"Shepherding..............."

It's early morning here in the hotel lobby. Beth prefers a later hour to greet the day, but the old man likes the world much better before all the commotion starts. They are predicting thunder storms, due, I suppose, to all the crazy weather ccrossing the country north of us. There will be sunshine tomorrow for the drive home, though, and my mind is presently occupied with "leadership". The friends we have been visiting here in Pensacola pastor a small church, a mixture of ethnicity, financially secure and dirt poor, old, young, and in-between. I've known these two for thirty years, have served both with them and under their authority in ministry. I'd follow him anywhere. He has proven himself again and again a reliable witness of "Christ in me". If you google the above term to see how some see it, there is a multitude of opinions out there, two of my favorite being expressed by (a) Dwight David Eisenhower, and (b) Lao Tsu (whoever that is). The latter advised "To lead men, walk beside them". The first noted "You do not lead by hitting people over the head - that's assaul, not leadership". My own thoughts concerning its meaning, however, contains the word "integrity", one fellow equating that quality with "doing whatsoever you ask others to do", me believing it better decomposed as "that which holds up your pants". Dan is just plain honest. He lives his faith. He has a heart for the hurting, the down and out; and he has the wisdom to deal with humanity, that within his own identity as well as that which is in front of him. He's the only preacher I've ever known who has, on occasion, answered his own altar call. Christianity needs more like that.....