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The Minister As Shepard
These 1912 lectures by Charles Jefferson using the Eastern shepherd as a model for ministry have achieved the classic status in the Christian world, and are here reprinted for a new generation by Christian Literature Crusade.e
164 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1912
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
December 6, 2023
A pastor is not a dictator, a CEO, or a cowboy who tries to whip his sheep into submission. He is a shepherd who is to have the heart of the Chief Shepherd, the Lord Jesus.
As I was reading this book, I was impressed with how important the shepherd is in God’s eyes, and realized how short I fall when it comes to having God’s heart for my own congregation as a new pastor. But God has given grace to help me shepherd the individual sheep in my flock.
This is a must read for any man called to gospel ministry. He will learn that a shepherd is to give of himself, be gentle, love unconditionally. If he does, he will be given rewards by Christ at the Bema.
As I was reading this book, I was impressed with how important the shepherd is in God’s eyes, and realized how short I fall when it comes to having God’s heart for my own congregation as a new pastor. But God has given grace to help me shepherd the individual sheep in my flock.
This is a must read for any man called to gospel ministry. He will learn that a shepherd is to give of himself, be gentle, love unconditionally. If he does, he will be given rewards by Christ at the Bema.
April 19, 2012
This is an excellent book for anyone aspiring to be, or being called to be a elder/pastor. The topics that Charles Jefferson brings out in the book are obvious, but you don't really realize it until you read them. It is amazing that for a book written back in the early 1900s, how relevant it is to today. You would almost think that he is around today and wrote this book. There are a few things here or there throughout the book that I question or disagree with, but for the most part, I believe that was because the church has changed in the past 100 years, from the time period he is writing from. All in all, an excellent book, I would highly recomend it.
December 12, 2024
First and last chapters are 5 stars. Excellent book.
Classic. Read with staff in 2024.
Classic. Read with staff in 2024.
July 7, 2021
One of it not the best books I’ve read on purely pastoral ministry. I walked away from this book knowing and understanding what a shepherd is. A shepherd guides, tends, feeds, and protects his flock. Incredible book describing the call of a shepherd. True and biblical shepherding is a dwindling art in the church today. Few see the value and importance of the shepherd in the 21st century. One of my favorite books I’ve read in the last year or two.
November 20, 2018
I stumbled across Charles Jefferson a couple of years ago when someone sent me a pdf of Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers. It was powerful. The Minister as Shepherd is just as good, but with a better aimed focus. I found it fascinating, convicting, encouraging, reproving, and cautionary. His chapter on The Shepherd's Temptations is perhaps the best chapter I have ever read in any book on the subject of ministry. And along with all of that he proves that pastoring people is the same no matter what age you do it in.
If you are a pastor, get it, read it, meditate on it, and then do it again. This is simply an outstanding work.
If you are a pastor, get it, read it, meditate on it, and then do it again. This is simply an outstanding work.
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July 23, 2011This is a good book for me, with the emphasis of the shepherding aspect of the ministry. The first chapter discusses about the Shepherd idea which extends to the second chapter about what the Shepherd's work requires. The book also discusses about Shepherd's opportunity, temptations and reward.
February 3, 2022
Wonderful and heartwarming little book on the Christian minister's pastoral work. A few observations:
- The date of the lectures that compose this book is interesting to me. 1912, according to the back cover. At one point, I have read elsewhere, there was a surge of optimism regarding the new century. Things were looking up. Medicine and agriculture were flourishing, and education had experienced a precipitous rise. The human condition all around was much better than before, and promised to improve further still! Jefferson optimistically announces, "The world is awakening to the value of life" (79). The great demise of optimism began a very few years later with the advent of a world war. This was followed by a great economic depression, and then a second great world war. The atrocities of war in the first half of the century would destroy that optimistic spirit of the first decade and a half. But this is only a small part of the book, and readily balanced by two other important observations: First, that the human condition remains spoiled in every corner; and Second, that modern innovations and advances threatened to render the parish shepherd obsolete (which he does well to counter that at no time has he ever been so needed). I observe the optimism as a historical relic of interest to me.
- Another matter of interest related to the date of the book is the state of media. News papers would have been the primary modern form of media, and the book contains some interesting but obsolete observance of the relationships of the daily presses to the ministers of the day. And yet, that relationship is surprisingly similar to that of modern ministers today in relation to our own media technologies. The temptation to develop a platform beyond--and often to the neglect of--a minister's own humble congregation is hardly dependent on the internet, or even the television. Those who listened, as I did last year, to the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast will recognize the themes, there cast in terms of brand new opportunities provided by social media platforms and sites like YouTube. But 100 year prior, those temptations already existed in the form of printed media.
- The writing is often lyrical. I recently read a book that begged to be 100 pages shorter than the author had made it. It would have been so much better served had all the fat been trimmed. "Just the facts, Ma'am." This book, too, uses more words than are needed to convey a thought, but here it is to be appreciated. The repetition and refraction of ideas slow the pace, and help the reader to meditate on the ideas before being hurried along. Here, it works. This book should not be abridged. It should be savored.
- Page after page addressed issues important for young ministers out of seminary to learn early and learn well. All of these are to direct him toward what Eclov has called the "Pastoral Graces." His book by that title is among the best I have read on pastoral ministry. Jefferson will now take a well deserved place along side it.
- The date of the lectures that compose this book is interesting to me. 1912, according to the back cover. At one point, I have read elsewhere, there was a surge of optimism regarding the new century. Things were looking up. Medicine and agriculture were flourishing, and education had experienced a precipitous rise. The human condition all around was much better than before, and promised to improve further still! Jefferson optimistically announces, "The world is awakening to the value of life" (79). The great demise of optimism began a very few years later with the advent of a world war. This was followed by a great economic depression, and then a second great world war. The atrocities of war in the first half of the century would destroy that optimistic spirit of the first decade and a half. But this is only a small part of the book, and readily balanced by two other important observations: First, that the human condition remains spoiled in every corner; and Second, that modern innovations and advances threatened to render the parish shepherd obsolete (which he does well to counter that at no time has he ever been so needed). I observe the optimism as a historical relic of interest to me.
- Another matter of interest related to the date of the book is the state of media. News papers would have been the primary modern form of media, and the book contains some interesting but obsolete observance of the relationships of the daily presses to the ministers of the day. And yet, that relationship is surprisingly similar to that of modern ministers today in relation to our own media technologies. The temptation to develop a platform beyond--and often to the neglect of--a minister's own humble congregation is hardly dependent on the internet, or even the television. Those who listened, as I did last year, to the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast will recognize the themes, there cast in terms of brand new opportunities provided by social media platforms and sites like YouTube. But 100 year prior, those temptations already existed in the form of printed media.
- The writing is often lyrical. I recently read a book that begged to be 100 pages shorter than the author had made it. It would have been so much better served had all the fat been trimmed. "Just the facts, Ma'am." This book, too, uses more words than are needed to convey a thought, but here it is to be appreciated. The repetition and refraction of ideas slow the pace, and help the reader to meditate on the ideas before being hurried along. Here, it works. This book should not be abridged. It should be savored.
- Page after page addressed issues important for young ministers out of seminary to learn early and learn well. All of these are to direct him toward what Eclov has called the "Pastoral Graces." His book by that title is among the best I have read on pastoral ministry. Jefferson will now take a well deserved place along side it.
August 10, 2018
There's a Need for Shepherding Today
After 47 years of pastoring in the local church, I am amazed as I watch significant shifts in the philosophy of ministry of many pastors and churches. The shift has been away from a shepherding model (the care of souls) to a CEO model (a business model). The churches may have large buildings, large budgets, and large attendances. My observation is that too many of these churches and pastors are hollow in their souls because shepherding has been forsaken (even forgotten). This author (in an older book) calls us back to the supreme need of shepherding God's flock.
After 47 years of pastoring in the local church, I am amazed as I watch significant shifts in the philosophy of ministry of many pastors and churches. The shift has been away from a shepherding model (the care of souls) to a CEO model (a business model). The churches may have large buildings, large budgets, and large attendances. My observation is that too many of these churches and pastors are hollow in their souls because shepherding has been forsaken (even forgotten). This author (in an older book) calls us back to the supreme need of shepherding God's flock.
November 10, 2021
I read this book years ago, and I decided it was time I revisited it. Jefferson makes the biblical case for what a Pastor/Shepherd is and how he should be properly oriented and motivated through positive and negative examples. This is an older book, and in some ways feels out of touch with what my generation of pastors face. However, there are plenty of timeless truths on the book that are sure to cause a healthy reflection. Occasionally I felt like Jefferson was a little too negative.
August 19, 2025
Finally. A man who saw the problems of the Protestant Christianity from within, it's obsession with the study, it's prideful approach to the pulpit, synonymous with a Catholic priest and his mass. His understanding is excellent, his emphasis on a minister as an undershepherd of Jesus inspiring, and his prose excellent.
Particularly appreciated his criticism of the fact that sermons are not clear or applicable
Particularly appreciated his criticism of the fact that sermons are not clear or applicable
October 23, 2022
Excellent! Encouraging, convicting and instructive, this is essentially a case for pastors to practice visitation and counseling. It also explains their relationship to preaching. All pastors who want to please Christ should read this book.
October 10, 2016
Few other books I've read have hit me as hard as this one. I'm in my first pastorate and I think I have made every mistake in the book. My great blessing is the gift of grace and love that the people in my church have consistently given me...in spite of all those mistakes.
Jefferson writes with enormous wit in a style reminiscent of the century in which he wrote. His charm does not depend on the quaint language of the last nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Instead his power comes from a simple moral certainty. Here is an example: "If he is a shepherd, if he knows his sheep by name, and if his sheep know his voice, he cannot pass from from one fold to another without a great loneliness, and heaviness of spirit, and without deep wounds in the hearts of those he leaves behind." The book is full of these kinds of statements begging to be highlighted and stored for later as quotes. But even more than great writing Jefferson's book is powerful because he is right. Behind his kindness there is a knife that cuts deep. He destroys all of the pet methods and latest ministry fads. He also leaves no room for vanity, laziness, or a love of books and ideas more than people.
This is a book to be read more than once; even annually as does Warren Wiersbe.
If there is a weakness, it is that Jefferson does not support his words Scripturally and has little interest in citing his references. I, for one, have no trouble forgiving him for that.
Jefferson writes with enormous wit in a style reminiscent of the century in which he wrote. His charm does not depend on the quaint language of the last nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Instead his power comes from a simple moral certainty. Here is an example: "If he is a shepherd, if he knows his sheep by name, and if his sheep know his voice, he cannot pass from from one fold to another without a great loneliness, and heaviness of spirit, and without deep wounds in the hearts of those he leaves behind." The book is full of these kinds of statements begging to be highlighted and stored for later as quotes. But even more than great writing Jefferson's book is powerful because he is right. Behind his kindness there is a knife that cuts deep. He destroys all of the pet methods and latest ministry fads. He also leaves no room for vanity, laziness, or a love of books and ideas more than people.
This is a book to be read more than once; even annually as does Warren Wiersbe.
If there is a weakness, it is that Jefferson does not support his words Scripturally and has little interest in citing his references. I, for one, have no trouble forgiving him for that.
August 15, 2022
Very applicable for a book written in 1912!
September 19, 2022
This is the BEST book I’ve read on shepherding as a pastor, even better than Baxter’s “Reformed Pastor.” Every pastor should read this book!
August 12, 2024
Third reading.
September 24, 2025
Very impressed by this book, especially how something written so far from 2025 nails the issues we see in the church and ministry leadership today. Highly recommend to all my ministry friends!
December 13, 2012
I read this book in college and reread it for the sake of reminding myself of the shepherding task that I am called to.
Jefferson does not really make his case from Scripture, but rather seeks to draw parallels from the task of shepherding sheep to the task of shepherding souls.
I will continue to return to this book because Jefferson is a master at word pictures and writing pithy one-liners. In this, I know I will be encouraged and challenged to be a better shepherd as I follow the example of the Good Shepherd.
I recommend this book to all under-shepherds of Christ, whether dads, moms, Sunday School teachers, small group leaders, or pastors.
Jefferson does not really make his case from Scripture, but rather seeks to draw parallels from the task of shepherding sheep to the task of shepherding souls.
I will continue to return to this book because Jefferson is a master at word pictures and writing pithy one-liners. In this, I know I will be encouraged and challenged to be a better shepherd as I follow the example of the Good Shepherd.
I recommend this book to all under-shepherds of Christ, whether dads, moms, Sunday School teachers, small group leaders, or pastors.
August 9, 2013
It reads like one long, beautiful but convicting sermon to pastors. It simultaneously made me want to never become a pastor and also want to be one more than I ever have in my life.
Jefferson takes the reader through five chapters of what a pastor really is and needs to be when shepherding the flock. While there are some finer points I probably would't applaud, some hasty generalizations, and a couple false dichotomies along the way, it was still well worth the read and very piercing to my heart on what the Biblical ministry of a pastor truly should look like!
Jefferson takes the reader through five chapters of what a pastor really is and needs to be when shepherding the flock. While there are some finer points I probably would't applaud, some hasty generalizations, and a couple false dichotomies along the way, it was still well worth the read and very piercing to my heart on what the Biblical ministry of a pastor truly should look like!
April 9, 2014
'The Minister as Shepherd' is a worthwhile read. The writing is at times poetic-but-laborious, but it is worth the effort. I didn't agree entirely with his devaluation of preaching compared to shepherding, it's not worth arguing; he's entitled to his opinion. There is far more I heartily commend in the book. Jefferson is both convicting and comforting. If you do your reading with a pen to underline worthwhile ideas, make sure it has plenty of ink when you start, because it won't by the time you finish.
November 26, 2012
I'm re-reading this classic work, and am again struck with its relevancy and straight-talk regarding the pastoral ministry. Though given as a series of lectures 100 years ago, this book is so immediate in content it could have been written this week. Great reading for any pastor, elder, or student.
January 14, 2013
I'll read this book year after year from this point forward. Quite possibly the best book I've read on shepherding. The book is full of wisdom, encouragement, and practical instruction on Shepherding and being a pastor. Jefferson says the minister is watchman, guard, guide, physician, rescuer, provider (feeder), and lover. This book is priceless.
September 21, 2012
If I were a pastor I think I'd try to read this short book at least every other year. The cover is hecka cheesy but the content is pure gold. Maybe even a 5-star book (I'll reassess after reading it the 2nd time through)
March 26, 2014
A most excellent read! It puts a Shepherd's work into proper perspective. It delves into his work, opportunity, temptations, and rewards! I highly recommend this book for every person in the ministry. The author has a giant for a pen!
June 4, 2016
Modern day "pastors" should read this work by Charles Jefferson. A great deal of the problems with today's church is that the "pastors" are nothing more than advertising executives. What they need to be is the under-shepherd that Jesus has called men to be.
May 17, 2007
Talbot Course: Field Education
May 25, 2012
Excellent book on pastoring. Should be required reading for pastors.
July 3, 2021
Very, very good material to keep the minister grounded, humble and in love with his people.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews