About Shepherding The Heart Ministries

When we miss the heart, we miss the Gospel.

Shepherding the Heart Ministries’ mission is connecting the hearts of God’s people to the power and grace of the gospel. We are committed to the truth that the heart is the wellspring of life. For both our children and us, the heart, with its passions and desires, sets the course of life. Every drive for meaning and significance originates in the heart. You and your kids are heart driven.  The things you give your heart to set the course of life for you.

The goal of our virtual seminars and teaching materials is to connect the hearts of God’s people to the power and grace of the gospel. The temptation when things have gone wrong is to correct behavior. We instinctively see behavior as the problem. That’s because we see behavior. We hear behavior. Behavior requires a response. Once we have made behavior the focus in correction and discipline, we open ourselves up to all the tricks and tools parents use to manage behavior.

But when we head down the behavior management road, two things happen. We miss the heart and we miss the gospel. We forget that the heart is the wellspring of behavior. We miss the gospel because behaviorism by-passes the heart. Behaviorism focuses on behavior rather than the desires, fears, idols or passions of the heart. If we remember that behavior mirrors the heart, then the route to lasting change for both our children and ourselves is the grace and power of the gospel. Read more →

Meet Tedd Tripp

Tedd Tripp is the president of Shepherding the Heart Ministries. Tedd has developed and teaches materials that encourage the people of God to understand gospel hope for the ways that human beings are pushed and pulled by the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Tedd is known around the world for the best-selling child rearing book, Shepherding a Child’s Heart, and as the presenter of Shepherding a Child’s Heart Ministries.

Tedd Tripp is Pastor Emeritus of Grace Fellowship Church in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, where he served from 1980 until 2012. Tedd was married to his wife, Margy, in 1968; they are parents of three adult children and nine grandchildren. Tedd is the author of A Parent’s Handbook for Shepherding a Child’s Heart, Hints for Parents, and with his wife, Margy, Instructing a Child’s Heart. 

Dr. Tripp is a graduate of Geneva College, B.A., Philadelphia Theological Seminary, M. Div., Westminster Theological Seminary, D. Min.

Meet Margy Tripp

Margy was born in 1945.  Margy grew up in a pastor’s home in western Pennsylvania, graduated from Nyack (Missionary) College, and was married to Tedd Tripp on June 8, 1968. She is a pastor’s (retired) wife. Tedd and Margy have three children, two sons and a daughter. They have three beautiful granddaughters and six handsome grandsons!

In the seventies, Margy and Tedd and their children had an open home ministry. Many single people and some married couples lived with them in those troubled years when so many were “trying to find themselves.” They had many opportunities for ministering the gospel in that context but, by far, God’s higher purpose was to show them their sin and need to know Him and live in light of His glorious grace.

Margy and Tedd founded Immanuel Christian School in 1979 after home-schooling their children for one year.  Margy served as principal for seventeen years, teacher, teacher supervisor, curriculum director and board member in the early years of ICS.  She is now retired from school life except for team-teaching high school Bible survey with her husband Tedd, and is picking up projects that have been on hold for many years. Traveling with “Shepherding the Heart Ministry”, Bible studies and counseling at Grace Fellowship Church, writing, and speaking consume much of Margy’s time. Spending more time with their children and grandchildren is a special focus for Tedd and Margy as well.

Grace Fellowship Church and Immanuel Christian School have afforded Margy many opportunities for a ministry of counseling over the years as well as developing materials and studies for children, ladies, and educators.  Margy remarks, “God’s mercy in redeeming me from my rebellion to know fullness in Him energizes me to study His Word and share the joy and freedom of the gospel with others.”