Introduction: The Shepherd's Path

I've spent all of my 73 years in the fold of the Church. Born into six generations of Christian heritage, I've wandered through traditional paddocks, grazed in evangelical pastures, and danced through Pentecostal meadows. Like any farm girl worth her salt, I've seen it all — droughts and downpours, growth and pruning, lambs and the occasional black sheep.

This is where faith, leadership, and Church life meet the paddocks and pastures of Aotearoa. It matters to me more than I can easily say.

I draw on real experience here. In the 1980s, Paul and I lived on a ten-acre block in North Otago where we raised sheep and calves. I bred and showed Old English Sheepdogs. We both worked at the Pukeuri freezing works — he was on the slaughter floor, I was one of the few women on the chain, trimming. Hard, gritty work. One day Paul jokingly placed the head of a Judas sheep on the block. The scream that rang out has never fully left me.

That animal had been trained to lead others calmly toward slaughter. It did its job perfectly. It trusted the process. The flock trusted it. And none of them knew where they were going.

That image sits at the heart of this series. Are we following blindly? Are we leading well? Or are we — without meaning to, without even knowing it — pointing others somewhere they should not go?

But this isn't only about hard things. The picture of the Shepherd is tender too. Christ braving a storm to find one lost sheep, lifting it gently, carrying it home — that's the kind of shepherding we're called to reflect. Not control. Not performance. Care, wisdom, and love in the everyday.

Through these posts we'll look honestly at what it means to belong to the flock, to lead within it, and to follow the One who knows every sheep by name. We'll look at leadership, unity, and the quiet dangers that creep into Church life when no one is watching. We'll revisit the fivefold ministry — apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists — and remember that none of these roles exist to shine. They exist to serve.

Some of what I write will challenge conventional thinking. I won't step around it. My goal is truth. Jesus said it plainly: "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:32). I believe that. So I'd ask you not to simply accept or reject what you read here, but to sit with it, pray over it, and take it to God yourself.

We may land in different places on the non-essentials — and that's all right. But unity in the essentials is not optional. Salvation through Christ is not negotiable. And woven through all of it, love. Truth and love together are what lead us into genuine freedom.

I write from the trenches and the threshing floor. As a wife of 55 years, a mother of four, and a grandmother of seven, I know the power of love, humility, and simply showing up. Our roles shift. Our identity in Christ does not.

He knows you. He sees you. And He is still calling.

Pull up a fence post and sit a while. Let's listen for the voice of the Shepherd together.