Description:  The passion and ability to nurture, care for, and guide people towards spiritual maturity.  One who cares for the health of other’s souls.

Meaning: shepherd 

Key Traits: nurturing, protective, relational, persistent, influential, sincere

Characteristics:  This is a person who can…

·        Be trustworthy and someone who people can be open with and confide in.

·        Provide wise guidance and oversight to a spiritual community

·        Derive strength from encouraging, supporting, and exhorting the community.

·        Be more person-centered than task-centered

·        Exemplify a growing and deepening relationship with Christ

                                                               …and enjoys doing it.

Cautions/Liabilities:

·        May have a difficult time saying “no” neglecting their primary responsibilities to their family, friends or self.

·        May hold too tightly to the community, not letting them grow beyond their pastoral control and fighting other worthwhile and helpful influences

·        May try to control other people in order to “protect” them.

·        May become too authoritative, forgetting they are part of the community not the head of the community.

Scripture:  Eph. 4:11-12; 1 Peter 5:1-4; John 10:1-18

Examples:  John, James