OUR PH BLANCE
A little over a year ago, we sat in Gary and Christine’s kitchen, discussing Standing Stone’s core values. Because Gary and Christine often conduct one of the three interviews all prospective shepherds go through before being invited to one of our trainings, Gary rattled our values off by heart…
Standing Stone shepherds are prayerful, humble, passionate and healthy.
Just this week, we sat in Gary and Christine’s kitchen again, praying over a meal they and twenty-four of our shepherds from the Northeast US and the United Kingdom shared (pictured above). These shepherds exemplify our PH squared values. They are prayerful, humble, passionate, and healthy.
At the same time as our NE Area Gathering happened, our trainers in Nashville took twenty-three prospective shepherds through an exploration of our values, our mission, and our vision.
We long to see healthy ministries in every city, transforming their communities for Christ. Our specific call in accomplishing that vision is to guide ministry leaders into healthy ministry. As the leader goes, so goes the followers. That’s why Standing Stone only invites people who are prayerful, humble, passionate, and healthy to join our team.
We don’t let “just anyone” be a Standing Stone shepherd. We can’t. If we allow anyone into our ranks who doesn’t embody our PH squared values, it’s not simply our team that suffers. It’s every ministry leader we serve and, by extension, each person those leaders influence.
The health, humility, prayer life and passion of our shepherds is both our highest goal and our most important standard of excellence.
Thank you for helping us guide ministry leaders into flourishing, vibrant work within God’s Kingdom. Without the generosity from God’s people, we could not do what we do. We are grateful for you.
Weekly Encouragement
In 1 John 4:1, God issues a sobering command:
Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world.
1 John 4:1, NLT
As Standing Stone shepherds, we take our role within the Body of Christ very seriously. We know that people–particularly the ministry leaders we serve–trust us to speak godly counsel and share godly wisdom with them. We ask our team to consistently spend time cultivating their closeness with God, both because we love Jesus and want to know Him more and also because we know that if any of us get untethered from Him, we can hurt those we serve.
We test the PH balance of every shepherd we invite onto our team, discerning if they are prayerful, humble, passionate and healthy.
How are you testing the voices you listen to and trust?
