Crater mass ensemble - Gentle Shepherd (live)

Gentle Shepherd perfomed by Crater Mass ensemble in 2023 during a thanksgiving service.
This beautiful gospel classic was written Gloria gaither a very talented and spirit filled lyricist who left her teaching career together with her husband and fully got involved in music ministry.

Here's the history of Gloria's classic Gentle shepherd
She was a new mother, parenting without any experience, and evidently fairly aware that she and her husband might get some things wrong. Gloria Gaither says she and her husband Bill needed a “Gentle Shepherd” to help them guide their young, in the same way an owner cares for each sheep. Admitting that one is naïve, without all the correct procedures and ultimate answers, was a lesson that Gloria sounds like she probably re-learned as she and Bill dealt with each of their children. No two kids are the same, and so the gentle, light touch of the parent as an authority is so necessary for child-rearing, she indicates. How do you suppose Gloria and Bill discovered this principle?

Gloria did not just have an epiphany about parenting in a temperate, mild manner in 1974 when she and Bill began employing the gentle shepherding of their own children. Gloria shares that there were multiple sources that nudged them into this approach, toward this ‘gentle’ direction. Her mother urged Gloria as a teenager in a poem to follow the ‘Great Shepherd’ (God), some foundational advice that was rooted in various scriptures (Psalms, Isaiah, Matthew, John). She notes in the few pages of the “Gentle Shepherd” story that parents play a balancing act with their kids – firm control versus autonomy, admonition versus loving support. It was the constancy of God’s words that helped the Gaithers maintain an equilibrium, though how His precepts are applied to each new generation of children must be carefully measured, Gloria writes. She indicates that she and Bill drew upon the Spirit for discernment plenty of times. How else would one know how to shape the God-given gifts of each child and mold them for a future that neither parent could forsee? It’s a recurring theme in multi-generational families like the Gaithers’ clan, which Gloria shares had evolved by the mid-2000s so that the once-upon-a-time parents had grown into grandparents. Their own kids have birthed five grandkids, and so what was passed along from Gloria’s mother -- and probably long before her, in fact – to Gloria and Bill, and now to their own children and grandchildren, will keep regenerating and reeducating each of their progeny, because of its timeless source.

Gloria relates how a trip to England with her daughter’s family reminded her once again of how sheep and their caretakers behave. The sheep often stray, sometimes into dangerous territory. And, the shepherds are very cautious with those under their care, aware that the sheep are vulnerable, easily misled creatures. We, like the sheep, may be misguided, but at least in admitting our condition, we can run to and cling to a protector, a wise one we know is compassionately looking out for our welfare. Am I in danger, susceptible to all sorts of peril? Sure. But, my God is sure, too. Breathe easier in His embrace, fellow sheep.