Stewardship of God’s Sheep; His People
Pastor Eric J. Hanson
October 15, 2006
Introduction
As I began to prepare the message, the Holy Spirit moved me in a different direction. He showed me that within the life of each local church, there is another type of broad and overarching stewardship, which must be made clear. In short, He led me to put together this message: Stewardship of God’s Sheep: His People.
The Pastoral Function
Ephesians 4:11-13 shows us that “pastor” is one of five gifts from the Lord, which take the form of people. The Lord Jesus gives these into His Church, for the purpose of “equipping” those who know the Him to become more and more like Him. The word pastor simply means shepherd.
Shepherds of literal sheep hang out with the sheep. They know each sheep by name. They know which ones have had all their shots. They feed the sheep, water them, lead the sheep to green pastures, and protect them from wandering away and from predators. True shepherding is very personal.
Elders: The primary pastors.
I Peter 5:1-4 shows that the elders are the primary shepherds in any local church. We have pastoral responsibility for the entire church family. However, as shown by Jesus’ example, by first century Church history, and by actual research, no one can shepherd more than about 12 other people in the full sense of all that should mean. Therefore, the primary way that a small number of elders shepherd any church properly is as the “overseers” of that church. In Philippians 1:1 and other places, the terms elder and overseer are used interchangeably. This oversight of the church is a stewardship trust, because Jesus is the great shepherd. He is the owner of the people/sheep; the owner of the whole church. Let’s see now, how overseeing the church is to be done.
One branch of the oversight work of the elders is this: to perceive and know who it is that God is raising up to be their helpers. The elders are then called to train them, to be in ongoing relationship with them, and to set these people into their callings of servant leadership within the church family. These people are the ones who, in turn, shepherd all the other individuals out to the edges of the church family. In short, a major responsibility and calling of the elders in any local church is to be pastors to all those who are called to be small group leaders and those with deacon type responsibilities. These people, who are helpers to the elders, include small group leaders of various types, those who deal with church finances, and those who deal with building matters.
The other branch of the major work of Elders is the ministry of prayer and the Word of God to the whole local church. Elders should be full time in the work of the Gospel (I Timothy 5:17-18). They should not be encumbered with other things that take them away from the word of God, prayer, and the spiritual formation and oversight of their helpers.
The usual ratio of true I Timothy 3 elders to church population is about 20 families to one full time elder for a church that is packed with fully tithing people, or about 30 families to one elder in a typical evangelical church. Up to about 40 families to one full time elder is workable for healthy pastoral ministry if the church is fully functioning in small group life. (Home Fellowships, healthy youth groups, etc.)
Tradition works against achieving this multi layered fanning out of ministry within the church. Why is that? Let’s look at it now.
In the statistically average American church of 75 people, there is one person who is called a pastor. He may or may not actually have a pastor’s heart in caring for the sheep. He may or may not meet the rather clear I Timothy Chapter 3 qualifications for eldership. He was probably hired from far away by congregational vote instead of being raised up locally, known by the people thoroughly, and set in to office relationally, by an existing local eldership in an established church. (The proper procedure for this is brought out in I Timothy 1:18, & Titus 1:5.)
In typical modern tradition, this pastor is expected to do the ministry. This way, people in the church can operate in a consumer mindset and judge their “hired hand” pastor by how well he “meets my needs”. They can also vote him out or pressure him out because in the typical American church today the sheep rather than the shepherds, are actually in charge! This is utterly backwards from God’s system in the New Testament, but it is common because it is the American way having infiltrated much of the church in our land.
Elders and non-elder pastors are needed.
In God’s reality of correct New Testament order, ministry is the work of the entire church family, and the elders (always plural and in mutual submission to each other) are called by God and appointed to be equippers who release people of growing faith and Christlikeness into the giftings and callings that God is revealing in those people. With many people then doing the work of ministry, the entire local church is built up and each person in it is challenged continually toward true discipleship! The matrix for this to be able to work in is networks of proper Christ honoring relationships. These networks can only happen if there are loyal servant leaders working within the church family, under the oversight of the elders.
As trained and equipped men and women begin to take responsibility for up to about 12 people in a Home Fellowship, a youth group, or a Children’s Church situation, God will make it clear who those are who have a pastor’s heart in laying their lives down for the people/sheep now under their care.
I believe that in God’s distribution of giftings, about one in ten to one in twelve believers are given the gift and the burden of a true shepherd’s heart, the pastoral gift. I also believe that a similar percentage have been given a soul winning gifting, the gift of evangelism.
People as Sheep
God has chosen to call his people "sheep" in many ways and places in the Bible. Psalm 23 is perhaps the clearest example of this. Jesus often spoke of such a concept. He told the story of the shepherd who had 100 sheep, one of whom wandered away. He also called himself the Great Shepherd and spoke of people at the future Judgment Day as being either sheep or goats. To simply sort this out: People who are following the Lord are His sheep.
Feeding the sheep with good food consists of seeing to it that they receive proper intake of the Bible and its teachings. Good Home Fellowship or Youth Group leader/pastors carry this awareness in their hearts. They desire to see each one who is under their care growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. For similar reasons the elders are called to teach the whole church family from the Bible, and the training of helpers which the elders do is also largely from the Bible. The Word of God (the Bible) teaches, corrects, & builds faith. It is our spiritual daily bread. (Hebrews 4:12)
Water: Living water is needed for each person. Zoe is the Greek word which means “God’s life in us”. Zoe life comes from the Holy Spirit who lives in believers. Staying filled with the Holy Spirit is a vital thing which pastors at all levels need to lead the people toward. Ephesians 5:18 tells us to stay filled with the Holy Spirit. He is the Living Water. Jesus made this truth abundantly clear as he spoke of the Holy Spirit. He said the Spirit of God would be springs of living water welling up to eternal life on the inside of believers. (John 4:7-14) He also said that those who are filled with the Holy Spirit will have rivers of living water flowing forth from them. (John 7:37-39) Some other time we can get into this in detail.
Jesus said that the people/sheep need to stay within the Sheepfold. This sheepfold is the church family. Every true believer in the Lord is to have ongoing vital and real connection there. Hebrews 10:26 is clear about this, warning believers to not forsake the assembling of themselves together, and all the more, as we see the Day of the Lord approaching.
If any sheep leaves the fold, the whole pastoral leadership, the elders and the small group leaders, must seek to gather them back in, or we are not doing the work of good shepherds. This is hard to hear, for people/sheep are often stubborn and have no idea how much danger they are in out there. Stubborn errant sheep bleat, they bite, and they lay down on the path and must be carried. These sheepish misbehaviors create unpleasant work for shepherds. A person who is just filling a leadership position and who does not have a God-given shepherd heart may well say “Forget it! That sheep would resent me anyway, so I’ll just let it wander. I will leave him alone.” Such a shepherd is not laying down his or her life for the sheep. Such a shepherd is placing a higher premium on avoiding a potential hassle.
Studies have shown conclusively that most people who drop out of church life can be brought back into ongoing involvement if 1. the maturing people in their small group, 2. the leaders of their small group, and 3. the elders of the church family show a loving concern for them after they disappear. If there is no follow up, they are gone. They will assume that nobody cares.
Now certainly this reflects self centered thinking on their part. It is not Kingdom of God centered thinking, but recognizing this reality doesn’t give us as a church family the right to just walk away and do nothing. We are all called to follow the example of the good shepherd who goes after the wandering sheep. The love of God in us can do no less.
People will never get to the place of internalizing Kingdom priorities unless they are truly incorporated into the Lord’s sheepfold of the local church, filled with the Holy Spirit, and feeding on the Word of God. Wise stewardship on the part of the elders and the entire small group pastoral team will move people toward walking in these spiritual imperatives.
Every Member
Each individual Christian believer has a measure of stewardship responsibility toward the spiritual well being of the other believers in the church family too. Cain asked God “Am I My brother’s keeper?” The answer to this question is a resounding “Yes!” Each of us is our brother’s keeper. This reality is worked out largely within the relational matrix of your small group. Being a reliable part of your small group is behavior which reflects the example of Jesus and the 12, and the fact that the first church, with its several thousand members, met two ways: from house to house and in the congregation. Both large and small group ministry were essential, and they both still are.
Any member of this church family, who is seeking to walk in God’s love toward other believers, will learn to be faithful at the meetings of his or her small group. It will become important to check in with the other group members by getting together weekly for reasons of extending spiritual and emotional support. On the other hand, if any believer’s primary thinking is like the thinking of the World: “What’s in it for me?”, that believer will drop out of their group for reasons as flimsy as being disinterested in the group’s current course of study, or other reasons having to do with Me and mine centered decision making.
Being faithful to participate in and strengthen your small group and those who are in it, is Christ-like behavior, and such behavior is an exercise of good stewardship in the arena of loving your brothers and sisters in your local church family. Being my brother’s keeper involves hanging out together; the sharing of meals, praying for one another’s needs, and just doing life together under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. A truly healthy home fellowship might even do a barn-raising together, who knows! Simple positive things like a cookout or a bowling night flow out of healthy small group life too.
Predators
There are predators who desire to steal sheep out of the sheepfold. Non-Christian worldviews including those of cults, major false religions, and of secular humanism are competing for people’s hearts. In addition to these dangers, even Christians who are not rightly connected to a local church and/or who have become rebels, also seek to pull people into unbalanced distorted versions of discipleship.
All the shepherds and well anchored believers in the whole local church/sheepfold need to protect the people/sheep from all types of predators. Being tuned in to such threats as these, which attempt to come in and scatter the people/sheep, gives the servant/leaders and every strong Christian another opportunity to exercise wise stewardship within the church family. Each member of the church family can sound the alarm when such predators attempt to scale the sheepfold fence and creep into the lives of our fellow Christians.
Conclusions
Every person in the local church has the opportunity to exercise wise and good stewardship toward their fellow believers, who belong to the Lord. By the Grace of God, it is important that each one of us walk in ever increasing wisdom, love, and steadiness in this arena of the Lord’s sheepfold. Elders have one level of responsibility in this. Small group leaders have another level. Every believer also has a level of responsibility in this stewardship of God’s people, His sheep.
As we all walk in this, God will raise up more genuine shepherds in our midst and will enlarge this sheep pen of His, which is called Hosanna Church. May we, as a church family, be absolutely committed to become effective conduits of the love, power, and goodness of God and may we seek to be used by Him to see hundreds come to genuine saving faith in Jesus Christ, followed by a process of discipleship, over the coming months and the next few years.
Let’s stand together and pray.
