“There are people who would want to help you if you’d let them.” That’s what I sensed God say to me in 2009 when Kristi and I were praying about starting Soul Shepherding as a 501c3 nonprofit ministry to pastors, leaders, caregivers, and other servants of the Lord.
How are you at letting people help you? I’m not so good at this! But I’m learning and I want to share with you my story with the hope that it’ll encourage you. Receiving help is humbling, but it’s essential to effective leading and caring. Even Jesus let people help him in his ministry!
For a number of years we ministered Soul Shepherding as tent-makers while I worked two halftime jobs (as a psychologist and as a pastor in a church) and Kristi worked as a psychotherapist. As our ministry grew we felt increasing strain, but frankly we liked being in control of our income rather than being dependent on donations.
After receiving confirmation of God’s call on us from a team of ministry and business leaders we proceeded to step out in faith, which eventually led to serving full-time to lead this nonprofit ministry. And we haven’t looked back! We keep looking to Jesus and it’s like we’re walking on water! (Matt. 14:22-33) Every year God has provided and kept our finances in the black.
Our experience is that nothing grows your faith like venturing out on God into the unknown, counting on the Lord you know to act with you! This is the Abrahamic journey. (Heb. 11:8-10)
A New Challenge
Today, five years after starting Soul Shepherding we’re at another crossroads. We continue to reach more pastors, pastors’ wives, those who minster to pastors, counselors, Bible teachers, missionaries, church elders, nonprofit presidents, Christian business leaders, and many others. Currently, we’re touching 181 of these leaders regularly in individual meetings, groups, and retreats. Additionally, we speak at events to hundreds more each year and have had 1.5 million visitors to SoulShepherding.org. This is the work of God and we praise Him!
And we give thanks for many of you reading these words who have been partnering with us in this work!
In our discernment community with our Board of Directors we have come to believe that God has called us to remain small and BIG — a small organization with Kristi and I as the only employees and yet a large and expanding organism for God. How do we do this? We invest in pastors/leaders who care for hundreds or thousands of others. We help others start ministries. And we give away our resources to other ministry leaders and caregivers. But how else?
One day recently I was praying about how to be small and BIG for Jesus as I was hiking in the hills near our home and the Lord reminded me of his message that started Soul Shepherding: “There are people who would want to help you if you would let them.”
Ways You Can Partner with Us
Maybe that’s you? Here are our current needs for help:
- Prayer partners. Kristi leads this team of volunteers and sends them a prayer email every 2-4 weeks.
- Ministry volunteers. We need help in a number of areas: social media, newsletters, re-purposing our articles to give away to other ministries/websites, editing/formatting of website content, and our new Spanish website (translation, data entry, and formatting).
- A Volunteer Executive Assistant to manage all of our ministry volunteers and projects.
- Financial partners. We’re thankful to God and many of you for helping us to close our current gap. YTD we are a little over $2,000 per month behind.
Would it bring you joy to meet one of these needs for Jesus’ sake? What you have to offer may feel small, like the widow’s mite or a single talent, but whatever you give in dependence upon God to act with you is HUGE! (Luke 21:1-4; Matt. 25:14-30)
We’d love to hear from you. It’s easy to contact us or to donate. Thank you!