Shepherding God’s flock doesn’t make you the shepherd …

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This morning I read on The Christian Post website a story about a couple who were co-pastors of a church. The article detailed how the couple decided to sell the church property … and then buy themselves a million-dollar lakeside home (you can find the article here).

One part of this story I found disturbing was this (or any) couple thinking this church was their own enough to decide to sell the property and use the proceeds for their own benefit. Unfortunately, these aren’t the only pastors who structure a church in such a way as to think it belongs to them.

No real church belongs to a pastor, a person, a group of persons … the church belongs to Jesus Christ! It’s His church, and He is the head of it (Col. 1:18).

There are some who purposely set out to start a church and structure it in such a way that they believe it really belongs to them. For any church leader, it can be all too easy in the press of ministry to sometimes forget that we are only under-shepherds, and that Jesus alone is the Great Shepherd over the flock of God. Keith Miller touched on this subject with the following story:

    “Years ago, when our daughters were very young, we’d drop them off at our church’s children’s chapel on Sundays before the eleven o’clock service. One Sunday, just as I was about to open the door to the small chapel, the minister came rushing up. He said he had an emergency and asked if I’d speak to the children at their story time. He said the subject was the Twenty-third Psalm.

    Just as I was about to get up from the back row and talk about the good shepherd, the minister burst into the room and signaled to me that he would be able to do the story time after all. He told the children about sheep, that they weren’t smart and needed lots of guidance, and that a shepherd’s job was to stay close to the sheep, protect them from wild animals and keep them from wandering off and doing dumb things that would get them hurt or killed. He pointed to the little children in the room and said that they were the sheep and needed lots of guidance.

    Then the minister put his hands out to the side, palms up in a dramatic gesture, and with raised eyebrows said to the children, “If you are the sheep then who is the shepherd?” He was pretty obviously indicating himself.

    A silence of a few seconds followed. Then a young visitor said, “Jesus, Jesus is the shepherd.”

    The young minister, obviously caught by surprise, said to the boy, “Well, then, who am I?”

    The little boy frowned and then said with a shrug, “I guess you must be a sheep dog.”

    I remember the look on that young minister’s face every time I get to thinking that I’m the shepherd in charge of some of God’s sheep. There’s only one shepherd of the flock — and I’m not He.

Who is the shepherd of God’s flock? Jesus answered that question:

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. A hired hand will run when he sees a wolf coming. He will abandon the sheep because they don’t belong to him and he isn’t their shepherd. And so the wolf attacks them and scatters the flock. The hired hand runs away because he’s working only for the money and doesn’t really care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd; I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. So I sacrifice my life for the sheep,” John 10:11-15.

The Apostle Peter doesn’t refer to elders in the church as “sheep dogs,” but he does remind those of us who are under-shepherds that the flock is God’s and is entrusted by Him to our care:

“And now, a word to you who are elders in the churches. I, too, am an elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ. And I, too, will share in his glory when he is revealed to the whole world. As a fellow elder, I appeal to you: Care for the flock that God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly — not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. Don’t lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example. And when the Great Shepherd appears, you will receive a crown of never-ending glory and honor,” 1 Peter 5:1-4.

Are you shepherding the flock as though it’s God’s own flock that has been entrusted to your care?

Scotty