From Help For Shepherds
Welcome to Help For Shepherds
We are a Christian site dedicated to sharing resources that can help make a Christian pastor's job easier. We don't want to tell you what to think but to provide resources that can help spur your thinking further onwards. The goal of this site is to help out pastors, bottom line.
We all are pastors ourselves, so we know what sort of stresses there are. No one can be fully trained for the jobs we have, and even if we've been on the job for years new challenges keep coming up. From figuring out how to incorporate a church, finding a new way of teaching youth about communion, getting a jump start on a sermon for a passage you're struggling with, or even just wading through all the resources that are out there to find something valuable, we hope to be able to help you out.
No one pastor has all the answers. The pastors who founded this site know that full well and are seeking answers and help just as much as anyone else. That is why this site has been designed on a wiki format. What that means is that any pastor viewing this site can add content and ideas that they have found helpful in their own ministry and view ideas that other pastors have found valuable as well.
As each Christian leader shares from their experience we can arrive at a level of knowledge that none of us could achieve alone. And yes, that means you, the pastor reading this, yes you. We need your help too, because we really think you have something to share with other pastors. To know more about how to help out, check out our How to use page.
After asking a great many pastors what they feel they could use help with the most we have arrived at several areas that this site will be concentrating on. If there is something that you really feel you could use but we aren't doing, let us know. If you have any other questions about the site or how to help, we hopefully have answered them in our FAQ or our about page.
In order to make this site really helpful, we do need your help. After all, the idea is for all pastors to share what they have and help others. Right now we have 268 ideas to help create the message, 272 ideas for additional elements of a service, and 52 pages of other resources.
Creating the Message - The message is normally the central part of an American Christian service, whether for adults, youth, or children. We put a lot of time and effort into forming those messages, but sometimes we could use a little help, a jump start. Here you can find everything you need to create a great message. Message Ideas, commentary, even Lectionary resources, all sermons or messages that other pastors have made and posted.
Supporting Service Elements - There are a whole host of different elements in a service that can help support the message and the rest of the service, but are often hard to create on a weekly basis. From liturgies to dramas and experiential learning ideas there are a whole host of different ways of supporting a message, we have them all here.
Discussion Forums - Pastors have a hard time turning to anyone for support, ideas, or anything else. We are often separated from other pastors relationally even if we live very close together. We are trying to have a safe place here just to talk with other pastors about what is going on, or ask for help if we need it.
Other Resources - There are tens of thousands of good books out there for pastors, and thousands of websites as well. None of us have the time or the money to check them all out. We don't know all the best resources but we each have the books, websites, conferences, and groups that have helped us a great deal. This is also where you can share essays on things you have learned about ministry and special situations.
Our Dreams Page - This isn't actually a page for anything that is built yet, but a place to see some of the dreams and wishes for this site eventually. If you think something would be great, feel free to add that to the dreams page and maybe someone else will build it.
