Shepherd Elder

What Is A Shepherd?

Perimeter is great place to Worship, Belong, Grow, and Bless. But it can also feel like a BIG church, which may be a bit overwhelming. Since our desire is for everyone to feel at home and to feel cared for we have established shepherding teams for each geographic area of our church and, we have called these geographic areas, parishes. 

A parish shepherding team is made up of many elders and deacons that live in the parish. Their role is to connect with and care for the people and families in their area. Each Perimeter member is assigned a specific Shepherd from that team.

WHO IS YOUR SHEPHERD?

See who your current shepherd is by logging into your My Perimeter account.

  • Login to your My Perimeter account.
  • Click account details.
  • Your shepherd will be listed.
Login To My Perimeter
  • What is Shepherding?
     

    As we are a discipleship-oriented church, some people may confuse shepherding with discipleship. Discipleship is well defined in the Life on Life material. Shepherding is overseeing the life of members, and member families, in a holistic way without necessarily getting into day-to-day equipping of those members. In other words:

    • A discipler would equip a man to have a personal worship time. A shepherd would make sure he knows where to get equipped.
    • A shepherd speaks truth into the lives of members, but does not necessarily massage it in fully, as a discipler would.
    • A shepherd exhorts members to have real accountability, but does not necessarily play an active role in weekly accountability. 

    You get the idea. The shepherd is herding and watching. The discipler is getting his hands messier week to week. The shepherd is discerning the lay of the land and whether or not there are storm clouds on the horizon. That is different work over a larger area. That is why we want to give each elder, together with other elders, a definable piece of land to cultivate; a city.

    Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood. Acts 20:28

  • What are the basic activities of a Shepherd?
     

    Well, they are at least three:

    • Rule gently over the flock with truth, strength, and love
    • Supply safe pasture for the flock
    • Nourish the flock with heavenly food 
  • How do we do it?
     

    So how do we do it? Well we could have just divided the elders into the number of people and told you to have a go, but we believe God has called us, and scripture teaches us to connect to people in a relational way, at the heart level, so that they are not just a number in a herd.

    That is why we have decided to connect elders to people close to where they live whenever possible. Time spent is a qualifier for watching over the flock. To be able to minister to someone at the heart level is not a "drive by event" or a 'one-minute manager' occurrence. It takes time; and a move of the Spirit. It includes heads of households and family. It includes regular contact.