracious in leading God's people. Protect your relationship with Christ at all cost. Protect your heart morally, and protect your heart toward the people that you serve. [00:59:00] (38 seconds)  #GuardYourHeart

I'm gonna quickly go through four leadership skills found here in the text to help you fulfill the ministry that God's calling to you. But you need to understand that shepherding is used here because it's described someone who's guiding, correcting, healing, leading, ruling, nourishing, and protecting. So, what does this look like for you? As the leader of God's church that God has placed in this church, what does this require of you? Well, first, I want you to know, you need to guard your heart. [00:58:22] (35 seconds)  #ShepherdingInAction

Right? And then he says that we should not oversee out of compulsion, meaning that we shouldn't oversee out of obligation. Right? We shouldn't oversee because because it's a requirement for me. No. He says, in fact, that we are to oversee willingly. That we are oversee out of our want to. We should oversee because we have the desire to oversee the church. We have a desire to shepherd the congregation. We have a desire and a willingness and to to to walk beside and walk among the church family. [00:59:46] (35 seconds)  #OverseeWillingly