Pray for Your Church: Ministries (2)
Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. Acts 20.28
Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; and when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away. 1 Peter 5.2-4
Jesus’ way to make disciples
Churches today are doing a good job of making church members. Some do better than others, but, despite recent slides in attendance and the reluctance of certain members to return to church following the COVID boondoggle, churches are still holding on to their members. They eagerly encourage people to become members, happily receive new members, create all manner of programs to serve their members, and duly report the status of their membership to denominational offices. Churches are doing a good job of making church members.
If only making church members were what we were called to do.
Neither Jesus nor any of the apostles talked about making church members. People become members of the Body of Christ by believing in Him and receiving His gift-giving Spirit, as we have seen. But getting people to become members of a local church is nowhere discussed in the New Testament. People just worshipped with their friends and lived out their “membership” in Christ’s Body in their homes and neighborhoods. Jesus is not building His churches for that which they do rather well, making church members. He is building them to make disciples, as He instructed the disciples and us in the Great Commission (Matt. 28.18-20).
There is a significant difference between making church members and making disciples. But, for many church leaders and members, discipleship and making disciples is not a high priority, evidenced by the fact that we don’t see the kind of disciples that we see in the churches in the New Testament.
The reason for this is twofold. First, as we have seen, we’re more interested in making church members than in making disciples. And, second, where we might profess a concern with making disciples, we are going about it in all the wrong ways.
As Paul and Peter explained, members of the Body of Christ became true followers of Jesus as they were shepherded by skilled, loving, and faithful shepherds. They understood that Jesus is the Good Shepherd, as He said and as was prophesied about throughout the Old Testament. They followed in the footsteps of His ministry, and they exhorted other church leaders to do the same (1 Cor. 11.1).
And Jesus’ way of making disciples was to shepherd the flock of God.
Elements of shepherding
Shepherding is a specific kind of activity. It was Jesus’ way of making disciples, and it should be our way as well.
But for the most part, we don’t practice the shepherding model Jesus set up for us. We run programs, hoping that this will make disciples, and in some cases that happens. But mostly it does not. More Christians will identify themselves as believers and church members than as disciples. And this is because we do not shepherd them as Jesus taught.
In Jesus’ approach to building His Church, shepherding is the foundational discipline for helping church members become disciples. All church members should be working to become disciples, and thus all church members need to be shepherded.
In John 10, Jesus indicated six disciplines for shepherds to use in the work of making disciples:
- Get to know your sheep and let them get to know you (vv. 14, 15).
- Lay down your life for your sheep—serve them in a sacrificial manner (vv. 11, 15).
- Lead the sheep to grow and be fruitful in and for the Lord (vv. 2-4, 27; cf. Ps. 23).
- Defend the sheep against the “wolves” of the world, the flesh, and the devil (vv.11-13).
- Bring other sheep into the fold; do the work of evangelism (v. 16; cf. 2 Tim. 4.5).
- Help the sheep grow in the promises of eternal life (vv. 27, 28).
It is the duty of shepherds to shepherd the flock of God entrusted to them and to do so according to the pattern Jesus revealed to them in His own ministry. We should pray earnestly that our church leaders will take up or improve the work of ministry so that our church will grow as God intends.
Every member a shepherd
At the same time, since we who believe are called to follow Jesus and to walk the path He walked, there is a very real sense in which we all are responsible for the work of shepherding. We must submit to our shepherds to be loved, cared for, led, and taught by them. And we must take up the work of shepherding with our fellow church members (recall what we learned about “one-anothering”) and with the people in our Personal Mission Field (Gal. 6.10).As believers and churches we have drifted far from the model of church-building Jesus exemplified and taught. So let us pray for our shepherds and our fellow church members that we might take up the work of shepherding and seek always to improve in it, believing that Jesus will bless and truly grow us as we do.
Here’s a prayer you can use in seeking God’s aid for the work of shepherding in your church:
Lord, help us to think as You do
about how to build Your church.
Lead us, Your sheep, to follow in Your steps
and do the work of shepherding,
so that we may grow to become more like You,
our Good Shepherd.
And help our shepherds
do the work of shepherding
according to Your Word
for the building-up of Your church.
For reflection
1. Where does the work of shepherding occur in your church? Who benefits from it?
2. What does it look like when church leaders are shepherding the members of their flock?
3. What does it look like when the Lord’s sheep are shepherding one another?
Next step—Transformation: How do you expect to practice the work of shepherding today? Seek the Lord to help you, following the model He presented in John 10.
T. M. Moore
Give thanks
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Other columns of interest this week: We continue reading excerpts from the book, Revived! in our Read Moore column. Why not listen in? Last week’s Crosfigell letter called us to make sure we have the right priorities. You can also find some valuable resources for shepherding at The Ailbe Seminary and in The Ailbe Bookstore.
Thank you.
Many of you are faithful and generous in praying for and supporting Crosfigell and The Fellowship of Ailbe. Thank you. I encourage all our readers to seek the Lord about becoming a supporter of The Fellowship of Ailbe. It’s easy to give to The Fellowship of Ailbe, and all gifts are, of course, tax-deductible. You can click here to donate online through credit card or PayPal or Anedot, or send your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, P. O. Box 8213, Essex, VT 05451.
Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
